Recovering Lost Excavations: Reconstructing Burials from the University of California Excavations at Guatacondo, Chile (1967–1969)

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

As part of a Chile-California accord in the 1960s, UCLA faculty, graduate students, and a number of Chilean archaeologists excavated the site of Guatacondo. This relationship ended abruptly following the schism of US/Chile relations pursuant to the election of Salvador Allende. At that point, Dr. Meighan returned to his position at UCLA, bringing with him field notes, photographs, slides, and archaeological material, while the majority of the collection was left to the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural in Santiago. This situation where collections are lost and dispersed among collecting institutions was common in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The unfortunate consequence of these practices is that many of these legacy collections are lost, unexplored, and chronically understudied. Here, I present an overview of the Guatacondo material, exploring the intersection of cultural differences, politics, and collection practices. Specifically, the notes detail the burial of a woman (cataloged as 27a) whose remains have since been lost and whose burial is particularly abundant and interesting. I focus specifically on this grave from the Guatacondo cemetery, attempting to reconstruct this burial from field notes, drawings, and photographs. This lens helps us consider the archaeological information that can be gleaned from records of earlier excavations.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35726.0