Raven Garvey, associate professor of anthropology and curator of High Latitude and Western North American Archaeology at UMMAA, is just back from Patagonia—where it’s austral summer and a high time for fieldwork! Over the past five weeks, Garvey and her friend and counterpart Claudia Della Negra (Directora de Patrimonio Cultural) partnered with tribal affiliates (including Nery Zúñiga, Lonko of Cheuquel community), local graduate students Lautaro Inostroza and Agustina Cauton, and Escuadrón 31 de la Gendarmería Nacional on a multi-initiative field campaign.
Check out the local press release here: https://www.neuqueninforma.gob.ar/noticias/2025/03/14/248405-exitoso-trabajo-conjunto-con-la-universidad-de-michigan. Garvey’s work explores a fascinating but previously unstudied corner of the Andean world, where old-growth piñón forests reveal much about how past peoples used this otherwise dry and rugged landscape.
Photo caption: Piñón (Araucaria araucana) forest, Río Agrio Valley, Neuquén, Argentina.
