13th Annual
MOCHE-UNC ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD SCHOOL IN PERU
June 14 – July 15, 2012

Interested in spending a month in Peru excavating an ancient Moche town?

· Excavate ancient Moche households and learn how to conduct archaeological research

· Visit world world-famous archaeological sites and learn about the prehistory of Peru

· Tour the north coast of Peru and visit sites of El Brujo, Sipán, and Túcume

· Earn 6 semester hours of UNC-Chapel Hill credit for Anthropology 453. Apply online

· Or take the same program without credit at a reduced price. Non-credit program is offered by MOCHE, Inc. To apply, contact Brian Billman at: billman@savethemoche.org

· UNC students fulfills 4 General Education requirements: (1) Historical Analysis, (2) Beyond the North Atlantic, (3) The World Before 1750, and (4) Experiential Education 

· No prerequisites.  Spanish not required.  Non-majors accepted.

· The field school is offered by  Study Abroad UNC-Chapel Hill and MOCHE, Inc, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving archaeological sites and helping communities in Peru. 

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Table of Contents for This Page

Program
Instructor
Location
About the Moche Origins Project
Costs
Application
Contact Information

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PROGRAM

The field school is designed to provide students with training in archaeological excavation and laboratory methods as well as instruction in the prehistory of Peru.  The program begins with workshops on archaeological methods and the prehistory of Peru.  After this, students work five days a week  excavating elite and commoner households at the Quebrada del León archeological site complex, in the middle Moche valley, located 300 miles north of Lima.  On Saturdays, we tours of archaeological sites, and Sundays are free time.  At the end of the program, we travel up the north coast by bus to El Brujo, Sipán, and Túcume (see Course Schedule).

                   1999 Field School at Cerro Oreja                                       2000 Field School at Cerro Oreja

                                                                2006 Field School at El Brujo

Fieldwork involves the excavation of noble and commoner households at the archaeological site complex of Quebrada del León in the middle Moche valley on the north coast of Peru.  The site was a large Moche town (AD 400-700) and contains massive residential compounds.  Previous excavations revealed well-preserved architecture containing evidence of long distance trade and large scale feasting events, fineware and plainware ceramics, stone tools, and metal objects.

              The beach in Huanchaco near the site of La Poza

Fieldwork and laboratory analysis is conducted five days a week (see Fieldwork on Project ).  Students work on dig crews consisting of four students and a grad student crew chief.  Each team is assigned a set of rooms which they excavate, map, and record.  Students also wash and analyze artifacts recovered from their excavations and assist in the design and day-to-day management of the computer database for the project.


                      Getting started on Compound 3 at Cerro Leon, 2004

                        Clearing wallfall from Compound 1, Cerro Leon 2004

In addition to gaining hands-on training in excavation techniques, laboratory analysis, and database management, students actively engage in implementing the project research design. Through excavation, analysis, readings, and group discussions, we examine how ethnicity, class, and economic relationships are manifested in household remains.

On every Saturday, Brian Billman conducts tours of museums and archaeological sites, including Chan Chan, Huaca del Sol and Huaca de la Luna, El Brujo, and Cerro Oreja.  Sundays are unscheduled free time (see Course Schedule).


                Excavators remove masrony wallfall at Compound 1, Cerro Leon 2004

INSTRUCTORS

Brian Billman (Associate Professor, UNC-CH), Jesus Briceno (INC Peru), and Jennifer Ringberg (PhD candidate UNC-CH).  Collectively we have more than 70 years of archaeological experience in Peru, Costa Rica, Mexico, and the US.


               Brian and Sara at Ciudad de Dios, 1998                                Jennifer at Cerro Leon, 2007


                           Jesus at Cerro Leon, 2005

LOCATION

The field school is based in Huanchaco, a pleasant fishing village and beach resort just a few miles outside of Trujillo, a large city on the north coast of Peru.  Trujillo and Huanchaco are located 300 miles north of Lima.  Students live in double and triple rooms in a rental house in Huanchaco and are be provided with group meals six days a week.  For free time activities, the beach is located down the block from the hotel, and the Andes Mountains, site-seeing, and shopping are close by.


                                            Huanchaco, home of the field school since 1998

ABOUT THE MOCHE ORIGINS PROJECT

The field school is part of the Moche Origins Project directed by Brian Billman, Jesus Briceno, and Jennifer Ringberg.  The project focuses on how highland-coastal relationships, social stratification, and warfare influenced the development of the Southern Moche state.  The project involves households and stratigraphic excavation, analysis of existing collections of human remains, ceramic sourcing, a pedistrian survey of Moche Valley, and environmental reconstruction.  Flourishing during between AD 200 and 800, the Southern Moche state was a highly centralized, hierarchically organized political system in which leaders exercised considerable economic, military, and ideological power.  Leaders of the state directed the construction of some of the largest public monuments in the Americas, led the conquest of neighboring valleys, and organized the production of finely crafted ceramics, textiles, and metal objects.  Although clearly one of the largest and most complex prehistoric political systems to have developed in the Americas, the origins and socioeconomic structure of the Moche state are poorly understood.


                      Surveying the upper Moche Valley, 1991

COSTS

$4,490* covers fees for 6 semester hours of UNC-Chapel Hill credit.  Includes UNC Study Abroad fees, lodging, three meals a day six days a week, all site and museum entrance fees, health insurance, and transport on all excursions.  Fees also cover a three-day tour of the north coast of Peru.  Cost does not include airfare to Peru, transportation to Trujillo, passport fees, meals on Sundays, laundry service, or personal expenses.

$3,190* without course credit. Offered through MOCHE, Inc. Includes lodging, three meals a day six days a week, all site and museum entrance fees, and transport on all excursions.  Fees also cover a four-day trip to the highland town of Cajamarca.  Cost does not include health insurance, airfare to Peru, transportation to Trujillo, passport fees, meals on Sundays, laundry service, or personal expenses.  For more information or an application to the non-credit program contact Brian Billman at: billman@savethemoche.org


                Soccer match with the village of Ciudad de Dios, 1999

APPLICATION

To receive UNC-Chapel Hill credit for the program, apply online
To apply to the non-credit program, contact Brian Billman at billman@savethemoche.org
Enrollment is open to students from any college or university.
No prerequisites.  Spanish not required.
Space is limited to 15 students.


          After work at the Bar Recreo in Qurihuac near Cerro Leon

CONTACT INFORMATION

For program details:                                                        For registration and administrative details:

Professor Brian Billman                                                  Landry Jones, Advisor
Department of Anthropology                                          Study Abroad
CB#3115, 201b Alumni                                                 FedEx Global Education Center, CB#3130
University of North Carolina                                           University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3115                                         Chapel Hill, NC  27599-3130
(919) 962-9348                                                             (919) 962-5078
bbillman@email.unc.edu                                              http://studyabroad.unc.edu/programs.cfm?pk=1750
billman@savethemoche.org

*The quoted cost is based on prices and exchange rates as of October 2011.  The costs and details of the program itinerary are subject to change.