Ecuador: Zuleta Excavation (IFR)

Location: Zuleta, Quito, Ecuador

Session Dates: July 14 - August 16, 2025

Application Deadline: February 1, 2025

Deadline Type: Rolling

Website: https://ifrglobal.org/program/ecuador-zuleta/

Program Type:
Field School

RPA Certified:
No

Affiliation:
Institute for Field Research (IFR)

Project Director:
Dr. David O. Brown and William S. Pratt

Project Description:

Set out on an extraordinary journey to the picturesque Andes mountains of northern Ecuador, where a unique blend of history, culture, and ecology awaits in our immersive field school experience at Hacienda Zuleta. With a rich and storied past, Zuleta stands as one of Ecuador’s best-maintained mound sites from the ancient Cara civilization, later inhabited by the Incas and Spanish colonists, and eventually becoming the farmstead of an influential presidential family. Explore the site’s fascinating chronology and untangle the impacts of the Quilotoa volcanic eruption on the Cara people, a pivotal event that reshaped the region’s cultural landscape and climate.

Field school highlights:

• Be part of pioneering research on the complex relationship between climate change, volcanic impacts, and human adaptation.
• Excavate Cara pyramids side-by-side with a team of international and Ecuadorian researchers.
• Explore the surrounding nature preserve and stunning highland landscapes.

Period(s) of Occupation: Pre-Colombian

Project Size: 1-24 participants

Minimum Length of Stay for Volunteers: Students are expected to stay the full length of the program.

Minimum Age: 18

Experience Required: None

Room and Board Arrangements:
Students will stay in a small, but comfortable hotel in the small community of Zuleta within walking distance of the Hacienda main entrance. Students will generally be required to share a room with one other student, and depending on the number of applicants, the program will occupy a dedicated section of the facility, or possibly the entire hotel. Though blankets will be provided, the hotel is not heated and nighttime temperatures at that time of year can often be quite cold, so sleeping bags are recommended. Laundry facilities will be provided separately by community members; clothes will be hand washed and air-dried as is typical in such small communities.

Academic Credit:
8 semester (12 quarter)