Peruvian archaeology in London[]
Lead in . . . .[]
Peruvian archaeology in London[]
A Minkanews study guide “Peruvianists in Ireland and the UK / Archaeology (Reference learning scheme / study guide 212-2) has been opened. This guide focuses on the authors of three papers presented at the South American Archaeology Seminar last Saturday at the Institute of Archaeology, Gordon Square. The authors were: Gabriel Ramon, Martha Bell, Paul Heggarty, David Beresford-Jones, Tim Taylor, Andrew Wilson. Topics ranged from Northern ceramics, Andean linguistic history to ice children of the Andes. . . . . Click here to read more or add comments and additional material.
Main article[]
Doc: Minka_14may2008_Archaeology_conference Minkanews study guides / learning scheme 212 – Topic: Archaeology Series / collection 12: Peruvianists in Ireland and the UK
Peruvian archaeology in London[]
This study guide is No 2 in the series / collection 12 ‘Peruvianists in Ireland and the UK’. Access level 2/3. Readers - learners and tutors - can help to improve this study guide and share their work on the jointly editable pages of Minkapedia (http://academia.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Minkapedia which may be found also by googling ‘minkapedia’ / putting the term ‘minkapedia’ into your web browser’s search engine. This series had its roots in a response to a request from the BNP (Biblioteca Nacional del Peru) for (more complete) information about Peruvianists (working, living, researching, studying, publishing) in Ireland and the UK in order to aid the acquisitions policy for the then (2006/7) new Peruvian National Library on Javier Prado in Lima. The Cutural Attache in London asked local academics including this author to draw up a list or database. The initial list (see study guide No 1) included mainly established Peruvianists. With the new technology of these opentext pages it would be possible to include all those producing ‘recordable work’ –including also students writing dissertations. This guide focuses on the authors of three papers presented at the South American Archaeology Seminar last Saturday at the Institute of Archaeology, Gordon Square. The authors (and this is a feature of the Saturday seminars) are working at different levels (from MA student to distinguished scholar) and differing degrees of specialisation (few/ not all are “full-time Peruvianists”).
Gabriel Ramon[]
is completing research at the Sainsbury Centre of the University of East Anglia at Norwich.
Martha Bell[]
is researching a dissertation at the University of Wisconsin.
The paper in brief[]
Gabriel Ramon and Martha Bell collaborated in researching a paper on “producing ceramic evidence: three rules to narrate the pre-colonial past, through objects, using Northern Peruvian ethnographic examples” presented at the Seminar. Archaeologists need to work with specialists / become specialised in the arts, crafts and technology of pottery in order to interpret the significance and provenance of ceramic finds. The presenters emphasised the relationship between place, manufacturing technology and tools - and the possibilities of trade and journeyman (itinerant or visiting potters’) production - in ‘dislocating’ interpretation.
Paul Heggarty[]
is undertaking research at the McDonald Institute, University of Cambridge.
David Beresford-Jones[]
is undertaking research at the McDonald Institute, University of Cambridge.
The paper in brief[]
Paul Heggarty and David Beresford-Jones gave a paper titled “Agriculture and Language Dispersals: Limitations, Refinements and an Andean Exception?” Spanish: . . . . English: The prevailing idea that the necessary (but not sufficient) condition for language dispersal – the spread and splitting of languages from an ‘original’ source – was the inception of agriculture was challenged in the case of ‘Andean’ languages. Additionally the Seminar had been given two papers for prior reading. Linguistic history (e.g. the sequencing of language branching, approximate time profiles of language family hegemonies, place-name analysis, etc.) can be the handmaid of archaeology in the construction of early histories.
Tim Taylor[]
University of Bradford
Andrew Wilson[]
University of Bradford
Tim Taylor presented a paper “Discrepant records of Inca child sacrifice? Texts archaeology, stable isotopes and DNA”. Jointly written with Andrew Wilson (unable to attend).
The paper in brief[]
Tim Taylor leant his scientific skills to the analysis and reconstruction of the (mainly) last months in the lives (e.g. were they ‘honoured’ by attending prestigious ceremonies in Cuzco first) of the ‘ice children’ of the Andes: young boys and girls who were sacrificed on or near Andean mountaintops. (The last meeting I had attended on the subject dealt with the dispute between the Peruvian ‘guide’ and National Geographic over who ‘discovered’ the ice maiden of Arequipa.) The paper demonstrated the advantages of a non Peruvianist, non Latin-Americanist applying other specialist skills (isotope and DNA analysis) to aid archaeological history-telling.
A fourth paper by Jose Iriarte (University of Essex) will be dealt with in the Brazilianist / Latin American section of these pages.
The Seminar was organised by Bill Sillar and Gill Hey and co-sponsored by The Institute for the Study of the Americas (Institute for Advanced Studies of the University of London) and the Institute of Archaeology, University College, London.
[It is hoped that longer versions of the papers will be available on this or other open sites in the near future.]
Readers (learners, tutors, researchers etc.) can help to improve this study guide and share their work on the jointly editable pages of Minkapedia (http://academia.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Minkapedia which (if you are not reading this already online) may be found also by googling ‘minkapedia’ / putting the term ‘minkapedia’ into your web browser’s search engine)