High Mountain Archaeology

This chapter is devoted to high altitude archaeology, with the scientific study of mountaintop religious sites built half a millennium ago by the Inka civilization, the first in history to climb to the principal peaks of the Andes and face the challenges of their extreme environment. The story begins with unexpected findings of mummies and offerings in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, followed by rescue interventions by Professor Juan Schobinger between the mid sixties and the mid eighties. Argentinean anthropologist Constanza Ceruti ascended more than one hundred mountains above 5000 meters and published dozens of scientific papers, which contributed to systematize this innovative field of study. In 1999 she codirected with Johan Reinhard excavations on mountLlullaillaco, the highest archaeological site in the world, where three perfectly preserved mummies of Inka children were discovered (currently housed at the Museum of Mountain Archaeology or MAAM). The scientific systematization of mountain archaeology in South America predates—for years if not decades—that of glacial archaeology in the northern hemisphere, for which high altitude archaeology is rightfully considered a “mother discipline” of glacial archaeology, alpine archaeology, and other emerging lines of current anthropological-archaeological research on mountainscapes.