The archaeological monument Sechín, located in the Ancash province of Casma, is one of the winners of the project contest of the Ambassador’s Fund for the preservation of cultural heritage 2021 granted by the United States Embassy in Peru.
The announcement of the winning projects was made on Monday 27 at a ceremony held at the Sechín archaeological site and was attended by Minister of Culture, Ciro Gálvez; and from the United States Ambassador to Peru, Lisa Kenna.
The monument Sechín will receive 414,637 dollars (plus of approximately 1 million 708,000 soles) to finance the works of conservation of the lithosculptures located in Cerro Sechín.
The project is based on a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach that incorporates the participation of the local community , located near the archaeological site, for its training and future sustainability.
The project will be implemented by the World Monument Found , along with other sites located in the regions of Cusco, Piura and Puno, detailed the US ambassador Lisa Kenna who arrived to Casma to announce the announcement.
At the ceremony, the Minister of Culture, Ciro Gálvez said that “this is a historic and important moment”, after thanking the support of the United States Embassy.
Sechín is one of the four winners of the Ambassador, an emblematic program of the United States Embassy that allows showing the respect, admiration and interest of the United States for the preservation of the millenary cultural heritage of Peru.
Archeological site
The archaeological complex Sechín occupies around of five hectares; however, the monuments sector is grouped into a single hectare. The main or central building is made of stone and encloses another building or conical adobe structure.
On the flanks of the complex are two other buildings (building A and building C) and two platforms (Julio C. Tello platform and platform Rafael Larco, another of the important researchers of this culture).
The main building is rectangular, with rounded corners and a perimeter wall of monoliths or engraved stelae , which is of earlier construction. A double staircase leads to its top, four meters high, but there are no buildings there anymore since they were apparently washed away by alluvium linked to the impact of the coastal El Niño.
The characters represented in the monoliths of the facades are of two classes . The warrior-priests (dressed with a weapon or scepter) and the dismembered victims or their remains (mainly heads, limbs , skewered eyes, intestines, vertebrae and viscera), creating a macabre scene. All these figures represent humans , without the presence of demigods or animals.
In the interior building, built with adobe, the The main and best preserved decoration is the one that represents two mythological fish , made by lines carved on the wall of wet mud. Another figure, representing a bloody man, is secondary. These motifs relate the sea, rains and human sacrifices.
Near the complex Sechín discovered by Julio C. Tello, two other archaeological complexes called Sechín Alto and Sechín Bajo were later found.
The other winners
In addition to the aforementioned archaeological site, the other winning projects are: Safeguarding of the Martín Chambi Photographic Collection, Cusco, which will receive $ 475,299; Conservation of Ethnographic Objects Associated with a Prehistoric Hunter, in Puno, you will receive $ 52,000; and the latest project is from Ecuador, 3D digitization training to create a virtual tour of three sites on the Qhapac Ñan Route, which will receive $ 105,000, which includes the Aypate archaeological complex in Piura, ($ 35,000 for Peru.)
The project in Cusco is for the safeguarding of Martin Chambi’s photographic collection and will allow the preservation and digital cataloging of the work of more than 40,000 photographic negatives. The work was declared Cultural Heritage of the Peruvian Nation in 2019.
Meanwhile, the project in Puno will preserve thousands of artifacts associated with the discovery of an ancient 9000-year-old hunter found in Ilave. In this way, their availability for future research on gender roles in the Andean past will be ensured.
The United States Embassy recalled that since 2001 the Ambassador’s Fund has supported 31 conservation projects and restoration of movable and immovable heritage assets in 14 regions of Peru.
He highlighted that the Ambassador’s Fund is a competitive program that receives projects from cultural institutions and museums around the world for a limited number of sponsorships . Peru is the country that has received the most funds in Latin America through this program, with a total financing of more than 3.3 million dollars. All this support is done within the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding for the Protection of the Cultural Heritage of Peru, which is about to celebrate 25 years of active and fruitful joint work.
Winning projects from previous years
The 31 projects sponsored by the Ambassador’s Fund since 2001 are:
· 2001: US $ 22,275 for the acquisition of conservation equipment delivered to 18 museums.
· 2003: US $ 23,085 for the conservation of the textile collection of the Lima Art Museum.
· 2004: US $ 25,660 for the conservation and museography of the Leymebamba Museum.
· 2005: US $ 20,041 for the remodeling and assembly of the exhibition rooms of the Chan Chan Site Museum.
· 2005: US $ 30,000 for the conservation of 47 colonial paintings from the series “Alma and Divine Love ”located in the Patio de los Naranjos, Santa Catalina Monastery, Arequipa.
· 2006: US $ 22,575 for the implementation equipment for the preventive conservation of the deposit of the Museum of Anthropology and Archeology of the National University of San Marcos.
· 2007: US $ 30,000 for the cataloging and protection of the archaeological and historical collection from the National University of Huamanga, Ayacucho.
· 2007: US $ 14,182 for conducting security seminars for heritage sites in Peru by Kingsbury & Kingsbury, Inc.
· 2008: US $ 26,514 for the preservation of the cultural heritage of the colonial churches located in the historic center of Arequipa, Archbishopric of Arequipa.
· 2008: US $ 29,910 for the conservation of the archaeological collection of the National Museum of Sicán.
· 2008: US $ 16,881 for the Conservation of the archaeological collection of the Contisuyo Museum in Moquegua.
· 2009: US $ 40,000 for the preservation of artifacts in the Kuélap Fortress in Chachapoyas.
· 2009: US $ 21,600 for the protection of heritageculture in Ayacucho.
· 2009: US $ 800,000 for the conservation of the Sacred City of Caral.
· 2010: US $ 31,170 for the restoration of colonial paintings of the Church of the Society of Jesus in Arequipa.
· 2010: US $ 68,200 for the restoration of the Rocas canal in Chavín de Huántar.
· 2011: US $ 46,336 for the conservation of archaeological artifacts at the Museo Tumbas Reales de Sipán.
· 2012: US $ 44,600 for the registry and preventive conservation of the Paracas collection at the Museo de Sitio “Julio C. Tello ”In Ica.
· 2013: US $ 49,395 for the conservation, registration and documentation of post-Moche funeral bundles in custody at the Cao Museum, El Brujo Archaeological Complex, La Libertad.
· 2014: US $ 82,400 for the conservation, restoration and assembly of the Samuel Humberto Espinoza Lozano Archaeological Museum.
· 2014: US $ 100,000 for the conservation and registration of the Site Museum “Arturo Jiménez Borja – Puruchuco”.
· 2015: US $ 150,000 for the preservation and delimitation of the Nazca Lines (in process).
· 2016: US $ 125,000 for the conservation of the Trece Torres de Chankillo, the oldest solar observatory in America , Áncash.
· 2017: US $ 173,660 for the preservation of the Ichma cultural pyramid at the archaeological site of Mangomarca in Lima, San Juan de Lurigancho (in process).
· 2018: US $ 100,000 for the conservation of the Inca temple in the archaeological site of Huánuco Pampa (in process).
· 2019: US $ 150,000 for the repowering of the laboratory of archeology of the National University of Trujillo-Huanchaco Archaeological Program and the preventive conservation of dozens of textiles, wood, metals and ceramic vessels.
· 2020: US $ 172,000 for the preventive and curative conservation of the movable cultural heritage of the site museum and deposits of the Huacas de Moche, La Libertad.
· 2021: US $ 414,637 Conservation of the Lito Sculptures in Cerr o Sechín, Áncash
· 2021: US $ 475,299 Safeguarding of the Martín Chambi Photographic Collection, Cusco
· 2021: US $ 52,000 Conservation of Ethnographic Objects Associated with a Cazadora Prehistórica, Puno.
· 2021: US $ 35,000 Special project with Ecuador: Training in 3D digitization for three sites on the Qhapaa Ñan Route, which includes the archaeological site of Aypate, Piura.
More in Andina:
The tourist flow in Piura grew by 50% after the celebrations for National Holidays, highlighted the regional director of Foreign Trade and Tourism, José Miguel Alzamora Villaorduña. https://t.co/CMh7zqYz6i pic.twitter.com/vOlz7BGAdt
— Andean Agency (@Agency_Andina) September 28, 2021
(END) MAO
Published: 9/29/2021
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