Thanks to the support of the Tinker Research Award from the Center for Latin American Studies and the Anthropology Department Summer Research Grant from Vanderbilt University I was able to execute a preliminary research season of the Proyecto Arqueologico Reducciones Toledanas Yauyosin (PARTY) in Lima and Huarochiri as a first stage on my dissertation research.

During a month and a half, I conducted a preliminary archival research and an archaeological recognizance and ground truthing in Lima and Huarochirí, in Perú. My research centered on how the “Reducción General de indios” (general resettlement of Indians) change the pre-Hispanic agricultural landscapes, and how indigenous communities reclaim previous occupied land by creating a second wave of reducciones closer to past agricultural infrastructure. During the month of June and early July I visited the Archivo Arzobispal de Lima (Lima’s Archbishopric archival) where I got several documents about the early history of Huarochirí’s church administration. In July, I visited the Tupicocha district in Huarochirí, where I got to talk to the Tupicocha community and present my dissertation project. I performed a preliminary recognizance of the agricultural areas around town and executed ground truth satellite remote sensing results. Additionally, with the help of Dr. Wernke, we got to use a multispectral and thermal camera to get so aerial data of abandoned agricultural fields to compare my previous results with this new high-resolution imagery.

Check the photo gallery for some field pictures taking during this preliminary research season.