Best laid plans and all that

In which our heroine faces a hurdle...

Well, friends, the dissertation game is always throwing you curveballs. I'm sure that's some kind of mixed metaphor, but it describes the week I've had.

On Monday I trotted off to PUCP (Catolica University) to start my work with the archaeological material excavated from Huaca 20. As I learned today, the site of Huaca 20 is in the university complex itself, literally about a hundred feet away from the gabineta where the bones are stored; I knew it was close but not THAT close - I just never saw it because there's a big greenhouse blocking it.

But I digress.  After meeting some of Alejandra's old friends and colleagues when I first get to Catolica, one of them, Carlos, starts off with the slightly alarming sentence, "You know the bones are not in very good shape, yes?"

Uhhh...NOT what I was told. But, I was still pretty positive at this point. Some of the collections I've worked with have been slightly fragmented but complete enough that I could get what I need, and I figured maybe the bones from Huaca 20 would be in a similar state of preservation.

Oh, how wrong I was. How very, very wrong.

I started going through the boxes of bones and became more and more discouraged as the day went on because the majority of this collection is crappy little bone bits. Crappy little bone bits encrusted with dirt. A LOT of dirt.  And even when I had larger bone bits, the skeletons were still very incomplete.  Trust me, an entire pelvis should not be able to fit into a sandwich-sized bag.

So there I am, day one of data collection for my multi-grant funded project with absolutely nada. It was not a good feeling.

But never fear! I rallied, sent off a rash of emails, had a few Skype chats, and now have (amazingly quickly procured, espesh for Peru!) permissions to access material at el museo Bruning in northern Peru. Special thanks go out to Haagen, who helped me work this last minute magic. Soooo...I have completely rearranged the next couple of weeks and now will spend all day Sunday on a bus traveling up to Chiclayo. Here's to being adaptable!

I did manage to collect some data from Catolica this week, but it's very piecemeal and I'm afraid won't be useful. I kept hoping I would find better preserved individuals, but that never happened. The really depressing part is that Julio, one of the archaeologists there, was showing me pictures from the excavations at Huaca 20 - and a lot of the bones are in a pretty decent state of preservation. Which means that the lion's share of the blame goes to the curation policies. It's just really sad.

Other highlights from this week include learning to navigate Lima's bus system. Although calling it a "system" implies some level of organization, of which there is none. But I only got charged the gringa price once, so I feel pretty good about that. And, man, those buses are made for people about a foot shorter than I am. No leg space! My commute to Catolica in Lima traffic was about an hour each way. Being used to NY commuting, though, this didn't really bother me, and it's actually an interesting way to see different parts of the city.

The best moment of the week (apart from getting museum permissions from Bruning!) was meeting Alejandra and her sister for pisco sours and tequenos at Larcomar last night. Totes delish. Today after lunch (I finally had lomo saltado - it's been so long!), Alejandra took me to Museo Arqueologico Rafael Larco Herrera, a privately owned museum dedicated to pre-Columbian art. Her friend Isabelle (who works there) let us in for free and graciously took the time to show us around and explain many of the pieces. And Gabers - if you think the two shelves of naughty pottery at Bruning were good, this place had a whole Sala Erotica. The pot adorned with copulating cuy (guinea pigs) was pretty amusing.

And on that plebian note, I will adjourn for some much-needed sleep. Tomorrow I'm off to explore el Centro Historical while I have some free time in Lima.

Dulces suenos, amigos!