Publications by Melissa Litschi
Paisaje, Identidad y Memoria: La sociedad Recuay (100-800 dC) y los Andes Norcentrales de Perú, 2022
Esta contribución examina el uso de materias primas en la litoescultura Recuay, una de las tradic... more Esta contribución examina el uso de materias primas en la litoescultura Recuay, una de las tradiciones más resaltantes de tallado en piedra de los Andes norcentrales (100-800 dC). Para ello se propone la cooperación de dos metodologías no destructivas: el análisis petrográfico óptico centrado en cabezas clavas y la fluorescencia de rayos X portátil (pXRF) sobre esculturas con distintos formatos. El estudio petrográfico presentado indica que la diversidad de materias primas identificadas no se explicaría únicamente por la naturaleza litológica de los tipos de roca sino también por las características texturales de esos elementos. El análisis de pXRF condujo al mapeo de trazas químicas de oligoelementos que sugieren múltiples tipos de rocas y fuentes de abastecimiento. En base al contraste de resultados se discute las potencialidades de ambas metodologías para explicar las elecciones tecnológicas de los Recuay respecto a la selección de la materia prima. Adicionalmente, se inició la caracterización de varios contextos geológicos del Callejón de Huaylas vinculados a la extracción de materias primas, entre ellos Cerro Walun, un sitio que conserva claras evidencias de una cantera-taller explotada en la época Recuay.
This contribution examines the use of raw materials in Recuay lithosculpture, one of the most remarkable stone carving traditions from north-central Andes (100-800 CE). The cooperation of two non-destructive methodologies is proposed: optical petrographic analysis focused on tenon heads and portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) spectroscopy on multiple sculptural forms. The petrographic study indicates that the
diversity of raw materials utilized is explained both by the lithological nature of the rock types and by the textural characteristics of the stone composition. The pXRF analysis mapped trace elements of different stone types and indicated several shared material sources. Based on the contrast of results, the potential of both methodologies and their cooperation are discussed to explain the technological choices of the Recuay groups regarding the selection of the raw material. At the same time, the results are compared with geological contexts of the Callejón de Huaylas linked to the extraction of raw materials, among them the Cerro Walun site, a pre-Hispanic quarry-workshop exploited in the Recuay period.
Advances in Archaeological Practice: A Journal of the Society for American Archaeology, May 29, 2014
While tablet devices are becoming commonplace in archaeological research, the transfer of data fo... more While tablet devices are becoming commonplace in archaeological research, the transfer of data for analysis is a matter of critical concern. As geographic information systems (GIS) are increasingly incorporated into our archaeological research, there is a need not only to streamline data acquisition, but also to collect data that can be used in conjunction with high-level spatial analytical tools, such as those available in ESRI's ArcGIS. During a short lab season, various methods of paper-free data collection and crossplatform transfer using these user-friendly devices were tested. It was found that both iPad and Android-based systems present great advantages in terms of portability and electronic data acquisition. However, file compatibility and transfer of data across multiple platforms present a number of important drawbacks. The present case study focuses on the development of a data collection protocol implemented by the Proyecto de Investigación Arqueológica Zaña Valley (PIAZ), Peru, that moves beyond these limitations. The ultimate incorporation of data collected using tablet devices demonstrates the potential for this tool in archaeological research, along with the pitfalls for projects that rely heavily on GIS. Significant findings regarding the advantages, as well as the limitations, of e-data collection, transfer, and storage are discussed.
Aunque las tabletas digitales se están volviendo más comunes en la investigación arqueológica, la transferencia de datos para su análisis es un asunto crítico. Mientras que la incorporación de los sistemas de información geográfica (SIG) a la investigación arqueológica ha ido en aumento, no sólo existe la necesidad de simplificar la adquisición de los datos, sino también de recopilar datos que puedan utilizarse junto con herramientas analíticas espaciales de alto nivel, como lo son aquellas disponibles en ESRI o ArcGIS. Durante una corta temporada de laboratorio, se pusieron a prueba distintos métodos libres de uso de papel para la recolección de datos y para su transferencia a través de distintas plataformas utilizando estos dispositivos fácilmente de usarse. Con base en esto, se encontró que los sistemas para iPad y Android presentan grandes ventajas en términos de portabilidad y de la adquisición de datos electrónicos. Sin embargo, la compatibilidad de archivos y de la transferencia de datos a través de plataformas múltiples presenta un número considerable de inconvenientes. El siguiente estudio de caso se enfoca en el desarrollo de un protocolo para la recoloección de datos, implementado por el Proyecto de Investigación Arqueológica Valle de Zaña, Perú (PIAZ), que trasciende estas limitaciones. La más reciente incorporación de datos recopilados, utilizando tabletas, demuestra el potencial de esta herramienta a la investigación arqueológica y las dificultadas a las que se enfrentan los proyectos que dependen fuertemente de SIG. Los hallazgos significativos, en relación a las ventajas, así como a las limitaciones de la recolección, transferencia y almacenamiento de datos electrónicos (e-datos) son analizados aquí.
Conference Presentations by Melissa Litschi
Paper presented at the 47th Annual Conference on Midwest Andean and Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory, Urbana-Champaign, 2019
In the 1960s, Sr. Julio Benites Ramirez (name changed) began crafting replicas of Recuay warrior... more In the 1960s, Sr. Julio Benites Ramirez (name changed) began crafting replicas of Recuay warrior sculptures to sell to a Swiss engineer looking to procure several original sculptures for his home. In the decades since, several stone workshops have opened in the region, producing replicas and original works destined for municipal buildings, local hotels, souvenir shops, and residences and businesses in Lima. In two workshops, masons attempt to replicate pre-Columbian carving techniques to add to the authenticity of their products, while in a third, production is driven by machine powered tools. This revived craft has found its place in the present-day Huaraz economy while honoring the local history and indigenous peoples, but does it also offer insights into pre-Columbian stone carving?
We present ethnoarchaeological data from interviews in September 2018 with five masons at these workshops. The organization, scale of production, and production processes differed substantially between the hand-powered and mechanized workshops. We explore this variability, focusing specifically on the factors that influence manufacturing decisions from material choice to form and iconography. By identifying and analyzing these critical decision making points, we can better identify patterns and factors that influenced similar manufacturing decisions in the past.
Paper presented at the 83rd Annual Meeting of the Society of American Archaeology, Washington, D.C.
Theses and Dissertation by Melissa Litschi
Stone plays an inextricable role in the lives of Andean peoples and the monumental stoneworks of ... more Stone plays an inextricable role in the lives of Andean peoples and the monumental stoneworks of pre-Hispanic cultures stand in memorial to the experiences and beliefs of those who created them. Stone is often selected as a medium for symbolic works due to its durability and perceived permanence, but in the Andes, its meaning expands beyond its physical properties. Stone was an extension of the animate landscape that both sheltered and endangered its inhabitants. Stories were attached to stones, whether natural or modified, to embed knowledge of the landscape and of history in the memory of communities. Centuries later, archaeologists utilize modified stones and constructed monuments as a window to understand long past societies. As our own technological abilities expand, we are able to garner even deeper understandings of the way stones were used and the meanings they may have once held.
High in the Peruvian Andes, in a small city renowned for its natural beauty and ecological adventures, there is a modest museum, where hundreds of once powerful stone ancestors are visited by school groups and tourists, receiving words of wonder in place of the offerings of coca, chicha, and music once granted to them by their human children and grandchildren known today as the Recuay people. These carved figures give clues to their meaning through their crouched mummified positions and their accoutrements of power, warfare, and fertility. But much of their histories have been lost, as looting, religious persecution, and local curation have moved almost all of these ancestors from their resting places, erasing clues about their roles and meaning in the society that made them.
Utilizing a Holistic Approach to craft production (Shimada and Craig 2013; Shimada and Merkel 1987; Shimada and Wagner 2007), this research seeks to recontextualize these powerful Recuay ancestors that once populated the Huaraz region of highland Ancash (ca. 100-700 CE) through an investigation of their making. Each choice and action in the process of production reveals important information about broader technological systems, social, political, and economic relationships, and the cosmologies and belief systems of the makers. Incorporating multiple lines of evidence from geochemical and technological analysis, as well and surveys of archaeological sites, interviews with modern stone sculptors, and experimental testing of manufacturing techniques, this research provides a reconstruction of the entire production sequence for Recuay stone ancestors, from the selection, procurement, and dispersal of raw materials to the techniques, tools, and settings employed in manufacturing. This research offers an example of the efficacy of the Holistic Approach to gain sociocultural insights from material records of the process of production through direct evidence of manufacturing and to overcome limitations regarding artifact provenience. Additionally, the robust geochemical analysis outlined here provides a replicable approach to semi-quantitative sourcing studies through non-destructive portable X-Ray Fluorescence spectroscopy, with an analytical approach that is as accessible as equipment operation. As a rare case study in pre-Inkaic stone quarrying and carving, this research showcases the technological and symbolic variability within a centuries long belief system that recognized the animate landscape and treated extracted materials as an extension of those forces.
Over the course of this 600 year long carving tradition, Recuay artisans altered the forms and iconographic details of these important sculptures, but the production techniques, surface treatments, and raw materials remained remarkably consistent. Only four geologic sources provided raw materials for 96% of analyzed sculptures in this regional assemblage across three different volcanic stone types, including two long-hypothesized quarries, Pongor and Cerro Walun. Over 97% of sculptures across all volcanic, sedimentary, and plutonic stone types shared a specially crafted surface treatment that differed from other Recuay stoneworks and from stone sculptures of preceding cultures in the region. Investigations at the confirmed quarry site of Cerro Walun reveal contextualized insights about the infrastructure of stone quarrying and carving and its close association with tombs and venerated, animate landscapes. Combined with understandings of communal ancestor veneration and intercommunity socio-political negotiations among the Recuay, we see that these stone figures and the process of creating them played an active role in the expression and maintenance of relationships and knowledge between communities and across generations.
Poster Presentation by Melissa Litschi
Presented at The 82nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Vancouver, British Columbia 2017
The Recuay tomb of Jancu has contributed significantly to our understanding of Recuay mortuary pr... more The Recuay tomb of Jancu has contributed significantly to our understanding of Recuay mortuary practices and ancestral veneration. This subterranean tomb, which housed the remains of several elite individuals and finely-crafted offerings, is typically discussed in isolation from its broader context. To date, no formal archaeological research has been conducted in the surrounding region, but recent preliminary surveys by the authors revealed numerous Recuay and Post-Recuay residential and funerary structures. Due to the relative inaccessibility of the region, remote-sensing technology offers a feasible alternative to pedestrian surveys as a method to characterize the distribution of pre-Hispanic architecture in the area. As a preliminary step in elucidating the sociopolitical context of the Jancu elite tomb, this study aims 1) to identify extant architecture near Jancu, and 2) to test the utility of widely accessible remote sensing options (low-resolution aerial photographs, Google Earth imagery, and Landsat IV satellite imagery) in an alpine environment. The results of this study will contribute both to refining the interpretations of mortuary practices and its ties to territoriality and ancestral veneration during the Recuay occupation of Jancu and to improve methodologies for archaeological survey in remote alpine environments.
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Publications by Melissa Litschi
This contribution examines the use of raw materials in Recuay lithosculpture, one of the most remarkable stone carving traditions from north-central Andes (100-800 CE). The cooperation of two non-destructive methodologies is proposed: optical petrographic analysis focused on tenon heads and portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) spectroscopy on multiple sculptural forms. The petrographic study indicates that the
diversity of raw materials utilized is explained both by the lithological nature of the rock types and by the textural characteristics of the stone composition. The pXRF analysis mapped trace elements of different stone types and indicated several shared material sources. Based on the contrast of results, the potential of both methodologies and their cooperation are discussed to explain the technological choices of the Recuay groups regarding the selection of the raw material. At the same time, the results are compared with geological contexts of the Callejón de Huaylas linked to the extraction of raw materials, among them the Cerro Walun site, a pre-Hispanic quarry-workshop exploited in the Recuay period.
Aunque las tabletas digitales se están volviendo más comunes en la investigación arqueológica, la transferencia de datos para su análisis es un asunto crítico. Mientras que la incorporación de los sistemas de información geográfica (SIG) a la investigación arqueológica ha ido en aumento, no sólo existe la necesidad de simplificar la adquisición de los datos, sino también de recopilar datos que puedan utilizarse junto con herramientas analíticas espaciales de alto nivel, como lo son aquellas disponibles en ESRI o ArcGIS. Durante una corta temporada de laboratorio, se pusieron a prueba distintos métodos libres de uso de papel para la recolección de datos y para su transferencia a través de distintas plataformas utilizando estos dispositivos fácilmente de usarse. Con base en esto, se encontró que los sistemas para iPad y Android presentan grandes ventajas en términos de portabilidad y de la adquisición de datos electrónicos. Sin embargo, la compatibilidad de archivos y de la transferencia de datos a través de plataformas múltiples presenta un número considerable de inconvenientes. El siguiente estudio de caso se enfoca en el desarrollo de un protocolo para la recoloección de datos, implementado por el Proyecto de Investigación Arqueológica Valle de Zaña, Perú (PIAZ), que trasciende estas limitaciones. La más reciente incorporación de datos recopilados, utilizando tabletas, demuestra el potencial de esta herramienta a la investigación arqueológica y las dificultadas a las que se enfrentan los proyectos que dependen fuertemente de SIG. Los hallazgos significativos, en relación a las ventajas, así como a las limitaciones de la recolección, transferencia y almacenamiento de datos electrónicos (e-datos) son analizados aquí.
Conference Presentations by Melissa Litschi
We present ethnoarchaeological data from interviews in September 2018 with five masons at these workshops. The organization, scale of production, and production processes differed substantially between the hand-powered and mechanized workshops. We explore this variability, focusing specifically on the factors that influence manufacturing decisions from material choice to form and iconography. By identifying and analyzing these critical decision making points, we can better identify patterns and factors that influenced similar manufacturing decisions in the past.
Theses and Dissertation by Melissa Litschi
High in the Peruvian Andes, in a small city renowned for its natural beauty and ecological adventures, there is a modest museum, where hundreds of once powerful stone ancestors are visited by school groups and tourists, receiving words of wonder in place of the offerings of coca, chicha, and music once granted to them by their human children and grandchildren known today as the Recuay people. These carved figures give clues to their meaning through their crouched mummified positions and their accoutrements of power, warfare, and fertility. But much of their histories have been lost, as looting, religious persecution, and local curation have moved almost all of these ancestors from their resting places, erasing clues about their roles and meaning in the society that made them.
Utilizing a Holistic Approach to craft production (Shimada and Craig 2013; Shimada and Merkel 1987; Shimada and Wagner 2007), this research seeks to recontextualize these powerful Recuay ancestors that once populated the Huaraz region of highland Ancash (ca. 100-700 CE) through an investigation of their making. Each choice and action in the process of production reveals important information about broader technological systems, social, political, and economic relationships, and the cosmologies and belief systems of the makers. Incorporating multiple lines of evidence from geochemical and technological analysis, as well and surveys of archaeological sites, interviews with modern stone sculptors, and experimental testing of manufacturing techniques, this research provides a reconstruction of the entire production sequence for Recuay stone ancestors, from the selection, procurement, and dispersal of raw materials to the techniques, tools, and settings employed in manufacturing. This research offers an example of the efficacy of the Holistic Approach to gain sociocultural insights from material records of the process of production through direct evidence of manufacturing and to overcome limitations regarding artifact provenience. Additionally, the robust geochemical analysis outlined here provides a replicable approach to semi-quantitative sourcing studies through non-destructive portable X-Ray Fluorescence spectroscopy, with an analytical approach that is as accessible as equipment operation. As a rare case study in pre-Inkaic stone quarrying and carving, this research showcases the technological and symbolic variability within a centuries long belief system that recognized the animate landscape and treated extracted materials as an extension of those forces.
Over the course of this 600 year long carving tradition, Recuay artisans altered the forms and iconographic details of these important sculptures, but the production techniques, surface treatments, and raw materials remained remarkably consistent. Only four geologic sources provided raw materials for 96% of analyzed sculptures in this regional assemblage across three different volcanic stone types, including two long-hypothesized quarries, Pongor and Cerro Walun. Over 97% of sculptures across all volcanic, sedimentary, and plutonic stone types shared a specially crafted surface treatment that differed from other Recuay stoneworks and from stone sculptures of preceding cultures in the region. Investigations at the confirmed quarry site of Cerro Walun reveal contextualized insights about the infrastructure of stone quarrying and carving and its close association with tombs and venerated, animate landscapes. Combined with understandings of communal ancestor veneration and intercommunity socio-political negotiations among the Recuay, we see that these stone figures and the process of creating them played an active role in the expression and maintenance of relationships and knowledge between communities and across generations.
Poster Presentation by Melissa Litschi
This contribution examines the use of raw materials in Recuay lithosculpture, one of the most remarkable stone carving traditions from north-central Andes (100-800 CE). The cooperation of two non-destructive methodologies is proposed: optical petrographic analysis focused on tenon heads and portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) spectroscopy on multiple sculptural forms. The petrographic study indicates that the
diversity of raw materials utilized is explained both by the lithological nature of the rock types and by the textural characteristics of the stone composition. The pXRF analysis mapped trace elements of different stone types and indicated several shared material sources. Based on the contrast of results, the potential of both methodologies and their cooperation are discussed to explain the technological choices of the Recuay groups regarding the selection of the raw material. At the same time, the results are compared with geological contexts of the Callejón de Huaylas linked to the extraction of raw materials, among them the Cerro Walun site, a pre-Hispanic quarry-workshop exploited in the Recuay period.
Aunque las tabletas digitales se están volviendo más comunes en la investigación arqueológica, la transferencia de datos para su análisis es un asunto crítico. Mientras que la incorporación de los sistemas de información geográfica (SIG) a la investigación arqueológica ha ido en aumento, no sólo existe la necesidad de simplificar la adquisición de los datos, sino también de recopilar datos que puedan utilizarse junto con herramientas analíticas espaciales de alto nivel, como lo son aquellas disponibles en ESRI o ArcGIS. Durante una corta temporada de laboratorio, se pusieron a prueba distintos métodos libres de uso de papel para la recolección de datos y para su transferencia a través de distintas plataformas utilizando estos dispositivos fácilmente de usarse. Con base en esto, se encontró que los sistemas para iPad y Android presentan grandes ventajas en términos de portabilidad y de la adquisición de datos electrónicos. Sin embargo, la compatibilidad de archivos y de la transferencia de datos a través de plataformas múltiples presenta un número considerable de inconvenientes. El siguiente estudio de caso se enfoca en el desarrollo de un protocolo para la recoloección de datos, implementado por el Proyecto de Investigación Arqueológica Valle de Zaña, Perú (PIAZ), que trasciende estas limitaciones. La más reciente incorporación de datos recopilados, utilizando tabletas, demuestra el potencial de esta herramienta a la investigación arqueológica y las dificultadas a las que se enfrentan los proyectos que dependen fuertemente de SIG. Los hallazgos significativos, en relación a las ventajas, así como a las limitaciones de la recolección, transferencia y almacenamiento de datos electrónicos (e-datos) son analizados aquí.
We present ethnoarchaeological data from interviews in September 2018 with five masons at these workshops. The organization, scale of production, and production processes differed substantially between the hand-powered and mechanized workshops. We explore this variability, focusing specifically on the factors that influence manufacturing decisions from material choice to form and iconography. By identifying and analyzing these critical decision making points, we can better identify patterns and factors that influenced similar manufacturing decisions in the past.
High in the Peruvian Andes, in a small city renowned for its natural beauty and ecological adventures, there is a modest museum, where hundreds of once powerful stone ancestors are visited by school groups and tourists, receiving words of wonder in place of the offerings of coca, chicha, and music once granted to them by their human children and grandchildren known today as the Recuay people. These carved figures give clues to their meaning through their crouched mummified positions and their accoutrements of power, warfare, and fertility. But much of their histories have been lost, as looting, religious persecution, and local curation have moved almost all of these ancestors from their resting places, erasing clues about their roles and meaning in the society that made them.
Utilizing a Holistic Approach to craft production (Shimada and Craig 2013; Shimada and Merkel 1987; Shimada and Wagner 2007), this research seeks to recontextualize these powerful Recuay ancestors that once populated the Huaraz region of highland Ancash (ca. 100-700 CE) through an investigation of their making. Each choice and action in the process of production reveals important information about broader technological systems, social, political, and economic relationships, and the cosmologies and belief systems of the makers. Incorporating multiple lines of evidence from geochemical and technological analysis, as well and surveys of archaeological sites, interviews with modern stone sculptors, and experimental testing of manufacturing techniques, this research provides a reconstruction of the entire production sequence for Recuay stone ancestors, from the selection, procurement, and dispersal of raw materials to the techniques, tools, and settings employed in manufacturing. This research offers an example of the efficacy of the Holistic Approach to gain sociocultural insights from material records of the process of production through direct evidence of manufacturing and to overcome limitations regarding artifact provenience. Additionally, the robust geochemical analysis outlined here provides a replicable approach to semi-quantitative sourcing studies through non-destructive portable X-Ray Fluorescence spectroscopy, with an analytical approach that is as accessible as equipment operation. As a rare case study in pre-Inkaic stone quarrying and carving, this research showcases the technological and symbolic variability within a centuries long belief system that recognized the animate landscape and treated extracted materials as an extension of those forces.
Over the course of this 600 year long carving tradition, Recuay artisans altered the forms and iconographic details of these important sculptures, but the production techniques, surface treatments, and raw materials remained remarkably consistent. Only four geologic sources provided raw materials for 96% of analyzed sculptures in this regional assemblage across three different volcanic stone types, including two long-hypothesized quarries, Pongor and Cerro Walun. Over 97% of sculptures across all volcanic, sedimentary, and plutonic stone types shared a specially crafted surface treatment that differed from other Recuay stoneworks and from stone sculptures of preceding cultures in the region. Investigations at the confirmed quarry site of Cerro Walun reveal contextualized insights about the infrastructure of stone quarrying and carving and its close association with tombs and venerated, animate landscapes. Combined with understandings of communal ancestor veneration and intercommunity socio-political negotiations among the Recuay, we see that these stone figures and the process of creating them played an active role in the expression and maintenance of relationships and knowledge between communities and across generations.