South American Archaeology Seminar: London
21st May 2016
6th Floor Seminar Room
Institute of Archaeology, UCL
34 Gordon Square,
London WC1H 0PY
Co. Sponsored by:
British Museum Am1947,10.39
10.00 am
Coffee/ Registration
10.30: Magdalena Setlak (Complutense University of Madrid) El pasado y el presente de los quipus
andinos. Unos ejemplos de Áncash (Perú)
11.10: Dianne Scullin (Columbia University) A Desired Moche Soundscape
11.50: Andre Carlo Colonese (University of York) Long-term coastal adaptation in eastern South
America: exploring continuity in subsistence practice in the Atlantic rainforest coast of
Brazil
Lunch
1.40: Trinidad Rico (Texas A&M at Qatar) and Rodney Harrison (UCL) Heritage and Secrecy: the
Huemul Atomic Project, Argentina
2.20: Inge Schjellerup (National Museum of Denmark) Inca Presence in the Chachapoya Region
Tea
3.30: David Beresford-Jones (University of Cambridge) Re-evaluating the Resource Potential of
Lomas Fog Oasis Environments for Preceramic Hunter-Gatherers under Past ENSO
Modes on the South Coast of Peru
4.10: Kevin Lane (University of Cambridge) Pastoralist Lowdown: A model of Prehispanic Southern
lowland camelid pastoralism
Please use the Eventbrite link to reserve a place at the seminar.
http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/south-american-archaeology-seminar-ucl-tickets-19015445710
You will be asked to make a contribution of £10.00 towards the cost of coffee, tea, lunch &
administration on the day.
Our next meeting will be on: Saturday 3rd December 2016
If you would like to give a talk at a future seminar or for further information please contact Bill Sillar:
b.sillar@ucl.ac.uk
South American Archaeology Seminar: London
ABSTRACTS:
Magdalena Setlak
Complutense University of Madrid
setlakmagda@gmail.com
El pasado y el presente de los quipus andinos. Unos ejemplos de Áncash (Perú).
(To be presented in Spanish)
La ponencia se propone presentar una larga tradición del empleo de quipus en el área andina que, en
algunas zonas del Perú, ha pervivido hasta la actualidad. Se tratará de la funcionalidad de los quipus
prehispánicos, coloniales y etnográficos que, en cada uno de estos casos, va más allá de constituir
meras herramientas de contabilidad o registros contables. Analizando datos procedentes de fuentes
arqueológicas, etnohistóricas y etnográficas se pondrá énfasis en el cambio que se ha efectuado en el
uso de dichos implementos andinos a lo largo de los siglos. Respecto a quipus etnográficos, se tomará
como referencia las comunidades andinas del departamento de Áncash cuyos habitantes siguen
utilizando quipus funerarios. Éstos, además de atestiguar la continuidad de las tradiciones andinas,
constituyen un ejemplo del paso de las funciones prácticas de los quipus a las rituales vinculadas al
sincretismo religioso.
The purpose of this paper is to present a long-standing tradition of using quipus in the Andean region;
a tradition which, in some Peruvian villages, has survived until today. The presentation will seek to
give an overview of pre-Hispanic, colonial and ethnographic quipu´s functionality that goes beyond
mere accounting. Analysing data from archaeological, ethnohistorical and ethnographic sources will
emphasize the change that has been made in the use of these Andean tools throughout the centuries.
Regarding ethnographic quipus, the region of Ancash will be taken as a reference, because there are
communities whose inhabitants still use funeral quipu. Here, in addition to witnessing the continuity of
Andean traditions, we can observe an example of transition from practical functions of the quipu to
ritual linked to religious syncretism.
Dianne Scullin
Columbia University / Independent scholar
Dms951@gmail.com
A Desired Moche Soundscape
Music is humanly organized sound, it imposes sound as an order on the world through active and often
elaborate cultural choices. Yet music functions as only a small part of the overall soundscape in which
all human beings reside, for a soundscape involves all the sounds in a present environment and how
those sounds interact within that environment. Due to the overtly intentional nature of music, it
presents a relatively accessible entry point for the archaeological analysis of social and cultural
soundscapes, mainly because artifacts interpreted as musical instruments are often regarded as
embodying the humanly constructed aspect of wanted sound. The design, manufacture and use of
Moche sonic artifacts represent a direct intervention into the environmental soundscape of the North
Coast of Peru between AD100 and AD900. This intervention moves beyond the sounds that the human
body can generate, to a world of entirely new humanly created sound. This paper will present data
concerning the types of sounds produced by the wide variety of Moche sonic artifacts in order to
uncover both what types of sound the Moche people desired, or perhaps required, and the wider
implications of these sonic interventions.
South American Archaeology Seminar: London
Andre Carlo Colonese
Department of Archaeology, University of York
andre.colonese@york.ac.uk
Long-term coastal adaptation in eastern South America: exploring continuity in
subsistence practice in the Atlantic rainforest coast of Brazil
Small-scale coastal fisheries provide a crucial source of food and livelihood to millions of people
living in South America. Such coastal economies are founded on long-established knowledge that is
deeply rooted in the past. If traditional subsistence practices are to be of value in promoting sustainable
fisheries and coastal livelihoods in the future, a deeper understanding of their long-term history is
required. I will present the results of a Marie Curie research project exploring trends in pre-Columbian
coastal adaptation in the southern Atlantic rainforest coast of Brazil. Using a suite of biomolecular
techniques (stable isotopes and organic residues analysis) on ceramic artefacts, human and faunal
skeletal remains, I will discuss the relevance of marine resources to the diet and behavior of coastal
populations before and after the introduction of ceramic technology and agriculture to this coastal
region. I will conclude by emphasizing the importance of understanding trends in early small-scale
fisheries in as their legacy continues to secure the livelihood of some marginalized segments of
modern South American societies.
Trinidad Rico
Texas A&M University at Qatar
trinidad.rico@qatar.tamu.edu
&
Rodney Harrison
UCL Institute of Archaeology
r.harrison@ucl.ac.uk
Heritage and Secrecy: the Huemul Atomic Project, Argentina
In the early 1950’s the government of Argentina spent considerable resources to import European
scientists in order join the global race for technological supremacy that was taking place mostly in the
post-war northern hemisphere. As part of this initiative an Austrian Scientist Ronald Richter
started construction and operation of an extremely secretive experimental facility which aimed to
develop nuclear fusion technology on Huemul Island on Lake Nahuel Huapi in Patagonia. In 1951,
Richter reported to have achieved fusion, and this was subsequently reported to the global media.
Shortly afterwards the project was revealed to be a hoax and shut down, but the intense secrecy
surrounding the island has left a legacy in popular accounts of its history and heritage. A highly
politicised and contested site, it remains today remote and in ruins, but has enjoyed various episodes of
heritage fame and notoriety at different points in its history. We explore the Huemul Atomic Project as
an example of how certain sites transition through stages of discursive appearance and disappearance,
created and recreated by archival, oral and archaeological sources that are mobilised in accordance
with different political agendas. The Heritage and Secrecy project is a collaboration between Texas
A&M University at Qatar, UCL Institute of Archaeology, and CONICET in Argentina, as well as
various local stakeholders including the National Commission for Atomic Energy (CNEA) and
Parques Nacionales (National Parks). This paper will report on the results of the second field season,
which has focussed on detailed site mapping of the remains of the experimental facilities on Huemul
Island, and their heritage afterlives.
South American Archaeology Seminar: London
Inge Schjellerup
National Museum of Denmark
Inge.Schjellerup@natmus.dk
Inca Presence in the Chachapoya Region
Strong clashes between the Chachapoya and the Incas were the result when the Incas penetrated into
Chachapoya territory in the Ceja de Selva in the Norteastern Peru. However, it also brought about a
meeting with the semi-selvatic tribes in the area. The Incas tried to destroy the Chachapoya heavy
resistance during their sixty years of occupation. Historical documents give evidence of Chachapoya
mitimaes transferred to at least twenty six places in Tawantinsuyu and archaeological research testify
of a very strong Inca presence associated with Chachapoya settlements and the Capac Ñan as the Inca
transformed and used the landscape according to their cosmology. The visibility of both Chachapoya
and Incas structures was important in the landscape as the landscape was managed through the distinct
perspectives of these two cultures.
David Beresford-Jones
McDonald Institute of Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge,
dgb27@cam.ac.uk
Reevaluating the Resource Potential of Lomas Fog Oasis Environments for
Preceramic Hunter-Gatherers under Past ENSO Modes on the South Coast of Peru
There has been much debate about the role of lomas (ephemeral seasonal oases sustained by ocean
fogs) in ancient human ecology on the desert Pacific coast of Peru, including how their extent and
productivity may have changed since the Late Pleistocene. This presentation reassess the resource
potential of the poorly studied lomas of the south coast of Peru during the long Middle Pre-ceramic
period (c. 8,000 – 4,500 BP), combining botanical survey by RBG Kew and archaeological survey by
Cambridge University to make inferences about both Preceramic hunter-gatherer ecology and the
changed palaeo-environments in which it took place. Our analysis of newly discovered archaeological
sites – and their resource context – show how lomas formations defined human ecology until the end
of the Middle Preceramic Period, thereby corroborating recent reconstructions of ENSO history based
on other data. Together, these suggest that a five millennia period of significantly colder seas on the
south coast, enhancing lomas and marine productivity, enabled Middle Preceramic hunter-gatherers to
reduce mobility by settling in strategic locations at the confluence of multiple eco-zones at the
river estuaries. Here the foundations of agriculture lay in a Broad Spectrum Revolution that unfolded,
not through population pressure in deteriorating environments, but rather as an outcome of
resource abundance and seasonal predictability.
South American Archaeology Seminar: London
Kevin Lane
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge
kevin.lane@cantab.net
Pastoralist Lowdown: A model of Prehispanic Southern lowland camelid
pastoralism
Before the arrival of Europeans the only large domesticated ungulates in the South America were the
alpaca and llama. Given their importance as sources of meat and fibre, as well as their role in transport
we would expect these animals to have been ubiquitous across the extent of the Andes – their natural
range. It is therefore surprising that there is so much resistance to the idea that large number of
camelids lived and bred successfully on the coast. New studies in Northern coastal Peru are slowly
challenging this argument, but the Southern coast still awaits the same treatment. Using comparative
ethnological data and a variety of archaeological, ethnohistorical, iconographic and ecological
evidence, we suggest that camelid herding and systems of coastal-low highland transhumance were
practiced on the south coast from the end of the Early Horizon (Ocucaje phases 9/10), through to the
coming of the Spanish. As such we propose a pastoralism that took in the coastal littoral, the matorral
yungas, the lomas and the low highlands as part of a complex pattern of transhumance that linked
herders and farmers in the successful exploitation of camelids.