Organization
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Organization
Pro Calima is a bi-national organization with two committees, one in Switzerland and one in Colombia.
International President:
Rupert Spillmann, Dr. med.
The Swiss Committee:
Director of Research:
Professor Warwick Bray, Ph. D.
Coordinator for Switzerland:
Theres Gahwiler, Dr. phil.
Secretary general and treasurer:
Ursula Kubli
Committee Members:
Professeur Doctor Hans Georg Bandi
Félix Kubli
Ute Müller
Elisabeth Studer
Peter Studer
Jürg Winkler
Committee of Patrons:
Professor Doctor Hans Georg Bandi
Accountant:
Adrian Neuehaus
The Colombian Committee:
Local President:
Marianne Cardale Schrimpff, D. Phil.
Vice-president/Secretary:
Leonor Herrera, B.A.
Committee members:
Anne Legast, B.A.
María Cristina Moreno, M.A.
Chartered accountant:
Orlando Marquez
The archaeologists:
Warwick Bray is Emeritus Professor of Latin American Archaeology, University College, London. He obtained both his first degree and his doctorate from the University of Cambridge. Although he has worked in many different regions of Latin America, Colombia has always held a particular fascination for him and a number of the country’s foremost archaeologists have been his students. He first visited Colombia in 1962 as archaeologist to a Cambridge University expedition, and has been director of the Pro Calima team since its foundation.
His publications deal predominantly with Aztec ethnohistory and with prehispanic agriculture and indigenous metallurgy of Colombia and neighbouring countries.
Marianne Cardale Schrimpff first went to Colombia as a student; she became fascinated by the country and has remained there more or less ever since. She obtained her first degree from Edinburgh and her doctorate from the University of Oxford. She has carried out research in a number of different areas of Colombia, much of which has been financed by the Fundación de Investigaciones Arqueologicas Nacionales, of the Bank of the Republic.
She has curated exhibitions in Colombia and abroad and was the archaeologist responsible for the Cali branch of the Gold Museum which focusses on the archaeology of the Calima region. She too is a founder member of the Pro Calima team and in Calima, her special interest is the Ilama period. She has also published on the Malagana culture, on pre-Columbian road systems, salt production and textiles.
Theres Gähwiler represents the Swiss side of the team which she joined shortly after it was founded. For her doctoral thesis at the University of Basle.she carried out a ground-breaking study of the archaeology of the Pavas-La Cumbre region, just to the south of Calima.
She has also published a number of important articles on the archaeology of this area. She has had a number of teaching posts in Switzerland and for a number of years she was on the editorial board of the Swiss Ethnological Society.
Leonor Herrera is another founding member of the Pro Calima team and worked for many years at the Instituto Colombiano de Antropología (ICAN). She studied archaeology and anthropology at the University of the Andes in Bogotá, under the directorship of Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff. Her other main area of interest and field work has been the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in northern Colombia, which provides a stimulating contrast to Calima.
In Calima she has specialised in the late period and in excavating water-logged tombs with their well-preserved wooden implements. More recently she has excavated at two sites of the Malagana culture, Coronado and the Hacienda Malagana; she is the author of numerous publications.
Anne Legast obtained her degree in biology and archaeology at the University of Geneva. Shortly afterwards she travelled to Colombia and became interested in the representations of fauna in pre-Columbian gold and pottery. She is the author of five books and monographs on the subject as well as of numerous articles, financed largely by the Fundación de Investigaciones Arqueologicas Nacionales, of the Bank of the Republic. She has been a since 2000 and has published monographs on the animals represented both in Calima and in the Malagana culture.
Maria Cristina Moreno obtained a degree in history with emphasis in archaeology from the University of Bucarest, in Rumania. After several seasons of field work in the department of Caldas, she specialised in the field of museology and has an M.A. from the University of Barcelona. She has been director of the Museo Arqueológico of the Universidad de Caldas from 1989 until the founding of the Centro de Museos Universitarios in 1996, in the creation of which she had a hand. She is currently director of this Centre.
She is also attached to the Department of Visual Design where she is responsible for courses in museology and museography. At the same time she is involved in rescue archaeology projects in the region.
She sits on the Technical Committee of the Caldas Branch of the Ancient Monuments Council, and is also a member of the Academy of History (Caldas), and of ICOM (International Council of Museums).
