ABSTRACT
How to make Kaha Wayi’s sacred contents safe, as Rapaz’s Community directorate required? I asked the archaeologist Dr. Sonia Guillén in Lima. Archaeologists revere her for founding Fundación Mallqui, a laboratory specialized in conserving prehispanic Peruvian mummies. Sonia scrutinized my photos, which showed many conservation problems: khipu cords speckled with white moth eggs, others frayed and dangling by a thread, some spotted with mold or rotted by animal urine. Soot and mildew stained Kaha Wayi’s ceiling and altar. The roof was broken and walls were cracked.
