Estimados colegas peruanos, ¿que opinion les merece esta noticia?: UCA professor discovers ancient rock painting http://www.uca.edu/news/index.php?itemid=2196 April 14, 2009 Dr. Reinaldo (Dito) Morales Jr., assistant professor of art history at UCA, has confirmed a major discovery in the world of rock art: an ancient rock painting at a burial site from the Inca site of Machu Picchu in Peru. Morales announced his discovery today at the annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in Atlanta and plans to submit a manu_script_ about his discovery, New Rock Art at Old Machu Picchu, to a scholarly journal. Dr. Jeff Young, chair of the Department of Art, said he believes Morales' discovery could be a significant contribution to the research at Machu Picchu as well as a great step for UCA's department. As faculty, we are always excited when one of our colleagues accomplishes something of note, Young said. It will be interesting, as he publishes his findings, to see how other rock art researchers, art historians and archeologists respond to his research. Morales discovered the painting in 2000 while on a three-day graduate school research trip. The painting is located on a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage site, Machu Picchu, which has been the subject of scientific study for nearly 100 years. However, after trying to find research on the painting over the past eight years, Morales said he has not found any mention of this particular painting even though the nearly 50-foot rock on which it appears is a popular tourist attraction passed by approximately 70,000 tourists in 2007 alone. I have pored through the [research] literature, Morales said. I am still waiting on a couple more things that may come in, but I don’t think [the literature] will mention this work. Morales said he has been scouring over resources for the past few years and has tried to read every book and journal that includes any mention of rock art in Peru. I have tried to find every single source, including a national inventory of rock art in Peru that mentions rock art nearby, but not this site, Morales said. Although Morales discovered the painting in 2000, he never actually thought about the importance of what it could be until recently. He said he assumed, after first seeing it in 2000, that the painting had already been discovered and researched. He said he just took a few pictures and then went back with his graduate class. [The painting] has sort of been eating at the back of my mind for a while, Morales said. It sort of bothered me. So a couple of years ago, after I started to get grant money through UCA to continue my research, I started thinking of going back to Machu Picchu. So last year, Morales traveled to the site in the Peruvian Andes to confirm the painting’s location and to document the painting through his own personal sketches and photos. This past December, I confirmed that it is a painting, Morales said. It looks, to my eye, very prehistoric. The painting has developed a calcium deposit over it, which Morales said could take a thousand years or more to form. Although the painting is in an Inca environment, Morales said he does not believe his discovered painting to be from that culture because Incan art is typically dominated by rectilinear geometric patterns, whereas this painting is primarily curvilinear. This painting doesn't look like the painting _style_ we typically see on Killke pottery, which immediately preceded the 15th-century Inka in this region, but my research on this _style_ is still ongoing, Morales said. In my proposal, I’ve said it looks like the Recuay, [a Peruvian culture] who are much, much earlier than the Inca - 1,000 or 1,500 years earlier than the Inca, and from a completely different part of Peru. So it doesn’t make much sense that this would be [the Recuay’s] stuff. In any case, looking at the Recuay ceramics, that's the closest thing I can figure out to it, but they don’t belong there. So I have no idea who may have done this. He has also had his paper about the discovery, along with six other papers, accepted for the International Congress of Rock Art, Global Art, sponsored by the International Federation of Rock Art Organizations and the Associação Brasileira de Arte Rupestre (Brazilian Rock Art Association). The congress will run from June 29 until July 3 in São Raimundo Nonato, Piauí, Brazil.

UCA professor discovers ancient rock painting http://www.uca.edu/news/index.php?itemid=2196 April 14, 2009 Dr. Reinaldo (Dito) Morales Jr., assistant professor of art history at UCA, has confirmed a major discovery in the world of rock art: an ancient rock painting at a burial site from the Inca site of Machu Picchu in Peru. Morales announced his discovery today at the annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in Atlanta and plans to submit a manu_script_ about his discovery, New Rock Art at Old Machu Picchu, to a scholarly journal. Dr. Jeff Young, chair of the Department of Art, said he believes Morales' discovery could be a significant contribution to the research at Machu Picchu as well as a great step for UCA's department. As faculty, we are always excited when one of our colleagues accomplishes something of note, Young said. It will be interesting, as he publishes his findings, to see how other rock art researchers, art historians and archeologists respond to his research. Morales discovered the painting in 2000 while on a three-day graduate school research trip. The painting is located on a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage site, Machu Picchu, which has been the subject of scientific study for nearly 100 years. However, after trying to find research on the painting over the past eight years, Morales said he has not found any mention of this particular painting even though the nearly 50-foot rock on which it appears is a popular tourist attraction passed by approximately 70,000 tourists in 2007 alone. I have pored through the [research] literature, Morales said. I am still waiting on a couple more things that may come in, but I don’t think [the literature] will mention this work. Morales said he has been scouring over resources for the past few years and has tried to read every book and journal that includes any mention of rock art in Peru. I have tried to find every single source, including a national inventory of rock art in Peru that mentions rock art nearby, but not this site, Morales said. Although Morales discovered the painting in 2000, he never actually thought about the importance of what it could be until recently. He said he assumed, after first seeing it in 2000, that the painting had already been discovered and researched. He said he just took a few pictures and then went back with his graduate class. [The painting] has sort of been eating at the back of my mind for a while, Morales said. It sort of bothered me. So a couple of years ago, after I started to get grant money through UCA to continue my research, I started thinking of going back to Machu Picchu.
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En el Volúmen 24, No 4 de la National Gegraphic Magazine de 1913, el explorador Hiram Bingham hizo los primeros reportes de arte rupestre en Machu Picchu, o mejor dicho en Picchu, la llacta Cuzqueña mandada a edificar por el Inca Pachacuti probablemente luego de su campaña al Urubamba. Picchu es una *llacta*, es decir un establecimiento complejo con arquitectura multicomponente y multifuncional con extensas áreas de cultivo que ocupa la cima leteral y el abra de los cerros Huayna Picchu y Machu Picchu; las caracteristicas de esta llacta ya han sido extensivamente descritas por arqueólogos, historiadores y arquitectos nacionales como José Gabriel Cosio, Manuel Chavez Ballón, Alfredo Valencia Zegarra, Luis E. Valcarcel, Luis Barreda Murillo, Emilio Hart-Terré, Luis A. Pardo, entre otros; por lo que seria ocioso acusar más detalles aqui. Lo que encontró Binham, y probablemente no pudo saquear, fue petroglifos en rocas cercanas a la plaza sagrada de la llacta, o mejor dicho al Huacaypata (petroglifos Incas dirían algunos). Esta referencia ha sido sucesivamente corroborada por arqueólogos como Manuel Chavez Ballón, o Alfredo Valencia y Arminda Gibaja y los petroglifos se ubican en sectores discontinuos con pocos motivos sobre graniodorita. El arte rupestre más importante del sitio esta constituido por la snake rock o piedra de las serpientes como la llamó Bimham en la segunda década del siglo pasado. Es importante empezar por aquí, por que es sabido que casi todo lo que dijo Bigham sobre la llacta, y ha hecho, ha sido revisado, rebatido, y ahora incluso es causa de un problema judicial internacional. Vista la referencia es probable que más arte rupestre se encuentre en los alrededores de la llacta, especialmente dados los hallazgos de estos materiales, provenientes de los parques arqueológicos que envuelven sitios como Machupiccchu. Sin embargo en la llacta, salvo mejor informacion, no se había reportando arte rupestre más allá de los petroglifos localizados en roquedales espacialmente asociados a contextos de arquitectura formalizada. Si hay pinturas rupestres cerca de la llacta esta no se encuentra asociada directamente a arquitectura o al área monumental del sitio pudiendose encontrar en las numerosas cuevas y grutas funerarias existentes en los alrededores, lo que se sugiere en el artículo. Esto es interesante por que hay que anotar que sólo George F. Eaton excavó mas de 50 cuevas funerarias en los alrededores de la llacta, donde Binham y su equipo llegaron a localizar al menos 3 cementerios; cementerios que Binham saqueó en su totalidad a 1 sol de plata la cueva, tal como él mismo ha reportado. Durante 4 meses Eaton, siguiendo los procedimientos de Binham, abusó de la pobreza de los campesinos cusqueños para obligarlos a saquear las tumbas de sus ancestros, por lo que estas cuevas perdieron el interés respecto de el sitio, especialmente considerando que Binham literalmente arrasó con todo lo que pudo encontrar dentro y en los alrededores de la llacta, _meta_les preciosos, tiestos, animales y gente muerta incluida. Machupicchu  tiene una geologia irregular de materiales no consolidados con bloques de granodiorita y granito que afloran corrientemente en el área, acompanados de sedimentos y arcillas. La poca consolidación de estos materiales ha producido un sinnúmero de cuevas naturales, grutas y fallas, los que han sido aprovechados por los antiguos pobladores de la zona para utilizarlos como recintos funerarios; por supuesto esta es sólo una variación del patrón funerario cusqueno. Los que se enterraron en esta zona muy bien pudieron haber realizado pinturas sobre las paredes de las cuevas, y esta no es una novedad. Muchas pinturas rupestres estan asociadas directamente a contextos funerarios, como bien se ha documentado en varios lugares del Cusco, y esta es una constante del componente funerario de varias culturas andinas, como la Chachapoya por ejemplo. Hay varias tumbas cercanas a Machupicchu que pueden haber servido para una actividad rupestre directa, como la tumba de la suprema sacerdotisa (llamada asi por Binham), la cual se ubica en la parte mas alta del sitio cubierta por un penasco de 50 pies de alto, y el hallazgo de pnturas en estos contextos no constituiria una sorpresa mayor dada la presencia de petroglifos en la llacta. Es interesante ver como estos materiales se prestan para tan gran sensacionalismo, por que, como ya he dicho, se sabe  hace tiempo que existen pinturas dentro del area protegida del parque arqueólogico que envuelve a sitios como Machupicchu o Choquequirao, que incluyen muchos kilometros cuadrados de areas aledañas a sus llactas, y donde arqueólogos del Cusco han registrado y localizado estos materiales. No obstante la probabilidad, hasta que se confirme el hallazgo por los técnicos peruanos, esta noticia bien puede ser una estafa más del sensacionalismo publicitario, y espero sinceramente que éste no sea otro caso de los muchos ya, en que seudo investigadores dicen descubrir lo que ya sabemos y se quieren apropiar de los hallazgos de los estudiosos peruanos sin reeditar creditos ni respetos. Yo me pregunto de buena fe si el Sr. Morales tiene permisos del INC para explorar y registrar una tumba  arqueológica en una zona protegida y de la importancia del Parque Arqueológico de Machupicchu?; sabe acaso que los sitios con arte rupestre peruanos son multicomponentes y que su misma presencia en el lugar es potencialmente un agente de deterioro del sitio? El artículo dice que el Sr. Morales es sólo profesor asistente de Historia del Arte, y muy probablemente no tiene ni la preparación, ni el grado académico, ni el permiso, que le permitiría explorar una zona arqueológica peruana bajo parametros de registro controlado. Si me equivoco hago la salvedad por la suspicacia, pero la noticia sugiere, nuevamente, que otra persona se esta colgando del nombre y la reputación de nuestras llactas o de nuestras culturas para alcanzar una fama mediatica, asi halla descubierto o no algo tan sensacional. No esta demás decir que el Código Penal del Perú establece claramente en su articulo 226, que cualquier exploración sin autorización en zona arqueológica constituye un delito, y en el Perú los sitios donde se encuentra el arte rupestre son zonas arqueólogicas. Más alla de los aspectos publicitarios del supuesto hallazgo el artículo deja en claro lo tendencioso de toda la noticia, alli se tipifica el arte cusqueño, se habla de Recuay, etc, y si uno entra en más detalles es evidente que la seriedad del reportage es discutible. Binham, en su artículo de 1913, llamó al Perú Wonderland (país de las maravillas). De verdad el Perú es el
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