Blogging from Bolivia

The blog is going to take a new direction for the next six weeks or so, and post from our fieldwork in Bolivia. With me in the field this season is an excellent crew, and I hope that as a group we will be able to post at least a few times per week, with contributions in both Spanish and English. I'll ask each of our guest bloggers to introduce themselves as they post, but I can tell you that we have two students from the University of Central Florida, Rachael Kangas and Alex Rivas, and two students from the Universidad Mayor de San Andres, Mabel Ramos and Mary Luz Choque. The photo above is from the Hotel El Dorado in La Paz, looking up through the city towards the altiplano and El Alto.

Excavating at Estancita

Thanks to Jorge Garcia, who took this photograph while working in Bolivia this summer, we have an image of excavations at Estancita Island, just north of the Yacuma River near Santa Ana del Yacuma. Two students from the University of Central Florida joined two students from the University of San Andres in La Paz (including Mary Luz Choque Azapa, in the far left corner of the excavation. You can also see two archaeological technicians (Jose Pedro Rossell Rivero and Juan Pablo Avaroa Rossell) who have worked with us for two years. The excavation was under the woods, about 100 meters outside of a circular ring ditch. The excavation contained a layer of occupation debris and established that people were living here on a permanent basis, perhaps 1500 years ago, or even longer.