Dozens of Inca mummies found on the path of a proposed highway

While I realise the significance of this archaelogical find and marvel at it, I can't but hekp sypathise with the government. It is true that they do not have the resources required to preserve the mummies. I'm not at all surprised that the Puruchuco museum has run out of room for them. The Inca civilization was widepread and there were many people who lived and died during the empire.

Kudos to the government for arranging an archaeological survey to be conducted before the building of the highway.

The tunnel idea sounds incredibly challenging to me. How on earth can one guarantee that it won't go through an archaelogical site? Okay, so there's scanning technology for disturbances to the ground, but how deep will they go?

That Kauffman suggested a tunnel so it could yield more findings (that's what I understand). Is he actually saying that he would indirectly use the road project as an archeological tool to find more mummies?
I see this as an example of preserving the past or destroying it for the sake of progress.

My father is an archaeologist, and I've got a few words:

If someone in Peru was expecting to get rich with that highway construction project, he must have jumped on front of a bus already.

Archaeological projects are standard proceeding before any kind of construction takes place. It's usually a walk over of the grounds and some holes to see if there's anything there. If there is no existence of archaeological objects the arhaeologist signs his approval and his recomendation that the construction may proceed. If the contrary happens, then the archaeologist is to suggest total stopping of the project and have a phase 2 excavation done. Without his approval the construction cannot take place legally. And trust me, contractors don't get happy when they are told that their project for a multi million dollar apartment complex is dead, because you found a piece of precolumbine indian ceramic.

What I am really glad of is the honesty of the Lima city government and the archaeologists. We've had many cases of less than honest archaeologists who accept bribes from the builder and say there's nothing there. Of course, when they start bulldozing and bones start appearing heads start rolling.

We once had a case where the building project was a Police HQ, in the town of Canovanas. Well, guess what we found? The ruins of an entire XIX century hacienda... on plain sight! Of course, we killed the project. But several months later the mayor of Canovanas (who is from a party oposing the governor's) was appearing with a protest on front of the governor's palace saying that the governor had not built several projects for his town, including the Police HQ. That was a laugh.

Victor,

My husband is an archaeologist. We spent our entire trip to Puerto Rico visiting one Taino site after another!

Don't say another word... you colleagues need to come back again! I don't know under what conditions you visited those sites, but you need to have my father guiding you! . Tell me when. I will be sitting at the Muñoz MarÃ:censor:n waiting for you.