I entered archaeology with a passion for textiles. As an avid knitter, sewist, and quilter myself, I maintain an active interest in fabric studies, past and present, more broadly.

Between 2011-2014, I served as the Textiles and Perishables Specialist for the Ancash Regional Archaeology Research Project (Proyecto de Investigación Arqueológico Regional de Ancash; www.piaraperu.org). In this role, I cleaned, catalogued, and photographed over 1,500 textile, cordage, and other perishable objects that were excavated from the highland archaeological site of Hualcayán between 2011-2013. I also led workshops to teach Peruvian and American undergraduate students about textile analysis and weaving.

My Master's Thesis examined the technological attributes of textiles, baskets, and cordage from Hualcayán's mortuary contexts. Finding textiles in the Andean sierra is rare due to its moist environment; my goal was to understand the techniques for spinning and plying fibers, weaving and basket making practices, as well as the material employed (cotton, vegetal, camelid) by artisans as a lens on community formation and social identity. Surprisingly, this work revealed a high proportion of cotton textiles—showing great variability in spin and fly of yarns—and a lower proportion of camelid (wool) materials, all of which are more uniform in technique.

2021 Grávalos, M. Elizabeth, and Rebecca E. Bria. “Prehispanic Highland Textile Technologies: A View from the First Millennium AD at Hualcayán, Ancash, Peru.” Latin American Antiquity. Cambridge University Press, 1–19. doi:10.1017/laq.2021.30.

2014. Grávalos, M. Elizabeth. “Conceptualizing Community Identity through Ancient Textiles: Technology and the Uniformity of Practice at Hualcayán, Peru.” Master’s thesis, Lafayette, IN: Purdue University.