Constanza Ceruti

Career

Ceruti is a Professor of Incan Archaeology at the Catholic University of Salta (UCASAL), as well as the founder and ad-honorem director of the Institute of High Mountain Investigations of the Catholic University of Salta. She is also a researcher of the National Council for Scientific Research in Argentina (CONICET)., and member of the National Academy of Sciences of Buenos Aires (ANCBA), the Argentina Society of Anthropology (Sociedad Argentina de Antropologia), the Association of Professional Archaeologists of Argentina (Colegio de Graduados de Antropología), the Society for American Archaeology, The Explorers Club in New York, and the Society of Woman Geographers.

She has climbed more than a hundred mountains reaching above 5,000 m (16,404 ft) during her research. Her most important ascents include the Aconcagua at 6,962 m (22,841 ft) in 1996 and 1997, the Pissis volcano at 6,792 m (22,283 ft), the Llullaillaco volcano in 1999, the Cerro Meléndez at 6,020 m (19,751 ft) in 1998 the snow-capped Cachi 5,896 m (19,344 ft) in 1996 and 1997 and Quehuar in 1996 and 1999.

She has published 25 books, four of them on High Mountain archaeology in the Andes, and more than 100 scientific papers.

Research

The work Ceruti does at high altitudes is exceptionally dangerous.

The ascent of high mountains demands considerable physical resistance, since the marching days are usually very long (sometimes more than twenty hours), on steep terrain and in extreme weather conditions. ... The high mountain environment is characterized by oxygen shortage, low atmospheric pressure, strong icy winds, snowfall and thunderstorms. The extreme cold freezes the batteries in the cameras and fingertips in a few seconds ... the wind flies from the pages of the notebook to the tents themselves ... the lack of oxygen affects the concentration and performance of the brain with decreases up to 50%, while the archaeologist's work requires a lot of concentration. -- Constanza Ceruti, translation from Spanish

In 1998 Ceruti performed an archaeological excavation at an altitude of more than 5,800 m (19,029 ft) with Johan Reinhard on the higher slopes of the active volcano Misti near Arequipa, Peru. The remains of six human sacrifices, older than 500 years of antiquity, were examined.

In 1999, Ceruti co-led four archaeological expeditions with Johan Reinhard in the Andes mountains. The first involved an ascent of Nevado Quehuar at 6,100 m (20,013 ft). There, investigators recovered the remains of a mummified child, whose gravesite had been blasted open with dynamite and looted of ceremonial objects by treasure hunters. Researchers carefully salvaged the pieces of the body, which had been left scattered on the mountaintop.

Children of Llullaillaco

A few weeks later, Ceruti, Reinhard, and a team from National Geographic ascended the Llullaillaco volcano in the Argentine province of Salta. Llullaillaco is the highest archaeological site in the world at 6,739 m (22,110 ft). During an extended high-altitude excavation period, they found and studied the intact mummies of three Incan children, a boy and two girls. The bodies were accompanied by dozens of sumptuous objects of typical Inca style, including ceramic vessels, wooden cups, woven bags, spondylus shells, sandals, moccasins, clothing, jewellery, and female figurine miniatures. These mummies are considered some of the best-preserved mummies of the world. The Museum of High Mountain Archeology of Salta (MAAM) has been built to provide a home for them.

For six years, Ceruti and others at UCASAL scientifically studied the mummified bodies of the three Inca children of Llullaillaco in an international collaboration. They were able to determine the general lifestyle, ages, and causes of death of the children. The youngest, a girl, died at age six of pulmonary oedema as a result of the high altitude. After her death, her mummy was struck by lightning. The second youngest, a boy, died at age seven due to exposure to cold. The oldest, a fifteen-year-old girl, also died of exposure. DNA analysis showed that they were not related. Ceruti's notes from the original sites, painstakingly compiled under extreme conditions, have enabled researchers to better understand the ceremonial and political implications of the capacocha ritual.

The children were in good health before their deaths, and had not suffered from malnutrition, which suggested they were from high-status families. Analysis of their hair revealed that all three had eaten an enriched corn-based diet during their last year of life, including coca leaves, which can be eaten to counteract high-altitude sickness. Their clothing and artefacts indicate that they came originally from Cuzco, Peru, thousands of miles away, requiring a journey of months to reach the high Andes where they died.

Her discovery is narrated in her biography written by Gloria Lisé Donde el cielo besa la tierra Biografía de Constanza Ceruti la Arqueóloga de Alta Montaña que descubrió las Momias del Llullaillaco.

Pucará de Tilcara

After receiving her doctorate in 2001, Ceruti lived for five years in an adobe house near Pucará de Tilcara, Pucará de Tilcara is a fortification built around the twelfth century A.D. by ancestors of the Omaguaca people. By the fourteenth century, it was an important administrative, military and religious centre. The area was conquered by the Incas, and a few decades later by the Spanish, who arrived in 1536. People continue to make pilgrimages from the village to nearby mountain shrines. Living there enabled Ceruti to become deeply aware of village life and its connections to pre-Incan and Incan traditions.