of Valle and now at the University of Tolima, Camilo Rodríguez, who also works in Tolima, and Monika Therrien, who works on colonial archaeology.

In the first half of the 1990s the growth of rescue (paid or contract) archaeology, which had started in the 1970s, reached its peak. Paradoxically, although funds available per project were much above what could be expected in sponsored academic archaeology, the quality of analysis was often mediocre or worse, even when taking into account the special constraints inherent in this activity. However, there were notable exceptions, and under expert guidance some researchers have made important contributions. Outstanding examples are the work on lithic assemblages carried out by Carlos Eduardo Lopez in the Magdalena River plain and in Antioquia, as well as the River Porce Project directed by Neyla Castillo, whose work filled the preceramic void for the region and enlarged the area of the distribution of the mysterious “incised brownware” first defined by Bennet and further contextualized by Karen Bruhns. In Manizales María Cristina Moreno channeled profits from paid archaeology into the renovation of the Archaeological Museum of the University of Caldas, which possesses an outstanding collection for the middle Cauca region.

Even if the results of certain projects are not always up to academic standards, the importance of enforcing the inclusion of preventive archaeology in the preliminaries of any project cannot be underestimated. ICAN has spent a lot of time and energy coordinating regional institutions to present a single front to contractors and to try to enforce minimal rules for practitioners, as contracts were frequently won by undergraduates or unemployed anthropologists or other social scientists not qualified in archaeology. In the late 1990s these efforts suffered a serious setback, paradoxically through circumstances that promised more protection for archaeological heritage. In 1991 a new Colombian constitution was drawn up as a part of efforts to democratically counteract the political ills besetting the country—the production of outlawed drugs, corruption, and guerrilla and paramilitary warfare. Alvaro Botiva, an ICAN archaeologist lobbying with the Constituent Assembly, was influential in getting two articles included in the new constitution to clearly place all items of cultural heritage under the protection of the state. In principle this was a legal tool of great utility, but its drawback was tied to the fact that a new constitution must be translated into laws and decrees; years later when archaeological heritage legislation was considered, it was included in a package with “culture” in general and inefficiently lobbied in congress by COLCULTURA. At the same time, the big state companies of the mining sector were more efficient and managed to make the articles relevant to archaeology ambiguous, with the legal obligation for contract archaeology dependent on knowledge of the existence of sites in the area to be affected rather than on the presumption of their presence (as had been the case before). This change has greatly increased the risks to sites and reduced the time available for their study before they are destroyed. The economic recession that hit the country in 1997 has slowed building and mining activities and hence the risk of destruction of little-studied areas, but at the same time, it has reduced the amount of funds available for sponsored research, left institutions facing reductions in personnel, and even run the risk of total disappearance due to cutbacks in government spending recommended by the World Bank. ICAN has suffered two restructurings over the last few years, one in 1997 when COLCULTURA (of which it was part) was upgraded to the Ministry of Culture and another in 2000 when it was combined with the Institute of Hispanic (i.e., colonial) History and renamed ICANH. The new institution has a lively and laudable publication policy, but it appears to be turning its back on urgent and difficult issues such as leadership in policy setting and heritage management.

At the turn of the twenty-first century the number of potential archaeologists, among them those with postgraduate qualifications, has increased, even as funds for research in the social sciences have steadily diminished; those moneys available are allocated to subjects related to strife, aggression, war, and peace. However, this is not the most difficult aspect of the