Kevin Lane

Prospects: archaeological research and practice in Peru

The following comments reflect on the present state of Peruvian-led research archaeology and its prospects for the future, from the viewpoint of a friend, colleague but notably as an outsider. As such this piece is informed by both personal experience and the informed opinions of local Peruvian investigators who, for reasons that will become apparent, have opted for anonymity. The essential premise here is that the intellectual and financial basis of archaeology in Peru is at a critical stage, and a major part of this article is to see how the next generation can negotiate this quagmire; and believe me for all the myriad problems there are important rays of light that could significantly and positively alter the state of Peruvian archaeology. With this in mind, in this brief essay I consider the research environment, the theoretical basis, and the means by which research projects and resource mitigation are carried out, and summarise some of the challenges that archaeologists living and working in Peru now face. A recent, thorough treatise of the history and state of Peruvian archaeology can be found in Shimada and Vega-Centeno (2011).

Danielle Shawn Kurin. The bioarchaeology of societal collapse and regeneration in ancient Peru. 2016. xv+218 pages, numerous colour and bw 978-3-319-28402-6 hardback £74.50.

Be that as it may, this book deserves to become essential reading, certainly for archaeologists of the south coast of Peru, due to its setting out of the exemplary survey data of the Nasca-Palpa Archaeological Project, but also for those working far beyond, including archaeologists concerned with the difficult but important task of unravelling interactions between climate and society in the past, not least for what that may tell us about the present, or indeed the future.

Kenneth G. Hirth a Joanne Pillsbury (ed.). Merchants, markets, and exchange in the pre-Columbian world . vii+469 pages, numerous colour and baw illustrations. 2013. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection; 978-0-88402-386-9 hardback £51.95

This handsome, lavishly presented volume is yet another grand addition to the Dumbarton Oaks pre-Columbian series. In this instalment, Kenneth Hirth and Joanne Pillsbury revisit trade and markets in the economic context of the Americas, specifically that of three regions: the Mexican Highlands, the Mayan region in Central America and the Central Andes in South America. The volume is particularly welcome given that an in-depth, broad scale analysis on the prehistoric economic rationale prevalent in the Americas has been a long time coming, though it is perhaps a pity that the volume does not extend to consider North America.

Plazas, palaces and peripheries in ancient PeruMelissa A. Vogel. Frontier life in ancient Peru: the archaeology of Cerro la Cruz . xvi+232 pages, 49 illustrations, 10 tables. 2012. Gainesville: University Press of Florida; 978-0-8130-3796-7 hardback.

Having tantalised us for decades with riveting titbits of the Huánuco Pampa Archaeological Project, first begun in 1963, we finally have here what purports to be the first volume on the nuts and bolts of the archaeology that was undertaken during those long decades. It is pity that Craig Morris, the principal director of the project, is not around to appreciate this final result, having passed away in 2006. Nevertheless, Alan Covey and Pat Stein, in collaboration with other contributors, have turned out a great book.

Christopher B. Donnan. Moche tombs at Dos Cabezas (Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Monograph 59). xii+242 pages, 309 colour a baw illustrations, 3 tables. 2007. Los Angeles (CA): Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California; 978-1-931745-51-2 paperback £35; 978-1-931745-52-9 hardback £58.

In characteristic style Christopher Donnan has produced yet another eye-catching volume on the Moche. Centred on the tombs uncovered at the site of Dos Cabezas in the Jequetepeque valley of northerncentral Peru, this book adds substantially to the growing data on this culture’s burial practices contributed recently by other Mocheologists such as Walter Alba, Luis Jaime Castillo and Steve Bourget.

The good, the great and the ugly? Identity, palaces and more in the AmericasWilliam H. Isbell & Helaine Silverman. Andean archaeology III: North and South. xii+523 pages, 155 illustrations, 16 colour plates, 14 tables. 2006. New York (NY): Springer; 0-387-28939-9 hardback

Finney, B. 1985. Voyagers into outer space, in B.R. Finney & E.M. Jones (ed.) Interstellar migration and the human experience: 164–79. Berkeley: University of California Press. Fitzpatrick, S.M. & A. Anderson. 2008. Islands of isolation: archaeology and the power of aquatic perimeters. Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology 3: 4–17. Fitzpatrick, S.M., J.M. Erlandson, A. Anderson, & P. Kirch. 2007. Straw boats and the proverbial sea: a response to ‘Island archaeology: in search of a new horizon’ (2007). Island Studies Journal 2: 229–38.