I term it an almost-fresco because unlike the fresco technique we see in, say, Renaissance Italy, our Bronze Age artist apparently didn't go to any great lengths to keep the plaster wet until he was finished applying his pigments. So the colors have not seeped into the plaster the way we expect in fresco, and are not as durable. Nevertheless, much of it has managed to survive some thirty-five centuries, albeit buried under a generous layer of volcanic ash.

One of "The Ladies"

This wall painting has been restored, but in such a way that it's obvious. The oldish-looking parts are the original. The new-looking parts are just that. Off to the right of the image no attempt at restoration has been made, as apparently not enough original remained to make a reasonably accurate reconstruction possible, and rather than make a wild guess the restorers sensibly left it blank. There was obviously another woman to the right, as we can see a fragment of her skirt (in a bigger view - click the image).

	And just how, pray tell, did they manage to reconstruct the facial profile? We see immediately that it is entirely reconstruction; only the ear, neck, and most of the hair are original. Fortunately, there is another figure in the room, obviously part of the same picture, and her profile is intact (although not her ear, neck, or hair). So the reconstruction of the first profile is just a matter of "copy, mirror, rotate, and paste." There's the second one, at right →
	Profile of another of "The Ladies"

In this case, all is clear. The restoration (face of the first lady) and the original from which it was copied (face of the second lady) are, conveniently, on adjacent walls of the same room. Viewers can immediately make reasonable conjectures as to how the restoration was managed. We would then have to trust the restorer to be competent and skilled but not over-imaginative. Unfortunately they don't routinely do this in paleontology. Most of that neato museum stuff is made up. One of the Big Sights in the Boston area is the huge Kronosaurus on display at Harvard. But how much of him is real, and how much isn't? Onward ...