Maria Eugenia Guevara Muñoz
maria_eugeniag@hotmail.comBackground:
I am a professional restorer and faculty member of The Conservation, Restoration and Museography School at the National Institute of Anthropology and History in Mexico City. I am responsible for a seminar of the ceramic conservation and a seminar on archaeological conservation. My personal experience has been on the restoration of pre-Columbian pottery of Mexico and Central America. I completed my MA studies in anthropology with a specialty in archaeology at The Anthropological Investigations Institute at The National Autonomous University of Mexico in 2004. My principal research interest in the last 8 years has been focused on Olmec ceramics from the Gulf Coast of Mexico. I studied the mineral composition and minerographic characteristics of several ceramic types and contemporary soil samples from the study region. I carried out detailed ethnographic comparisons between ancient and modern ceramics in the site. This research resulted in a detailed definition of ceramic manufacture process by the Olmecs, and the identification of local deposits as possible clay sources, I also applied a special pottery restoration techniques. Currently I am a visiting scholar in the Department of Anthropology and conducted research in Dr. Charlton´s Laboratory at the University of Iowa. My current project involves apply analytical methods such as a thin section petrography of Teotihuacan and Aztec ceramics from the Basin of Mexico. We are investigating the mineral composition of ceramic paste, the raw materials and the manufacturing techniques, with the aim elucidating patterns of the ancient organization production as well as determining provenience and exchange.
