Japanese Paper Threads as a Proposal for the Conservation of Pre-Hispanic Cordage. Evaluation of its Characteristics and Resistance

Research article Intervención ISSN 2448-5934 ENERO-JUNIO 2023 JANUARY-JUNE 2023 OJS Japanese Paper Threads as a Proposal for the Conservation of Pre-Hispanic Cordage. Evaluation of its Characteristics and Resistance Ir a la versión en español Índice / Contents DOI: 10.30763/Intervencion.281.v1n27.60.2023 • YEAR 14, ISSUE NO. 27: 218-242 Submitted: 17.03.2022 • Accepted: 05.07.2023 • Published: 30.09.2023 Gloria Martha Sánchez Valenzuela Orlando Martínez Zapata Departamento de Conservación de Laboratorio de Fisicoquímica, Arqueología de Material Orgánico, Escuela Nacional de Conservación, Coordinación Nacional de Conservación de Restauración y Museografía (encrym), Patrimonio Cultural (cncpc), Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (inah), Mexico (inah), Mexico orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2865-8317 orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8031-0089 Miriam Elizabeth Castro Rodríguez Centro inah Durango, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (inah), Mexico | orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8334-4869 Translation by Richard Addison ABSTRACT The following paper presents the results from the physical characterization and subsequent application of yarns made from Japanese paper, whose features and properties in the field of conservation-restoration have proved useful for the intervention of archaeological objects of organic origin. This research article describes the process of thread elaboration as well as the evaluation of its physiomechanical properties through the analysis of mechanical traction, where the thickness of the thread is directly proportional to the force required to generate the thread’s failure, meaning that the properties of the threads can be varied, depending on the specific conservation need. Japanese Paper Threads as a Proposal for the Conservation of Pre-Hispanic Cordage… CONVOCATORIA 2023 CALL FOR PAPERS 2023 218 Research article Intervención KEYWORDS japanese paper threads, mechanical testing, threads, Candelaria cave, physical ISSN 2448-5934 characterization of threads ENERO-JUNIO 2023 JANUARY-JUNE 2023 INTRODUCTION andelaria Cave is in the Comarca Lagunera, South-West of the state of Coahuila, Mexico, at the foot of the Sierra de la Candelaria, in the Delicias Valley; its warm and dry conditions have favored the preservation of the extensive heritage found there (Figure 1). The cave opens about 30 m above the level of the cavern, whose chimney-like entrance, approximately 1 m in diameter, widens transversely and vertically reaching towards the highest chamber, the site where most of the anthropological materials were found (Figure 2) (Aveleyra, 1956). OJS C Índice / Contents FIGURE 1. The location of the state of Coahuila and the Cueva de la Candelaria in the state of Coahuila (Sources: travelbymexico.com & Sánchez, 2017, p. 408). FIGURE 2. The Cueva de la Candelaria entrance is a chimney-type structure (Source: Aveleyra, 1956, p. 49). Japanese Paper Threads as a Proposal for the Conservation of Pre-Hispanic Cordage… CONVOCATORIA 2023 CALL FOR PAPERS 2023 219 Research article Intervención ISSN 2448-5934 ENERO-JUNIO 2023 JANUARY-JUNE 2023 OJS Índice / Contents The cave’s discovery happened by chance in the 1950s, when a native from the region found it along with several corpses and other objects whose relevance, due to the large amount of organic materials deposited there (more than 2 000 well-preserved objects including skeletal remains, textiles, fabrics, ornaments, utilitarian elements, among others), led to a joint project between the state government and the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (inah, National Institute of Anthropology and History) for the exploration and proper transmission of the importance of the site (Aveleyra, 1956). Thus, in 1953, the first formal research project executed by inah in northern Mexico began, led by Dr. Pablo Martínez del Río, director of the area of prehistoric studies. It spanned various seasons and involved different specialists, such as Manuel Maldonado Koerdell (geologist and paleontologist), Arturo Romano (physical anthropologist), Francisco González Rul, Martínez del Río himself, Luis Aveleyra (archaeologists), and Ignacio Bernal (historian), among others (González, 1998, p. 62), who all devoted themselves to the cave’s exploration, recovering a large number of commonly used objects that belonged to the deceased and that were then placed alongside their remains (Aveleyra, 1956). The chamber’s floor was largely concealed both by collapsed materials and by several scattered mortuary bundles, most partially opened, with their contents all over the place because of pilferers and the impact from falling rocks from the cave’s ceiling that had come loose and fallen on the bundles, as well as the natural decomposition of the corpses and intrusions made by smaller animals. Perhaps the most destructive of all of these was the activity from previous looters. The remains deposited there show that they were the product of a desert culture, where the settlers must have developed physiological features as an adaptive response to the environment. Although their apparent condition as ‘hunter-gatherers’ seems to place them in the category of nomads, it is inferred, from the remarkable cultural attire associated with the recovered funerary bundles, that such nomadism was relative, since they had to have prolonged settlements in one place to obtain the fibers and threads that permitted the manufacture of derived elements, such as shawls, baskets, sandals, etc. (Weitlaner-Johnson, 1977, p. 5). The preservation of goods of organic origin was possible thanks to the dry atmospheric conditions, a constant temperature and relative humidity (rh), as well as the absence of light; all these factors helped to prevent the degradation of the plant and animal fibers. The preservation of these artifacts constituted a great rarity at the Japanese Paper Threads as a Proposal for the Conservation of Pre-Hispanic Cordage… CONVOCATORIA 2023 CALL FOR PAPERS 2023 220 Research article Intervención ISSN 2448-5934 ENERO-JUNIO 2023 JANUARY-JUNE 2023 OJS Índice / Contents time and would continue to be so were it not for the excellent research work developed by the multidisciplinary team of 1953, as is evident from Aveleyra (1956), Weitlaner-Johnson (1977), and the reports stored in the archeology technical archive (inah), which stimulated a group of sponsors from La Laguna to raise funds in order to build an adequate space to house the rescued material, so that on November 22, 1976, the first phase of the Museo Regional de la Laguna (Murel, Regional Museum of La Laguna) in Torreon was inaugurated. According to archaeologist Luis Aveleyra Arroyo de Anda, first director of the Centro inah Coahuila, once the objects had been studied the collection was divided in two. The first, based in the old Museo Nacion (...truncated)