To celebrate its centennial anniversary, the archaeological museum of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM) published a second edition of Chavín: Cultura matriz de la civilización andina by Julio C. Tello. This classic work was originally issued in 1960, 13 years after Tello's death. During his lifetime, he was criticized for not adequately publishing the evidence supporting his pioneering hypotheses about Chavín and the development of Andean civilization. Fortunately, one of his students, Toribio Mejía Xesspe, spent years working selflessly with Tello's archives, and the result was this 1960 posthumous publication, as well as two volumes on the Paracas culture. The first edition of Chavín: Cultura matriz de la civilización andina provided the details of Tello's excavations at Chavín de Huántar and a description of the artifacts he recovered. It illustrated the 97 sculptures and other stone carvings that Tello brought together in the Museo de Chavín built atop the main mound in 1940. Tragically, this site museum was swept away in 1945 by a massive landslide, and many of the illustrated objects were lost. The volume also discussed Tello's investigations in the Chavín heartland and the numerous Chavín-related sites that he visited in highland Ancash during his 1919 expedition. In addition, the book offered Tello's reasoning for proposing that Chavín should be considered the cultural matrix from which later cultures such as Recuay and Moche developed.

The printing of the 1960 edition reflected the economic conditions at UNMSM at the time, and the copies that survive usually are in tatters with broken bindings, ripped covers, and brittle yellow pages. By contrast, the new edition is a deluxe version thanks to a collaboration between the museum, the Antamina Mining Company, and the Augusto N. Wiese Foundation. The new edition is about one-third larger in size than the original, and heavy, glossy paper has replaced thin acidic pages. As a result, although Tello's abundant drawings, maps, and photographs were left unchanged, they are now enlarged and clearer. In at least one case, an illustration published upside down was righted, and as noted in the front matter, other minor corrections were made. Tello's text remains almost completely unchanged.

In a section placed before Tello's original text are two new chapters that serve to contextualize this volume. The first one, by Jorge Silva and Cecilia Jaime, provides a brief overview of the archaeological developments since the first edition. The authors, both archaeologists at UNMSM, also summarize Tello's ideas, emphasizing his conviction that knowledge of the prehispanic past was essential for strengthening ethnic dignity, which would provide the faith and confidence necessary to accomplish still greater work required for the future of the Peruvian nation. The explicit emphasis by Tello on archaeology's role in helping shape the future has a distinctly modern ring to it.

Much of Silva and Jaime's introductory essay is devoted to a discussion of the various chronological frameworks proposed for the second and first millennium BC and Chavín de Huántar's place within them, including efforts to date it using radiocarbon measurements. This discussion is followed by a short description of the investigations carried out at the site in the decades since Tello's death, with a focus on the work by Luis Lumbreras and others on the site's monumental architecture. According to Silva and Jaime, Chavín de Huántar and the contemporaneous sites were independent chiefdoms in which authority rested in religious specialists lacking coercive power. This chapter does not discuss recent progress in characterizing the economic and social organization of Chavín de Huántar, nor does it touch on the identification of a proto-urban settlement surrounding the monumental core.

The second new chapter, “Chavín de Huántar, One Hundred Years Later,” is by Augusto Bazán Pérez and José Alva Chancos, both of whom worked with Stanford University's ongoing archaeological project at the site. However, it does not focus on archaeology but on the socioeconomic and political history of Chavín de Huántar during the last century. Peru's agrarian reform, the violent era between 1980 and 2000, the introduction of large-scale mining with a resulting surge in economic development, and its impact on cultural patrimony are all discussed. This is followed by a surprisingly frank appraisal of the conservation of this archaeological monument and government policies responsible for its protection and conservation. The picture that emerges is a dark one. Because of the unintended consequences of archaeological interventions and misguided efforts to render the site suitable for tourism, the temple structures are described as an open wound on the verge of collapse from heavy annual rainfall. The staffing and resources of the World Heritage site, the site museum, and the International Center for Investigation, Conservation, and Restoration are all described as grossly inadequate, and the relationships between the municipal authorities, the Ministry of Culture, and the local population are said to be incoherent and dysfunctional. Given the vast resources that have been channeled into the Chavín de Huántar district, this failure is shocking. The authors, however, end on a positive note, recommending the establishment of a government-controlled centralized administration that would plan and coordinate the investigation, conservation, and restoration of Chavín.

In addition to the two new introductory chapters, there is an addendum to Tello's original volume that features 83 unpublished historic photographs of the Chavín de Huántar ruins and artifacts and color plates of watercolor drawings by Pedro Rojas Ponce, a protégé of Tello. Scholars will welcome his illustrations of the Chavín-style pottery excavated by Tello at the temple. There is also a new appendix of maps by Cornelius Roosevelt, Santiago Antúnez de Mayolo, and others.

The second edition of Chavín: Cultura matriz de la civilización andina is a remarkable publishing achievement, and UNMSM should be praised for making this landmark book available to a new generation of archaeologists in high style.