Eric Boman (June 5, 1867 – November 29, 1924) was a

Swedish Argentine Swedish Argentines are Argentine citizens of Swedish descent, as well as Swedish-born people who reside in Argentina. The history of Swedish settlement in Argentina took place principally in the mid to late 19th century, when Swedish people a ...

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

Life and work

Boman was born in

Falun Falun () is a city and the seat of Falun Municipality in Dalarna County, Sweden, with 37,291 inhabitants in 2010. It is also the capital of Dalarna County. Falun forms, together with Borlänge, a metropolitan area with just over 100,000 inhabita ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, in 1867. He relocated to

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

in 1889, and completed his

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

ing in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

and Catamarca. He remained in the mountainous Province of Catamarca, and was appointed a

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

.''American Anthropologist''. (January — March 1926). Boman began his archaeological experience in a 1901 Swedish expedition into

Purmamarca Purmamarca is a town in the Tumbaya Department of the Jujuy Province in Argentina. Etymology The name of the town can be interpreted as the combination of Aymara language words purma (desert) and marca (city), though desert in that language ca ...

and the

Quebrada de Humahuaca The Quebrada de Humahuaca is a narrow mountain valley located in the province of Jujuy in northwest Argentina, north of Buenos Aires (). It is about long, oriented north–south, bordered by the Altiplano in the west and north, by the Sub-Andean ...

(

Jujuy Province Jujuy is a province of Argentina, located in the extreme northwest of the country, at the borders with Chile and Bolivia. The only neighboring Argentine province is Salta to the east and south. Geography There are three main areas in Jujuy: * ...

) directed by Baron Erland Nordenskiold, a nobleman whose family included a number of noted travelers; Nordenskiold later authored an account of that expedition, ''Travels on the Boundaries of Bolivia and Argentina''. Boman joined a further expedition, with Marquis

Georges de Crequi-Montfort Henri Georges Le Compasseur de Créqui-Montfort Marquis de Courtivron (27 September 1877 – 4 April 1966) was a French explorer, anthropologist, diplomat, businessman and sport shooter who competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics and in the ...

, into the Cerro Chañi area (Jujuy), in 1903, and discovered

Tastil Tastil is an archaeological site near Santa Rosa de Tastil, Salta Province, Argentina. Overview Located around 2.5 km (1.5 mi) northwest of the settlement are the Ruins of Tastil. Built by the Atacameño people, Tastil thrived during the 15th cen ...

, an

Atacameño The Atacama people, also called Atacameño, are indigenous people from the Atacama Desert and altiplano region in the north of Chile and Argentina and southern Bolivia, mainly Antofagasta Region. According to the Argentinean Census in 2010, 13,9 ...

settlement that was one of the region's most significant until their siege by troops of the

Inca Empire The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called ''Tawantinsuyu'' by its subjects, (Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts", "four parts together" ) was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The admin ...

. He compiled his findings in ''Antiquités de la région andine de la Republique Argentine et du désert d'Atacama'' (''"Antiquities in the Andean Region of Argentina and in the Atacama Desert"''), which, when published in 1908, was recognized as one of the first comprehensive archaeological studies of the

Argentine Northwest The Argentine Northwest (''Noroeste Argentino'') is a geographic and historical region of Argentina composed of the provinces of Catamarca, Jujuy, La Rioja, Salta, Santiago del Estero and Tucumán. Geography The Argentine Northwest comprises v ...

(comparable only to

Juan Bautista Ambrosetti Juan Bautista Ambrosetti (August 22, 1865May 28, 1917) was an Argentine archaeologist, ethnographer and naturalist who helped pioneer anthropology in his country. Life and work Ambrosetti was born in Gualeguay, Entre Ríos Province, in 1865. He ...

's work).''Historical Dictionary of Argentina''. London: Scarecrow Press, 1978. Boman's work was honored also by the

Académie Française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

, and the original is now in the

Musée de l'Homme The Musée de l'Homme ( French, "Museum of Mankind" or "Museum of Humanity") is an anthropology museum in Paris, France. It was established in 1937 by Paul Rivet for the 1937 ''Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne' ...

, in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. Boman subsequently focused his studies on the archaeology of La Rioja Province, conducting excavations in Pucará de los Sauces, Fuerte del Pantano, other sites in the Famatina Range, as well as in other provinces, notably Tinti (in the

Calchaquí Valleys The Calchaquí Valley ( es, Valles Calchaquíes) is an area in the northwestern region of Argentina which crosses the provinces of Catamarca, Tucumán, Jujuy and Salta. It is best known for its contrast of colors and its unique geography that r ...

) and in

Buin, Chile Buin is a city and commune of Chile, in the Maipo Province, Metropolitan Region of Santiago, which forms part of Greater Santiago. It is a city composed of the towns of Maipo, Viluco, Linderos, Valdivia de Paine, Alto Jahuel, Los Guindos and El R ...

. He created a sizable bibliography from the experiences, and these expeditions, conducted between 1910 and 1920, yielded the most comprehensive collection of

Diaguita The Diaguita people are a group of South American indigenous people native to the Chilean Norte Chico and the Argentine Northwest. Western or Chilean Diaguitas lived mainly in the Transverse Valleys which incised in a semi-arid environment. Ea ...

artifacts located up to then, making him an authority on the Pre-Inca cultures of the region. Boman was appointed Chief of the Archaeological Department of the

Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Museum The Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Argentine Museum ( es, Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales Bernardino Rivadavia) is a public museum located in the Caballito section of Buenos Aires, Argentina. History and overview The museum owes it ...

in 1917, and remained at the post until his death in 1924.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boman, Eric 1867 births 1924 deaths People from Falun Argentine archaeologists Swedish emigrants to Argentina Swedish archaeologists