Theoretical Considerations and Empirical Contributions to the Study of Sacred Mountains

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THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS AND EMPIRICAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STUDY OF SACRED MOUNTAINS Mar´ıaConstanza Ceruti∗1 1UCASAL - CONICET { Argentine Résumé More than one hundred mountains above 5000 meters in elevation have been ascended by the author of this presentation with the purpose of surveying and recording mountaintop sites of the Inca civilization in the Andes. She also codirected archaeological excavations in collaboration with Johan Reinhard, On the summit of volcano Llullaillaco (22,100 ft / 6739 m) - the site of the highest archaeological work ever undertaken - three of the best preserved mummies in the world were discovered together with numerous objects of typical Inca style, during an expedition funded by the National Geographic Society. Interdisciplinary studies of those findings were coordinated at the Catholic University of Salta, where the author is the founder and Director of the Institute of High Mountain Research. Additionally, she has conducted anthropological studies on sacred mountains in the Nepal Himalayas, India, Thailand, Australia, Polynesia, Greece, Norway, Italy, Spain, United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru and Chile. More than one hundred scientific publications and twenty books have been published, and dozens of lectures presented in universities in Europe, the Americas and Australia. The UCASAL has created the Constanza Ceruti Chair on Sacred Mountains to acknowledge twenty years of pioneering research in the fields of high altitude archaeology, ethnography and ethnohistory of mountain processions and the study of myths, folklore and rituals in connection to landscapes perceived as sacred. In this presentation she will address theoretical and methodological considerations for the study of the spiritual dimensions of mountains from an archaeological / anthropological perspective. Mots-Clés: SACRED MOUNTAINS, ANTHROPOLOGY, ARCHAEOLOGY ∗Intervenant sciencesconf.org:uispp2018:182403.

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