Stopping Time: The Science of Textile Conservation

In one of the lower-level exhibition rooms of the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston is a large red and blue mantle from Peru made of camelid wool. Stylized faces embroidered in yellow, blue, green, and red smile back at you from behind the thick glass, while blue and red bands alternate across the mantle, giving it a decidedly modern feel that belies its true age: this mantle was weaved approximately 2,000 years ago by the Paracas, an Andean culture that preceded the Incas.

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