UIC on top of the world!

In the summer of 2007 I participated in the archaeological excavation at the Wari mountain fortress Cerro Baúl, in southern Peru. Proyecto Cerro Baúl is a joint collaboration directed by Ryan Williams, curator at the Field Museum, and Donna Nash, adjunct professor at UIC. The Wari were a pre-Inka empire that thrived in a period known as the Middle Horizon, AD 750 -1000. The fortress at Cerro Baúl was the southern most extension of their expanding empire, and functioned as a symbol of Wari influence and prestige in otherwise foreign controlled and contested territory. Cerro Baúl is a truncated mountain rising 2500 meters above sea level with a commanding view of the Moquegua and Torata valleys it dominates. This photo is of Caleb Kestle, a graduate of UIC, and current PhD student in UIC’s anthropology department. Instead of returning to town every night with the crew, my fellow excavation supervisor and I would camp on the mountain as often as we could; trading the warm meals and comforts of our town house for majestic sunsets over the Andes and the rising of the Southern Cross in the night sky. As such, we obtained a richer understanding of the site, both in its ancient and modern setting.