National Archeology Conference Returns to UMaine Oct. 11-12
Contact: Dan Sandweiss, 581-1889; Greg Zaro, 581-1957; George Manlove, 581-3756
ORONO — A prestigious archaeology conference is returning to UMaine on Oct. 11-12, bringing more than 35 specialists to campus for two days of lectures, seminars, panel discussions and an exploration of Andean archaeology and the development of cultures.
The conference is free and open to the public, according to co-organizer and UMaine anthropologist Dan Sandweiss, professor of anthropology and climate change.
The Northeast Conference on Andean Archaeology and Ethnohistory, which also commemorates October as Maine Archaeology Month, brings together leading archaeologists and anthropologists from around the country, and internationally. The keynote address Saturday evening will be of interest to the public, says Sandweiss, who founded the annual Northeast Conference on Andean Archaeology and Ethnohistory 27 years ago, while a graduate student at Cornell University.
Saturday at 8:30 p.m., at UMaine’s Wells Conference Center, keynote speaker and Peruvian archaeologist Luis Jaime Castillo will discuss his 18 years of research on the Moche culture (2nd-8th centuries AD) in northern Peru. Castillo is a humanities professor and director of the International Relations and Cooperation Department at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru in Lima, Peru.
Other presenters include several from the University of Maine, including Greg Zaro, assistant professor of anthropology and climate change.
Peruvian coastal archaeology, Andean and Central American archaeology are areas of expertise and academic interest for Sandweiss, who also is dean and associate provost for graduate studies.
“Over the last 15 years, we’ve developed a really strong group of people at UMaine working in the Andes and South America in archaeology and climate change, and on the relationship between them,” he says.
What makes Castillo’s research and perspectives particularly interesting, Sandweiss says, is that he was able to protect from looters a large, ancient Peruvian cemetery where people of the Moche culture were buried along with jewelry, pottery, tools and other artifacts that illuminate their lifestyle for cultural historians today.
“He excavates things that no one has seen since they were buried over a thousand years ago,” Sandweiss says. “This is what archaeologists do. Since human ancestors first came on the scene, 99 percent of human history is in archaeological records, and only 1 percent is written. Writing goes back 5,000 years; our human ancestry goes back more than four million years.”
Sandweiss says understanding the past helps us understand the present.
Castillo’s lecture Saturday evening will include photographs, illustrations and PowerPoint slides. The lecture is supported by the Peruvian-American Foundation, UMaine’s School of Policy and International Affairs, and the Anthropology Department.
The last time UMaine hosted the conference was 11 years ago.