High altitude archaeology: a historical perspective

MARÍA CONSTANZA CERUTI

Innsbruck

Congreso; IV International glacial archaeology symposium (Frozen Pasts)SIUM:; 2016

University of Innsbruck

Archaeologicalfindings of Inca offerings and mummified remains have taken place on highsummits of the Andes since the end of the XIX century. Scientific interventionsin high-altitude archaeological contexts were initiated with the rescuemissions conducted by Swiss-argentine archaeologist Juan Schobinger to theheights of mount El Toro (1964) and the foot of the Pyramid of Aconcagua(1985). A more systematic approach was adopted by Johan Reinhard during yearsof archaeological excavations conducted on Inca mountaintop shrines of Peru,which ended with an expedition to the active crater of volcano Misti (1998). Asthe sole female expert in the field, the author of this presentation conductedarchaeological surveys on more than one hundred mountains above 5000 meters in northwestArgentina during the late nineties and early XXI century. The highestarchaeological site on earth was studied in a collaborative project undertakenwith Reinhard in 1999, which led to the discovery of three frozen bodies on thesummit of mount Llullaillaco, considered among the best preserved mummies inthe world. The attention devoted in recent years to the emerging field ofglacial archaeology is an invitation to present a historical overview of highaltitude archaeology, a discipline whose pioneer contributions to the preservationof the archaeological record on mountains and glaciers - increasingly endangeredby looting and climate change - are oftentimes underrated, or poorlyunderstood.