In the prehispanic Andes artifacts were moved over great distances and the chemical analysis of these artifacts has shed a light on this important process at a regional scale.

This project outlines ongoing efforts to “digitize” archaeological ceramic analysis methods used by the Taraco Archaeological Project in Chiripa, Bolivia. Chiripa is located on the southern shoreline of Lake Titicaca, home to a vibrant indigenous community, and the site of some of the oldest ceremonial and agricultural settlements in the southern Andes.

This project proposes to expand on Eduardo Escobar’s (PhD Candidate, NES) “Cuneiform De-Coded” software, which analyzes base values and hidden meanings within ancient texts that utilize the cuneiform script—the world’s first writing system. Like Chinese, and other script-based languages, the cuneiform script concealed multiple meanings within a single sign; for example, the sign “A,” in addition to its phonetic value /a/ can mean “water” and “son”; “A” was also an element in dozens of compound sign combinations.