Paper short abstract:

In the 1550s, Spanish conquerors learned of an Andean Pacific Coast burial site, believed by natives to house ancient giants' vestiges. I explore how Indigenous and Spaniards decoded the deep past through these fossils, creating new interpretative archives, and imagining an unknown Andean giant era.

Paper long abstract:

Wari/Vestiges – The Invention of the Andean Age of Giants

During the 1550s, Spanish conquerors were drawn to a puzzling site along the Equatorial Pacific Coast. Indigenous accounts suggested that this location served as the burial ground for ancient giants who had once invaded the region in distant times before being exterminated by a skyborne creature. The surrounding landscape also bore evidence of these giants in natural and material remnants. Seeking an ancient tomb to plunder, Spanish officials excavated the area, discovering not treasures, but the very fossilized remains of these giants.

This paper explores how both Indigenous and Spaniards in the Andes grappled with the epistemological challenge of exploring the Santa Elena fossils in the Andes. They meticulously examined the enigmatic materiality of these remains, aiming to decipher ancient times through direct observations of their physical attributes. This process involved comparing the fossils not only with indigenous artifacts and narratives linked to the landscape but with Biblical and Classical sources. The research investigates how unraveling this pre-Columbian historical panorama necessitated the creation of novel interpretive practices and archives. Consequently, the fossil site transformed into a site of memory of a hitherto unknown era of giants in the Andes.