HISTORY OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

Julio C. Tello, the father of Peruvian archaeology, devoted much of his career to establishing that Chavin de Huantar was the source from which Andean civilization spread to the northern, central and southern Peruvian highlands and coast, and far beyond to neighboring regions of Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador (Tello 1934, 1942, 1943, 1960). While not all of his claims have been accepted, since Tello’s time Chavin de Huantar has played a special role in the history of archaeological research in Peru. It has been considered not merely an important early center in the Central Andes but the important early center and its investigation has been viewed as a key to explaining cultural changes observed far from the site itself. In addition, the site and images from the sculpture that decorates it have come to serve as symbols of Peruvian national identity. As a consequence of its cultural importance and impressive remains UNESCO named Chavin de Huantar a World Heritage site in 1985.

Not surprisingly, many archaeologists have carried out investigations at Chavin de Huantar. The first scientific studies were initiated in 1919 by Tello as part of his “Archaeological Expedition of the San Marcos University to the Department of Ancash,” and Tello returned repeatedly for additional explorations and excavations, most notably those of 1934 and 1940. As part of his work there, Tello cleared much of the monumental architecture at the site, only to have it buried by a massive landslide on January 17, 1945. Despite this setback, Tello succeeded in establishing the site of Chavin de Huantar as the best known and most important of early Peruvian centers, and his publications provided illustrations of the abundant stone sculpture and the incised dark monochrome ceramics recovered there. The 1939 excavations by the American archaeologist Wendell Bennett confirmed the validity of Tello’s observations and conclusions, and focused international attention on the center and its stone sculpture (Bennett 1942, 1944). In the subsequent decades, excavations continued under the aegis of the resident archaeologist, Tello’s student Marino Gonzales.

In the 1960s, smaller projects were carried out by eminent archaeologists such Cuzco archaeologist Manuel Chavez Ballon, Lima archaeologist Jorge Muelle, and U. S. archaeologist John Rowe (1962). The Archaeological Museum of the San Marcos National University initiated the first large-scale project at Chavfn de Huantar in 1966 and, under the direction of Luis Lumbreras and Hernan Amat, this project carried out detailed and extensive studies of the public architecture and interior galleries (Lumbreras 1971, 1977, 1989, 1993). The massive earthquake of 1970 failed to stop this project, which continued in 1973 and 1974 under the direction of Rosa Fung Pineda (1975), another San Marcos National University archaeologist. I had the privilege of excavating at Chavfn de Huantar in 1975 and 1976, but unlike most of the previous investigators who had concentrated on the ceremonial core, my studies focused on the settlement surrounding the public architecture and the hamlets above the valley floor center (Burger 1983, 1984). In the late 1970s investigations directed by Federico Kauffmann Doig and Francisco Iriarte continued to focus on the site’s public architecture (Kauffmann Doig and Gonzales 1995). With the insecurity created by the Sendero Luminoso guerrilla movement, archaeological research ground to a halt during the 1980s and early 1990s.

However, with the re-establishment of peace in the country, field investigations were re-initiated by U. S. archaeologist John Rick in 1995. His research program was originally designed to produce a detailed map of the public architecture but it subsequently expanded into an extensive program of excavations in the public center and eventually was extended to the ancient residential zone of La Banda on the other side of the Mosna River (Kembel and Rick 2004; Rick et al. 1998; Rick 2005).

While much remains to be done, after almost a century of research Chavfn de Huantar has become one of the best documented archaeological sites in Peru. At the same time, much new research also has been conducted at other “formative” sites in the Central Andes. Some of the early sites were known to Tello and his students and considered to be Chavin “colonies” (Carrion Cachot 1948). In many cases, the new findings have forced a reevaluation of these sites and their relationship to the famous center; the results also provide evidence for evaluating the models that Tello and others have offered to explain the pan-regional impact of the developments at Chavfn de Huantar.