Managing Change and Master Plans: Machu Picchu Between Conservation and Exploitation

Machu Picchu is among the world’s most controversial heritage sites. It represents a case where raising money through ticket sales and other activities, rather than an opportunity to fund site preservation, in fact constitutes a major threat to the survival of the site through overexploitation. Unesco has been very critical in recent decades about the management of Machu Picchu. International pressure resulted in the establishment of two master plans, in 1998 and in 2005. In this paper we investigate in depth the contents and rhetoric of the two plans, comparing changes in the two different versions, and linking the change in planning attitude to actual changes taking place in the site. This is also an opportunity to open a discussion on the interdisciplinarity of master plans in heritage sites.     

Firing technique characterization of black-slipped pottery in Praeneste by low field 2D NMR relaxometry

This study was aimed at individuating characteristics related to the pottery’s firing technique of Classical Roman producers, through the low field single-sided NMR relaxometry. The approach is based on a recent method of analysis, the correlation of the longitudinal and transverse NMR relaxation times of a liquid probe (in this case distilled water) filling the porous system of ceramics. The analyzed findings form two homogeneous classes with dating and place of production well established through the producer trademarks. Pottery findings belong to the black-slipped pottery productions of the Latin ancient city of Praeneste between third and second century B.C. and have been attributed to two different ”patriziae” production families: gens Samiaria and gens Trebonia. A further fragment with Greek kylix style, found in the same archaeological area, has also been analyzed, in order to understand if it had been imported from Greece, or made in Praeneste in imitation of the Greek style.