Picture referred to below

Modification to the plans:

As an archaeologist, I’m definitely learning how to be flexible on things. Rarely do any plans stay the same from one week to the next. It can be frustrating, but as long as something worthwhile actually gets done, I don’t care too much.

1st off, we’re not going to be living in Sayan at all. It’s quite a small town and very cute. The problem is that no tourists ever go there, unlike the bigger beach towns of Barranca and Huacho. The Huaura valley in general is also known for being a little more insular and rebellious back from the 80s (during the guerilla wars with Sendero Luminoso aka the Shining Path). And finally, the Huaura valley is one of the best direct routes to the highlands from the central coast, with lots of campesinos passing through to other parts back and forth from market seasons. So as gringos, we’d really stand out, uncomfortably so. We’d be the talk of the town (region, really) for certain and it’d might attract some unwanted forms of attention. Thus, we’re going to stay in Huacho the whole time; it may mean a bit more driving time to a couple sites, but it’s safer.

2nd, we’re still waiting for the permits. The INC didn’t review it like they were supposed to on Thursday, so Dr. Ruiz (Peruvian co-director for the project) is going to the INC office on Monday with a few lawyers to gently remind them that they’re illegally past the time limit for doing the review. The meeting to give approval occurs every Thursday, so they’ll hopefully get the papers stamped then and we’ll be ready to dig by Monday. And if we have the permits we’ll start some mapping on Sunday.

There’s been a few other minor changes here and there to plans, but those are the two center issues. Things look like they’re falling into place and the undergraduate students that have arrived ( 2 boys, 2 girls) seem like they’ll work out well. Lori’s (Tulane phys anthro grad student) also with us this summer to finish collecting cemetery data for her dissertation. Once things get going, I think it will be fabulous.

There’s the update for now. And you see below a picture of the 2 pets for the PANC project house: Waira (meaning "wind") is the rat-looking thing. She’s a Peruvian hairless dog, well suited for living in the desert. The black color is actually a tan-- when she wears that little coat too much, she loses her tan and is pink instead. Weird little thing, she’s so ugly it’s almost cute. The gi-normous black dog is Cuto (meaning "without tail"), and he’s only a year old. He’s such a bad puppy, he needs to go to school. We jokingly cll him "wiggle-butt" because that’s what he does when he walks. Adorable.

Yet Again

Hello to all!

With the start of another summer, another field season in Peru, it’s time to get the blog rolling again. I’ll likely only be posting once a week this year, unfortunately, due to a much more limited internet access. But we’ll see how things go, hmm?

For a quick re-cap, I work in the Norte Chico region, about 200 km north of Lima, consisting of 4 valleys (in order N to S): Fortaleza, Pativilca, Supe, and Huaura. Barranca is a coastal town inbetween Pativilca and Supe. My work is going to be almost exclusively in the Huaura valley this year as is the site that I intend to do my dissertation at.

So I arrived in Peru on May 16th, super-late at night, and went to Barranca the next day. Most of the time since then has been re-establishing my contacts, getting paperwork and equipment ready. It’s now the 22nd and so I’ve got a much better idea how things are going to go. At each site, we’ll be doing extensive mapping of archaeological features as well as total station maps for topography. We will dig approx 3 tests pits (1x1 m) and clean the profiles of 2 looter’s pits at each site. Here’s the agenda:

Week 1 -- May 25 - June 1: The undergrad students arrive the 25th. We’ll stay in Barranca, driving out to the sites in Huaura to do some mapping of sites. Also, training the students for excavation.

Week 2 -- June 2 - June 8: Move to the town of Sayan, about 30 km inland up the Huaura valley. We’ll start work at the site of San Juan de las Canas.

Week 3 -- June 9 - June 15: Stay in Sayan. Work at the site of Quipicu.

Week 4 -- June 16 - June 22: Stay in Sayan. Work at the site of Chambara.

Week 5 -- June 23 - June 29: Move to the city of Huacho, located at the coast at the mouth of the Huaura river. Work at the site of Rontoy.

Week 6 -- June 30 - July 6: Stay in Huacho. Work at site of Centinela (my diss site!).

Week 7 -- July 7 - July 13: Work in the lab on materials collected. I’m unsure if we’ll be in Huacho or Barranca at this point. We’ll take the students to Lima on the 12th, they fly out on the 13th.

For the rest of the time (3 weeks, July 14 - August 6), I’m not sure if I’ll be staying in Barranca or Huacho, but I’ll be doing more lab analysis and organizing materials. If things haven’t gone that well, then we’ll be finishing up whatever work we didn’t complete. And if we’ve been really efficient, then we’ll start writing the report.

Wish me luck!