An Archaeological Study Tour

Northern Chile & Easter Island

October 30– November 16, 2008
Led by Dr. Jo Anne Van Tilburg
& Professor Calogero M. Santoro


Our tour begins with a study of the Inca culture in northern Chile, where the Atacama Desert, one of the driest places in the world, is responsible for the preservation of great archaeological treasures such as the immense areas of geoglyphs and the famous Atacama mummies, which predate Egyptian mummies by several thousand years. Our journey brings us to the charming Victorian port of Iquique and through a fantastic moonscape to the pink and blue adobe village of San Pedro de Atacama, where we will explore pre-Inca fortresses, colonial churches and an excellent museum. We will visit the museums and colonial sites in Santiago.

We travel on to Easter Island, known locally as Rapa Nui, an isolated speck in the vast blue Pacific Ocean. As modern travelers, we can only marvel at the incredible maritime achievement of the island’s founding Polynesian settlers. Exploring Rano Raraku, the volcanic crater that was the beating heart of the ancient culture, we ponder the mystery of the complex network of quarries and the enigmatic standing statues that still dot the grass-covered slopes. Tracing the ancient roads over which statues were transported to nearly every corner of the island, we will confront the fallen giants where they rest today on massive stone ceremonial platforms. At Ahu Tongariki, the largest megalithic site in Polynesia, we will marvel at 15 re-erected giants. While speculation abounds as to why, after attaining such heights, ancient Rapanui civilization collapsed, we will be introduced to the charm and warmth of modern island society. We will meet with talented young artisans and artists, swim and picnic on pink-sand beaches, and attend an energetic performance of ceremonial dances, all in the shadow of the mysterious statues

Thursday, Friday, Day 1 & 2: SANTIAGO: Depart from Miami Friday, midday, on Lan Chile Airlines. We arrive into Santiago and transfer to the lovely and centrally located Hotel Crowne Plaza.
Meals: Dinner

Saturday, Sunday, Day 3 & 4: ARICA: A morning flight brings us to Arica, which was once the major port for the exportation of Bolivia's enormous silver wealth. Our touring includes the exquisite small church built by Eiffel and the Museo Arqueologico San Miguel de Azapa with its exceptional collection of Andean weaving, basketwork and ancient ceramics. Visits are also planned to several archaeological sites in the Azapa Valley, including prehistoric Cerro Sombrero, 3,000 year old ceremonial mounds or tumuli built by the first farmers of this region and a 12th-century Inca fortress (pukara). Saturday evening we will meet with Professor Santoro for an orientation lecture. Sunday's touring takes us into the Lluta Valley where visits include Inca storage facilities (Qolqas), petroglyphs and geoglyphs and Molle Pampa, an Inca village built of reed and cane. Our lunch will be at a small farm restaurant where we will be served the corn based foods of this valley. Hotel Arica.
Meals: Breakfast & dinner daily & 1 lunch

Monday, Tuesday, Day 5 & 6: IQUIQUE: After breakfast we will drive south to Iquique through the vast and seemingly endless Atacama Desert. We will stop to see several geoglyphs en route, the most incredible among them the Giant of the Atacama. At 304 feet, it is the largest representation of a human figure in the world. Little is known about the meaning or origin of these ancient designs inscribed on the slopes throughout this region. They may have been signposts for travelers, religious expressions of mythological figures or merely an artistic creation. Tueday morning, we catch the morning light at Chile’s most spectacular geoglyphs. In an area known as Pintados, more than 500 geoglyphs of llamas, felines, humans and geometric figures are distributed among dozens of panels. Each curve in the road brings an awesome new vista as we drive through the seemingly endless Atacama Desert. This afternoon we will visit the Regional Museum and have ample time to explore this extremely picturesque town of 19th-century mansions and elegant public buildings. We will spend two nights at theGravina Hotel, situated on Iquique’s sea coast, not far from the main square.
Meals: Breakfast & lunch daily & 1 dinner

Wednesday, Thursday, Day 7 & 8: SAN PEDRO DE ATACAMA: Our drive to the oasis town of San Pedro de Atacama will bring us to Calama for lunch. We stop en route to view the Valley of the Moon, so called for its colorful rock formations of gypsum, clay and salt, and Tulor, a 2,800-year-old town site. Just outside of San Pedro de Atacama is the fortress of Quitor, where the local Indians made their last stand against Pedro de Valdivia. Thursday’s touring brings us through pastures of grazing llamas to the little stone village of Toconao, known for its weavers and potters. A small pre-Hispanic settlement, Zapar, is on the cliffs above the cultivated valley. We continue to an ancient cemetery, where it is still possible to see burials with mummies in situ. This afternoon we will visit the Archaeological Museum’s fine archaeological collection. The surrounding desert has provided an outstanding collection of mummies, clothes and artifacts predating those of Egypt. Our two-night stay at the Hostería San Pedro de Atacama will give us time to explore the town and to listen to local musicians at one of the small cafés.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner daily

Friday, Saturday, Day 9& 10: SANTIAGO: Before leaving the desert north and flying to Santiago, we visit the oldest church in Chile at Chiu-Chiu and Lasana, our last pre-Inca pukara (fortress). On Saturday morning we will visit the Easter Island collection at the Natural History Museum, and the Pre-Colombian Museum, which also houses an exceptional collection of traditional hats from every region of Chile. Hotel Plaza San Francisco/Crown Plaza.
Meals: Breakfast daily & 1 lunch

Sunday, Day 11: EASTER ISLAND: After touring the colonial site of Santiago, including the red-washed San Francisco Church, we will drive into the countryside for lunch before our flight to Easter Island. The next seven nights will be at the charming family-operated Ota’i Hotel. Dr. Van Tilburg and her project co-director, native Rapanui artist Cristian Arevalo Pakarati, will meet us and share our welcome drinks on the hotel terrace. For the next week we will encounter Rapanui and its people through the unique perspectives of these two experts, who have joined their respective expertise in science and art to complete the world’s first comprehensive archaeological survey and study of the monolithic statues (moai).
Meals: Breakfast & Lunch

Monday, Day 12: EASTER ISLAND: Touring begins at the small fishing port and stops at the colorful historic cemetery, then continues on to the restored ceremonial sites of Tahai, Vai Uri and Ko Te Riku. These three ahu (altars/platforms) support massive moai dramatically silhouetted against the ocean. The Tahai Ceremonial Center is a major location within the ancient, high-ranked Western Political District. This site will also provide an opportunity to study a statue “in transport,” a habitation cave and a hare paenga, the stone foundation of a typical boat-shaped Rapa Nui house. After lunch, we will explore the village of Hanga Roa, learning from Cristian about the lives and interests of the islanders. We will visit the school, the parish church with its interesting wood carvings and historic burial ground, the shopping and dining district and two artisans’ markets.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner daily

Tuesday, Day 13: EASTER ISLAND: Our full day of touring takes us across the island to Ahu Tongariki. Here, 15 magnificent moai have been recently restored upright on the platform, which was destroyed in 1960 by a tsunami. Ahu Tongariki, which is the counterpart in the Eastern Political District of the Tahai Ceremonial Center in the Western District, also possesses a statue “in transport” to the ahu and a field of fascinating petroglyphs. We proceed to nearby Rano Raraku, the volcanic cone from which 95% of the known moai were quarried. This amazing site is studded with half-finished and partially carved moai, as well as some that appear to be emerging from the living rock. We will explore the exterior slopes, quarries and statue transport roads in detail before enjoying a picnic lunch in a shaded eucalyptus grove. After lunch we will venture into the interior of the crater, with its totora-fringed lake and standing statues. This vast site, which has recently been digitally mapped by Dr. Van Tilburg and her team, is a challenging environment and a wonderful place to speculate on the nature of the people who carved these monolithic statues and how they transported them to every corner of the island.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Wednesday, Day 14: EASTER ISLAND: Our destination today lies across the interior heart of the island at Anakena, legendary landing site of the ancient founding father Hotu Matu’a and his settlement party. En route we stop at Hanga Poukura and neighboring Ahu Vaihu, both impressive, unrestored sites where numerous large moai lie face down, their red scoria “topknots,” or crowns, scattered around them. We continue via Ahu Akahanga and its adjacent village to Ahu Hanga Te Tenga, where we see the largest moai transported to an ahu in this sector of the island. We then continue on to Ahu Te Pito Kura, where we find the enormous statue Paro, last to be toppled from its ahu (in about 1840), and touch the stone thought to be “the navel of the earth.” Our barbecue lunch will be under the palms at Anakena Beach, with time to swim and study the restored Ahu Naunau, where the first intact red stone and white coral eye was found in the late 1970s. On our return drive, if time permits, we will stop at Vaitea, the headquarters of the sheepherding firm that controlled Rapa Nui throughout most of the historic period.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Thursday, Day 15: EASTER ISLAND: Our touring begins with a drive to Vinapu, where the perfectly fitted stone walls of Ahu Tahiri have been compared to those of the Inca. En route we pass Maunga Orito, where volcanic glass (obsidian) shards were collected for the manufacture of deadly spear points, and stop at Ahu Huri, a Urenga, to see a re-erected moai distinctive for its four hands. After lunch, we will visit the small volcanic crater called Pua Ka Tiki, the quarry from which the red stone headdresses worn by some moai were carved. At Ahu Akivi we see seven re-erected moai representing the statistically average statue transported to every part of the island. We explore the nearly intact Ana Tepau foundations of stone structures hidden deep inside a massive cave once used as a refuge and shelter. We will also visit the island’s fine museum and, if time permits, we will visit Ahu Tepeu, site of the largest hare paenga on the island.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Friday, Day 16: EASTER ISLAND: On our final day we ascend the massive flank of Rano Kau, one of the island's three formative, dormant volcanoes. The restored ceremonial village of Orongo sits dramatically between the crater lake and sea cliffs. The earliest date for a small ahu on this site is A.D. 1400, and a complex of beautifully carved petroglyphs of “birdmen” and the head/face of the creator god Makemake overlook three offshore islets. The priests involved in the yearly ritual selection of the ruling “birdman” came to live in this village for a required period of time, and children’s initiation rites were held here until 1867. Nearby is the “cannibal” cave of Ana Kai Tangata, its ceiling intricately painted with the faded remnants of soaring birds. After a picnic lunch, our vans will be available for those who would like to go back to Rano Raraku or to the beach for quiet contemplation or to catch the last sunset at Tahai. In the evening our hosts at the Ota’i have prepared for us a typical umu (earth oven) farewell feast. The preparation of this meal begins early in the morning and involves wrapping the food in banana leaves to be steamed in a stone-lined pit for the entire day. Dinner will be followed by a traditionally energetic Rapa Nui dance performance.

Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Saturday, Sunday, Day 17& 18: We depart the island of Rapa Nui, with our wonderful memories of this magical place. We connect in Santiago arriving into Miami early Sunday morning.