Nautical mythologies of Atacama: the caballito de totora of Jean-Christian Spahni
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Date
2022
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Abstract
A totora reed raft has appeared repeatedly in Chilean archaeology since 1967. Over time, as bi-ography after biography of Jean-Christian Spahni invented a new object based on the original piece -each different from its predecessor -the supposed miniature raft became accepted as irrefutable evidence of these vessels' antiquity and pre-Hispanic navigation in northern Chile and even the Andes. A recent study at the Musee d'ethnographie de Geneve in Switzerland revealed that the object is not a raft but a bundle of vegetable fibers. Common in the funerary contexts of the Formative period in northern Chile, this type of artifact is described as paint-brushes, brushes, combs or packs of raw materials. Jean-Christian Spahni's initial confusion and his biographers' reproductions are inputs for discussing how we construct archaeological evidence and write accounts in prehistory.
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created object, navigation, vessel, Atacama, Loa river mouth