He conducts research on pre-Hispanic art in Catamarca and is summoned to work on an Egyptian tomb of 3,500 years old – 01/03/2019

"Uh … why I've studied archeology is a difficult question – every time I do it, I try to explore and understand why." It seems like exploring life a thousand or two thousand years ago is simpler for Lucas Gheco dig himself. But certain certainties have this postdoctoral researcher Condoet, invited this summer to participate in a stimulating archaeological project in falls 3500 years in ancient Thebes, Luxor, Egypt, Egypt: "I think I embarked on this adventure because I loved history and the outdoors and that I combined with a pbadion for uncertainty in the world. ;unknown."

Gheco is 31 years old. He has the voice of a kind person. In addition, some of them aspired, by the pronunciation of Santa Fe. And the simplicity of who began from below, the ambition of those who seek the invisible and sensitivity to understand that beyond the big stories there are minimal stories: "This is what sets our team apart and our work methodology, that is why they invited us to Egypt."

What? To perform tasks of excavations and documentation of a tomb of the ancient Theban necropolis. The Amenemhat, scribe, granary supervisor who lived in Egypt between 1479 and 1425 BC.

In the speech, he does not say "before Christ" but "before the present". Gheco has just returned to Argentina after 44 days of immersion in a grave on the other side of the world and hopes to be able to cope with a second stage of the investigation. All under the direction of Bernarda Marconetto, researcher at Conicet, of the Institute of Anthropology of Córdoba.

Clarin Bulletins

What happened today? We tell you the most important news of the day and what will happen tomorrow when you get up

Monday to Friday afternoon.

His life is very complicated. He moved to Catamarca at the age of 17 to study archeology at the National Catamarca University. He was born in Santa Fe, the capital, where he could be quiet with his girlfriend from years ago. She lives there. He does not.

Before taking up his post, he joined the Catamarca Research and Transfer Center (CIT), where he is currently working with a team dedicated to research in archeology and cultural heritage. More specifically, the Prehispanic rock art of the Sierra de El Alto-Ancasti.

Look also

He obtained his doctorate at the National University of Córdoba in the center, but his pbadion is to study the art of this region of Catamarca. He also teaches at the National University of San Martin. This means that Every week, Buenos Aires-Santa Fe-Catarmarca is triangulated. And these days have shaken Egypt.

Gheco says a thousand times that the El Alto-Ancasti group has a unique and particular methodology; who hope to be able to apply this knowledge to the study of the Theban tomb. But what's so special about it?

"Our methodological development, although it combines techniques used in other groups of the world, has the degree of detail it reaches, which is partly due to the theoretical approach of the project and the team. Our interest is to know the particular stories, the local stories, the stories of the common people, beyond the great cultural histories that often monopolize all the attention, "he said.

And he continued: "We do not care about the culture that painted this wall, but of what person, why, how they transformed it, they wanted it, they did it. This theoretical commitment requires a very detailed methodology to achieve these particular episodes. "

"This combines the detailed observation of the paintings, with a magnifying glbad, with the physico-chemical badysis of the samples, which have a square millimeter … they are very small and are badyzed from different chemical techniques. Then the sediments are extracted from the cave floor, either from Catamarca or from Egypt. "

"Different indicators tell us about particular stories, for example, at one point in time, a person in the 800 of our day made a fire, and we can know when he did it, if the wall was was painted or painted later.At the same time, we see that a person carved the first parts of a quartz instrument. see these episodes with this degree of resolution you have to apply very detailed techniques. Otherwise, you can not see the complexity of these stories, "explained the archaeologist.

Look also

But the complexity also covers the lives of the scientists who discovered them, said Gheco: "For us, it was very important to be able to apply these developments of the Argentine science to a survey like that conducted in Egypt, especially in this country. cutoff context in the Conicet and in universities. Argentine science has great potential and we have been recognized as soon as we receive this invitation. "

Gheco counts his days with nervousness: he does not know if in April he will be excluded from the largest scientific organization in the country, the Conicet, when the names of those who will enter the career of the researcher are announced: The archaeologists who enter annually is minimal. It is expected that this year will be three or four, no more. We live in contradiction. We go out in the newspapers and maybe we are unemployed. I hope that changes. "

Look also