High-Altitude Archaeology and the Anthropology of Sacred Mountains: 25 Years of Explorations and Disseminations

Abstract

This chapter summarizes the content of Constanza Ceruti’s books on the anthropology of sacred mountains, which are dedicated to the peaks of the Andes, Easter Island, Thailand, Southern Italy, Costa Rica, Galicia, the Basque Country, Ireland, Canary Islands, Scotland, Australia, the Pyrenees, Norway and Iceland. An Argentine anthropologist, archaeologist and mountaineer, Ceruti has published dozens of pioneering articles devoted to the religious aspects of mountains in the Andes, the Alps, and the Pyrenees, as well as papers about the symbolic dimension of the Apennines, Appalachians, Tatras, and the volcanoes in Hawai’i, Crete, Yellowstone, and Madeira. The first woman in the field of high-altitude archaeology, Ceruti explored more than 100 peaks above 18,000 feet and codirected excavations at the highest archaeological site in the world.