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Jordan Dalton, an archeologist, is the Kalbfleisch Postdoctoral Fellow at the Richard Gilder Graduate School at the American Museum of Natural History in the Division of Anthropology. This video illustrates her works in the Chincha Valley of Peru at the site of Las Huacas, a 75ha. site (approximately 185 acres), an agricultural setting. Jordan’s research examines how, from AD 1400-1534, this site underwent transformations spurred on by the arrival of the foreign Inca Empire to the region. She focuses on how these changes were negotiated between the local Chincha group and the foreign Inca officials. Her excavation has recovered many balance beams (scales, or balanzas in Spanish), tools would have been used by the ancient inhabitants of the region to measure items although, their specific use and function at Las Huacas remain a mystery.
This video was made in collaboration with Peruvian archaeologists Bryan Núñez Aparcana and Mary Avila Peltroche, and local community member Sol Donayre Pachas. Funds for the work were provided by the Shapiro Design Lab at the University of Michigan.