Itineraries of heritage fragmentation

Archives, archaeology, biographies and conservation of the Giai Collection (Museo de la Patagonia, PNNH-APN)

Abstract

The Museum of Patagonia “Dr. Francisco P. Moreno” belongs to the Nahuel Huapi National Park of the National Parks Administration (MP), which is the quintessential reservoir of archaeological, ethnographic, and historical collections of Northpatagonia and the Andean zone. Within the objectives of the Nahuel Huapi National Park Management Plan, updating its archaeological inventory was established as a priority. In this context, the "Andrés Giai" collection produced as a result of explorations commissioned by the museum's management in 1943 was addressed. Possible disagreements between Giai and the institutional management caused the archaeological objects to be protected without associated documentation, obscuring their conservation and study. From a transdisciplinary perspective, which proposes adding contributions from the fields of archaeology, history and the analysis of materials science, this article gives an account of the network of documentary evidence associated with the explorations, collections, and management of the Museum. In this way we managed to identify documentation, trace its route and historical context to the archaeological collections of the MP, mainly, reassemble a multiple repository for the entire Giai collection. In this sense, this work allows us to begin to transform the conditions of heritage and accessibility of these museological collections.