the Waiting Game
Yes, we’re still waiting for our permit approval. Yet again, the INC hasn’t reviewed the permit for no good reason. This is by far the most frustrating thing about archaeology.
I shouldn’t feel too bad about it, though. We’re not the only group in Peru waiting for permits right now, and we’re not the only archaeologist group in general waiting (I’ve got some friends in places like Guatemala and SW US to have yet to hear about theirs). So we’re all in the same boat, it’s just part of the job.
So in the meantime, we’ve done a few things to keep ourselves occupied.
We visited the site of Chambara, one of those we’ll be working at. What you see here is an area of the site that was flooded through about 4-6 years ago, melting major sections of the adobe architecture. The clay sludge then re-dried; it looks super-cool, no? But don’t worry, that won’t be the section we’re digging in.
We visited some rumored lomas (areas where fog from ocean collects and is so heavy, it condenses on the surface and is enough to support some plant life in the desert). What we found blew us away. Not the plants, but the occupation. There’s a ton of stone structures, circular arrangements of huancas (stone monoliths), etc. We totally didn’t expect to find such a large occupation, covering several periods. These are previously unknown sites! The nearby quebrada must have once had a regular river running through it to support so many people. I can’t say where it is for reasons of security *grin* but I can show a picture of a great view in the area.
And conversely, we didn’t find what we expected to at the Valley of 10,000 Burials (La Mina). It’s got a super-heavily looted area where burials from a bunch of time periods are. But it seems as if people have gone through and taken everything, even the scraps of stuff, in some areas. It’s changed since my professor saw it last 4 years ago. We were also looking for twined textiles (which date to preceramic) but we didn’t encounter any.
So for the rest of this weekend and coming week, we’ll be doing some excavation in the backyard at the house for practice. We’re digging up a pachamanca to see what signs we can find of such ephemeral activities. I’ll give more details and explain that project in a few days, maybe Thursday or so. I’ll be posting up on Monday a mini-textile lesson as well. Lots of blogging to look forward to!
Until then,
SMD
I shouldn’t feel too bad about it, though. We’re not the only group in Peru waiting for permits right now, and we’re not the only archaeologist group in general waiting (I’ve got some friends in places like Guatemala and SW US to have yet to hear about theirs). So we’re all in the same boat, it’s just part of the job.
So in the meantime, we’ve done a few things to keep ourselves occupied.
We visited the site of Chambara, one of those we’ll be working at. What you see here is an area of the site that was flooded through about 4-6 years ago, melting major sections of the adobe architecture. The clay sludge then re-dried; it looks super-cool, no? But don’t worry, that won’t be the section we’re digging in.
We visited some rumored lomas (areas where fog from ocean collects and is so heavy, it condenses on the surface and is enough to support some plant life in the desert). What we found blew us away. Not the plants, but the occupation. There’s a ton of stone structures, circular arrangements of huancas (stone monoliths), etc. We totally didn’t expect to find such a large occupation, covering several periods. These are previously unknown sites! The nearby quebrada must have once had a regular river running through it to support so many people. I can’t say where it is for reasons of security *grin* but I can show a picture of a great view in the area.
And conversely, we didn’t find what we expected to at the Valley of 10,000 Burials (La Mina). It’s got a super-heavily looted area where burials from a bunch of time periods are. But it seems as if people have gone through and taken everything, even the scraps of stuff, in some areas. It’s changed since my professor saw it last 4 years ago. We were also looking for twined textiles (which date to preceramic) but we didn’t encounter any.
We visited the site of Por Venir, a preceramic mound site. I’ve also been keeping an eye on the modern ‘black magic shrine’ on the hillside overlooking this site for a couple years, documenting changes. It seems to have gotten much more trashed, less taken care of. And the focus of some of the rituals have changed, they’re a bit more ominous now. We found a sacrificed bird and a kitten in the alcove there. Odd though, they used to have skulls there from the looted prehistoric cemetery, but those are gone now. Interesting place. Since that stuff is a bit grotesque to show pictures of, here is a nice pic of us crossing the low river to get to La Mina instead.
Lots of tromping around for the past couple days, that’s to be sure. Quite tiring, too. This is the group of undergrads (and grad students Lori and Kaelyn) that I’m working with, and everyone’s snoozing in the combi on the way home.
Lots of tromping around for the past couple days, that’s to be sure. Quite tiring, too. This is the group of undergrads (and grad students Lori and Kaelyn) that I’m working with, and everyone’s snoozing in the combi on the way home.
So for the rest of this weekend and coming week, we’ll be doing some excavation in the backyard at the house for practice. We’re digging up a pachamanca to see what signs we can find of such ephemeral activities. I’ll give more details and explain that project in a few days, maybe Thursday or so. I’ll be posting up on Monday a mini-textile lesson as well. Lots of blogging to look forward to!
Until then,
SMD
posted by archaesmd at 4:35 PM
2 Comments:
Is this the place with the llama head offering from last year? Can you give us more details about it? Do you know the tradition(s) that inform the rituals done there, or who might be doing them?
pachamanca means you are going to be sitting around and eating for the next few days :)
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