(Deceased 07/23/1993)The intrepid archaeologist in his own wordsThe excerpts below are drawn from John’s field reports–the research he undertook in Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina between December 1978 and February 1981 for The Inka Road System (1984).Lima, Peru, March 1979
The most remarkable days were those spent in the desert between the Canete and Chincha Valleys where the temperatures were almost insufferable. Fortunately, the trail bikes proved to be excellent survey tools and did not fail even in the torrid mountains of desert sands. A brief visit was made to Inkawasi…may be the largest Inka settlement on the Pacific Coast. Plans were made to return and map those impressive ruins which have never been the object of a serious archaeological investigation…I continue to learn Quechua with a tutor three times a week.
Lima, Peru, May 1979 (aerial mapping with cameras mounted on balloons)
…photogrammetry and map-making taught us that it would be possible to achieve one of the ‘dreams’ of Andean archeology: a map of the archaeological site Wari. Located at 8,000 feet in the central Andes, Wari is considered to have been the capital of the empire that ruled Peru about 1200 years ago…It was decided to investigate thee road trajectory from the high puna (12,600 ft. altitude) to the Pacific Coast in the Pisco Valley…The highest point was reached on foot, climbing nearly 4,000 feet to altitudes well above two miles. The Pisco Valley investigation culminated in a rewarding day of desert survey where we found and followed the broad Inka highway between the Pisco and Chincha valleys.
Lima, Peru, July 1979
Fortunately, it has been possible to survey a sector of Inka road in Bolivia and emerge with data, health, and reputation intact…The road survey in Bolivia took the project into very isolated regions inhabited mainly by native (non-Spanish speaking) communities and large herds of llamas.(reporting on continued work in Peru) As in Bolivia, the exploration was on foot with pack animals–burros–…at altitudes above two and one-half miles in the vicinity of some of the largest snow-covered mountains in the Andes. The cold was profound and even arctic-style sleeping bags were not sufficient night-time protection. The Inka road was the most spectacular yet observed…Many sections were stone paved with widths from eleven to fifteen meters…nearly a dozen Inka bridges…eight new Inka sites…culminated with our descent into the massive Inka center of Huanco Viejo.During the last week of July, the Archaeology and History Unit of the BBC filmed aspects of the Inka road project.
New York, November 1979We are well on our way to what some professional archaeologists considered an unachievable task–an Empire-wide survey.
A marginal notation in John’s characteristically self-deprecating tone:These newsletters are kind of dumb, but I guess they keep some people happy!
Antofagasta, Chile, July 1980
The Atacama Desert is known as the driest piece of land in the world…The expedition passed near the Argentine border and was careful to maneuver correctly through mine fields (intended for use against Argentine tanks) in rocky mountain passes…We recorded a record number of Inka or Inka-related sites associated with the road…total desert with no water sources for great distances…the main route between Cuzco, the Inka capital, and the rich region of central Chile. The road was also used by the first expeditions of conquest at the beginning of the Spanish era.
Lima, Peru, November 1980
Without qualification, the Cachi [Argentina] expedition was one of the most remarkable of the entire project…Our mule expedition brought us through a zone that is totally unknown to archaeologists. We registered six new Inka sites and were amazed at the wealth of rare fauna. We saw hundreds of guanacos (wild large Andean camelids) and three groups (43 in all) of vicunas (small, delicate, wild camelids).
Quito, Ecuador, January 1981
This is the last of the surveys…difficult to believe that the original design of studying a number of sectors of Inka road within five different Andean republics is very nearly completed… A special trip was made to the Lupaca region (southwest side of Lake Titicaca) where I had surveyed sites in 1974 and 1975. [John is referring to research he undertook for his Columbia doctoral dissertation; Ph.D. awarded in 1976] The sun followed the survey vehicle for nearly every moment on the high-plateau lakeshore (three miles altitude)….The plateau was filled with flocks of cows, sheep, and llamas, all grazing harmoniously while watched over by their Aymara shepherds.In case the reader is curious, I am indeed becoming tired of traveling. Hardly a week has passed during many months without some required travel, often under uncomfortable circumstances. Few, if any, archaeologists have seen as much of the Inka Empire as I. Nevertheless, I may have seen less than 2% of its great territory.It will soon be time to rest and to write.
New York, March 1981
The final expedition, in Ecuador…From Ingapirca [a village and Inka settlement site] we ascended on horseback into the high (13,000 ft.+) …Azuay Mountains. There we followed a remarkably intact stretch of Inka road complete with bridges, apachetas, and tambos (roadside structures). Six new Inka sites were located and mapped, usually during continuous and miserable rains.I must now devote more than a year to writing. It will be necessary to produce two volumes of data and analyses based on the field-notes of the twelve expeditions. A manuscript, nearly complete, on the Inkawasi site in the Canete Valley of Peru must also be finished.The Inka Project newsletters…were written in buses and tents, typed on ancient typewriters in curious surroundings, and mailed from some post offices that nobody could trust.
In lasting and loving memory of John Hyslop,
Yani SinanoglouLondon, May 3rd 2017
A remembrance by Eric Olson ’67John Hyslop and I grew up in small towns in Minnesota. Oddly, we met not at Carleton but in Tokyo, Japan, where we both were AFS students in the summer of 1962. During our week of group orientation to the language and culture, we found that we had similar senses of humor. We got a kick out of making light, harmless fun of some of the cultural differences we encountered. And I was amused by John’s stories drawn from his extraordinary summer job traveling around the Dakotas working for a carnival run by a man named – I think — Bugs Townshend. That next fall, after we’d returned to the States, a third AFSer and I visited John and his parents in Fergus Falls. They graciously welcomed us into their home, which was located on a bluff above the Otter Tail River and contained an impressive display of John’s father’s paintings. Their warm hospitality made it a memorable day.At Carleton, our paths diverged and John and I hardly saw one another. No reason really, just different interests.Many years later, I realized that John had had the admirable courage to pursue his dream career, regardless of its difficulties, while many of us fell into more pedestrian pursuits. He chose to do something that for some of us was just a pipedream, a casual fantasy: the idea of studying archeology and working at a dig in a distant, exotic land, possibly making a significant discovery about a lost civilization in the manner of Heinrich Schliemann or Howard Carter. John undoubtedly did well at this exacting work, focusing his attention on the Andes in South America. I remember reading an article in the New York Times about fiber-cable bridges created by the Incas to span canyon passes. In referring to the book in which John presented the results of his meticulous research and analysis of aspects of Inca settlements in Peru, the Times writer used a single adjective: authoritative.Well done, John.
A remembrance by Yani Sinanoglou
John Hyslop, that generous, lively, enterprising, scholarly native of Fergus Falls, died in New York City on July 23rd, 1993. In the twenty-five years after we graduated from Carleton, he had enriched my life and that of my family with loyal friendship, an infectious sense of humor, the intense curiosity that nourished his scholarship, a down-to-earth sense of life’s little absurdities and an open attitude to its challenges. John shared his inquiring mind as readily as his hearty laughter.After Carleton, a new life beckoned in New York, at Columbia, in Latin American history and, alas, in the shadow of the draft for the Vietnam War. John faced it all in a spirit of adventurous enterprise, always communicating an intense feeling for life’s possibilities. Three years in the Peace Corps led him to a vocation that would become the passion of his life: the Inca Empire and Andean archeology. Relishing the experience of research in his new field, he made Lima his base in South America. From aerial photography to high altitude travel on his motorcycle, John was always keen for research beyond the library. After completing his Ph.D. at Columbia, he published and lectured in English and Spanish, taught briefly at the New School for Social Research and at Columbia and eventually joined the research staff of the American Museum of Natural History and the Institute of Andean Archeology. Among many articles and research reports, one can cite two books that now are classics in Andean archeology: Inca Road Systems (1984), Inca Settlement Planning (1990).The ‘Uncle John’ that my children remember was not the renowned archeologist, but the fun-loving uncle. He would arrive at Christmas or on birthdays laden with what he called the latest ‘gizmos’—a Walkman, a battery-operated racing car, or one of those early electronic games. The children responded to John’s spontaneous enthusiasm, his playful sense of humor, his zest for life, his fascination with technology.It was a privilege to accompany John on life’s last journey and to hear him say, near the end, “I’ve been the architect of my own life.” A few months after his death, we gathered in John’s laboratory/study at the American Museum of Natural History to celebrate his life, surrounded by his publications, his photographs, and the Andean pottery that he knew so well.I remember him vividly and with much gratitude.Yani SinanoglouLondon, September 29th 2006
Comments
John Hyslop and I grew up in small towns in Minnesota. Oddly, we met not at Carleton but in Tokyo, Japan, where we both were AFS students in the summer of 1962. During our week of group orientation to the language and culture, we found that we had similar senses of humor. We got a kick out of making light, harmless fun of some of the cultural differences we encountered. And I was amused by John’s stories drawn from his extraordinary summer job traveling around the Dakotas working for a carnival run by a man named – I think -- Bugs Townshend. That next fall, after we’d returned to the States, a third AFSer and I visited John and his parents in Fergus Falls. They graciously welcomed us into their home, which was located on a bluff above the Otter Tail River and contained an impressive display of John’s father’s paintings. Their warm hospitality made it a memorable day.
At Carleton, our paths diverged and John and I hardly saw one another. No reason really, just different interests.
Many years later, I realized that John had had the admirable courage to pursue his dream career, regardless of its difficulties, while many of us fell into more pedestrian pursuits. He chose to do something that for some of us was just a pipedream, a casual fantasy: the idea of studying archeology and working at a dig in a distant, exotic land, possibly making a significant discovery about a lost civilization in the manner of Heinrich Schliemann or Howard Carter. John undoubtedly did well at this exacting work, focusing his attention on the Andes in South America. I remember reading an article in the New York Times about fiber-cable bridges created by the Incas to span canyon passes. In referring to the book in which John presented the results of his meticulous research and analysis of aspects of Inca settlements in Peru, the Times writer used a single adjective: authoritative.
Well done, John.
The intrepid archaeologist in his own words
The excerpts below are drawn from John's field reports--the research he undertook in Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina between December 1978 and February 1981 for The Inka Road System (1984).
Lima, Peru, March 1979
Lima, Peru, May 1979 (aerial mapping with cameras mounted on balloons)
Lima, Peru, July 1979
New York, November 1979
We are well on our way to what some professional archaeologists considered an unachievable task--an Empire-wide survey.
Antofagasta, Chile, July 1980
Lima, Peru, November 1980
Quito, Ecuador, January 1981
New York, March 1981
In lasting and loving memory of John Hyslop,
John Hyslop and I met at AFS' Quarters in NYC on Aug. 23, 1968. In 1962 he was an AFSer in Japan while I was an AFSer in Pennsylvania. Six years later we bumped into each other in NYC: I was on a 99days for 99 $ Greyhound Bus tour of Canada and the US, he was about to go to Puerto Rico on the following Monday, so he told me, with the Peace Corps, to spend the following two years in Colombia. He had secured a degree at Columbia U. and we found out that we were both keen on History. I had planned to go on with my trip the following day, but John offered to give me an inside tour of NYC and vicinities so I stayed. John proved to be a clever, knowledgeable, fascinating guide: The Village, Wall Street, Coumbia University, Rochefeller Center, St. John the Devine Cathedral, even a round ferry trip to N.J., fare 10 cents. We dined at AFS' headquarters on 43rd and talked a lot about our individual experiences as AFSers, the Viet Nam war, exchanged our views on the state of the world and our outlook on our future: hopes and desires.
All this is down on ink in my diary. Only recently, after 54 years, I re-read some pages. This is how John came back to me and how I looked him up on the Net only to find out that he's been dead many years. I was shocked, but, clever as he was, I also found out that he had become a keen and successful archaeologist, leaving behind many books. I wish I had looked you up long ago, John. I am truly sorry, but you live on through your books: thus you are not really gone. Rest in peace , my friend.
Renato Bucci
Tortpreto, Italy
renato-bucci@virgilio.it
Errata Corrige: pls amend my e-mail to: renato_bucci@virgilio.it
I found this remembrance recently:
Renato Bucci
John Hyslop and I met at AFS' Quarters in NYC on Aug. 23, 1968. In 1962 he was an AFSer in Japan while I was an AFSer in Pennsylvania. Six years later we bumped into each other in NYC: I was on a 99days for 99 $ Greyhound Bus tour of Canada and the US, he was about to go to Puerto Rico on the following Monday, so he told me, with the Peace Corps, to spend the following two years in Colombia. He had secured a degree at Columbia U. and we found out that we were both keen on History. I had planned to go on with my trip the following day, but John offered to give me an inside tour of NYC and vicinities so I stayed. John proved to be a clever, knowledgeable, fascinating guide: The Village, Wall Street, Coumbia University, Rochefeller Center, St. John the Devine Cathedral, even a round ferry trip to N.J., fare 10 cents. We dined at AFS' headquarters on 43rd and talked a lot about our individual experiences as AFSers, the Viet Nam war, exchanged our views on the state of the world and our outlook on our future: hopes and desires.
All this is down on ink in my diary. Only recently, after 54 years, I re-read some pages. This is how John came back to me and how I looked him up on the Net only to find out that he's been dead many years. I was shocked, but, clever as he was, I also found out that he had become a keen and successful archaeologist, leaving behind many books. I wish I had looked you up long ago, John. I am truly sorry, but you live on through your books: thus you are not really gone. Rest in peace , my friend.
Renato Bucci
Tortpreto, Italy
renato_bucci@virgilio.it