People Not Stones

New Projects, Awards, Jobs, and Progress: The Latest SPI Update

Rebekah Junkermeier — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 11:50:46 +0000

Check out SPI News here in our most recent update, featuring:

-Yale Archaeologist Gabriel Prieto’s award for his work in Pampas Gramalote, Peru.

-Archaeologist and SPI Peruvian Director Solisre Cusicanqui in SOMOS, one of Peru’s most popular magazines.

-New jobs to be created at our newest initiative at Pampas Gramalote, Peru.

Photo of the Week

Rebekah Junkermeier — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 20:17:53 +0000

One of 76 complete llama skeletons from an ancient mass sacrifice and burial discovered by archaeologist Gabriel Prieto and his team at Pampas Gramalote, Peru, site of our newest initiative!

Photo of the Week

Rebekah Junkermeier — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 16:28:19 +0000

Carved gourd made by local artisan Ivan de la Cruz at Pampas Gramalote, Peru, location of our newest initiative.

The Top 5 Things You Can Do to Support Impoverished Communities and Archaeology

Rebekah Junkermeier — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:00:16 +0000

Want to help impoverished communities? Like archaeology?

Our list for ways to benefit both:

1. Visit!

Festival at San Jose de Moro, Peru

Put on your adventure shoes and travel to smaller, lesser-known-but-just-as-amazing places like San Jose de Moro and Pampas Gramalote in Peru. You get to see ancient ruins, learn about some incredible history (did you know the ancient Moche performed human sacrifice??), and sample new cuisine. The local community gets to share and preserve their cultural heritage by earning money that supports the community. It’s win-win.

2. Buy beautiful, locally-made artisanal work.

Locally-crafted ceramics like those found in excavations at San Jose de Moro.

You could leave your vacation with a cheap souvenir made elsewhere, or you could purchase a hand-crafted local work of art, such as a replica ceramic from San Jose de Moro, or a reed mat hand-woven with a technique passed down through the centuries from Pampas Gramalote. Wherever you go, support local work and artisans. It brings in thousands of dollars to those communities.

3. Donate!

Don’t have time for trekking in Peru or Jordan? Go to the SPI website and donate here. Any amount, large or small, helps fund grants that invest in locally-created and -run businesses that secure the preservation of cultural heritage for future generations to study and enjoy.

4. Spread the Word!

We’re doing amazing work, but we need your help! Keep checking our blog, join us on Facebook, stay up-to-date on Twitter (SPInitiative) and tell your friends. Our paradigm for preservation is unique and we need your help in getting the word out.

5. Encourage microlenders and other financiers to support projects of this type.

Inaugurating the new artisan and tourist center at San Jose de Moro.

Creating transformative opportunities that empower people to help themselves is the most responsible way to save the world. It makes it realistic and it makes it happen. It’s a TWO for the price of ONE benefit: empowering impoverished communities AND preserving endangered archaeological sites.

Photo of the Week

Rebekah Junkermeier — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:35:49 +0000

Gourds to be carved in Pampas Gramalote, Peru. Community artisans carving and painting gourds to sell to visitors will bring a sustainable income to Pampas Gramalote, site of our newest “People Not Stones” initiative.

Pampas Gramalote in National Geographic

Rebekah Junkermeier — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:45:57 +0000

In September, National Geographic reported on the discovery of an ancient mass grave of children and llamas uncovered by Yale archaeologist Oscar Gabriel Prieto and his team in Pampas Gramalote, Peru. Prieto is the most recent recipient of an SPI grant, with which he’ll be able to implement our paradigm for preservation, which uniquely focuses on the people of the local community, not just the stones of the nearby archaeological site (as most other preservation efforts do).

Check out National Geographic’s extraordinary photos of the mass grave here: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/09/pictures/110926-child-sacrifice-llamas-science-peru-chimu-inca-burials#/children-camelids-sacrificed-peru-painted-skull_40810_600x450.jpg

Check back in for updates on our project at Pampas Gramalote! We’ll be posting on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/SustainablePreservation) and Twitter (SPInitiative) as well!

SPI Announces a New “People Not Stones” Initiative at Pampas Gramalote

Rebekah Junkermeier — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:59:58 +0000

When asked what was his most exciting moment excavating Pampas Gramalote, Yale archaeologist Oscar Gabriel Prieto couldn’t limit himself to one: “Every time we found ritual offerings of shark teeth, fossils, bird bones, carved gourds, etc.,” he mentioned, “and every morning working at the site, listening to the sea birds and the waves of the ocean right next to you.” Exciting, absolutely, but only the following moment was described as “unforgettable”: “locals came to the site ready to ask and learn about their own past,” he said, “and sometimes, would explain to me the archaeological contexts or identifying fish bones or shells and telling stories about those species.”

Prieto’s investment and passion for the local community at Pampas Gramalote was just one of the many reasons he was recently awarded an SPI Grant to initiate the preservation of this endangered archaeological site in an economically sustainable way.

Pampas Gramalote is a small archaeological site located in the heart of Huanchaquito, a small fishing community next to the modern beach resort and fishing village of Huanchaco, on the North Coast of Peru. Prieto grew up in Huanchaco, one reason why he is so eager to help the community, and his excavations have revealed an ancient mass burial there, featured by National Geographic (click here to read more) .

A human skeleton found in Prieto's excavations.

Huanchaco and Huanchaquito are two of the four places along the South American coastline where traditional and ancient reed boat vessels, known locally as “Caballitos de Totora” (“little horses of the sea”) are still used even today. Prieto’s excavations there are, among other things, revealing a historical continuity between the 4,000-year-old ancient site and the present community: “They are still cooking, processing, and eating food in the same way they did 4,000 years ago,” Prieto explains, “and they are still using the same technology for fishing and gathering mollusks.”

Yet, this precious archaeological site is now in danger. Thirty years ago, when a surge of immigrants moved into the surrounding villages, more than fifteen archaeological sites disappeared due to urban growth. Pampas Gramalote is one of the last archaeological sites that survives.

The SPI Grant will provide Prieto and his team with capital to invest in locally-created and locally-run businesses whose financial success are tied to the preservation of the site. This is envisioned in two parts. First, gourd carving and totora reed and junco reed artisanal workshops will de developed for the sale of souvenirs to visitors. Artisans trained at the workshops will be able to create replicas of archaeological finds at the site, creating a sustainable source of income for the local community. In addition, the workshops will serve as a training facility to preserve the ancient practice of weaving totora reed and junco reed mats and baskets, still practiced by some of the elder women in the community.

Gourds to be carved in Pampas Gramalote.

Second, Prieto and his team plan to create a “cultural park” at the archaeological site, exhibiting at least two excavated areas that will display and teach how people lived 4,000 years ago. “The idea is to create a sustainable community and project for the years to come,” Prieto wrote over email correspondence. In the words of founder and CEO Larry Coben, it’s about “people, not stones.”

Excavations to be revealed in the "Cultural Park."

We look forward to working with Oscar Gabriel Prieto in Pampas Gramalote. Check back here, as well as Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/SustainablePreservation) and Twitter (SPInitiative) for project updates!

Photo of the Week

Rebekah Junkermeier — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:20:46 +0000

Looking out over the Incallajta area in central Bolivia, location of a monumental Inca site. It was in this region that SPI founder and CEO Larry Coben first sought to save an endangered archaeological site by providing transformative and sustainable economic opportunities to the impoverished community in which the site was located.

Photo of the Week

Rebekah Junkermeier — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 17:43:58 +0000

Students with finished ceramics, replicas of those found in excavations at the archaeological site at San Jose de Moro.

SPI Receives Grant from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru

Rebekah Junkermeier — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:36:00 +0000

SPI has received a grant totaling 10,000.00 Peruvian soles (approximately $3,711.00) from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru (PUCP), Peru’s most renowned university, for our current project in San José de Moro, Peru. This grant, from PUCP’s Department of Social Responsibility, will provide the project’s businesses and entrepreneurs with computers, further artisan training, and training in marketing and branding. The grant cited the project’s success to date, the potential for additional economic development in the town, and the potential for SPI’s paradigm to be replicated in other impoverished communities.

The new entrance to San Jose de Moro, painted with Moche motifs on the walls of schools and facing the Pan-American highway.

San José de Moro, the famous Moche and Lambayeque cemetery site, is the location of SPI’s first project as well as home to a small, impoverished, rural community of about 5,000 inhabitants in northernPeru. Here, we constructed an artisan training and tourist center, prepared a tourist guidebook, and provided training to almost 25 students. In just one year our project, for less than $40,000, created more than 20 construction jobs, 12 permanent jobs, and generated thousands of dollars in artisan sales for local residents. The project achieved economic sustainability and viability in its first year of operation. As a result, looting of the archaeological site has come to a halt.

We’re looking forward to the improvements that the PUCP grant will help us implement.