Arthur Posnansky y su Obsesion Milenaria. Biografia lntelectual de un Pionero, by Carlos Ponce Sangines, 1994, La Paz: Producciones Cima

Ponce proposes to develop an intellectual history of Posnansky,whom many view as the father of Bolivian archaeology, which he hopes will contribute tothe establishment of context for the development of local prehistory. However, for themost part, the volume serves more as a foil for Ponce to refer to his own work andpublications, as they update, contradict, and improve on the earlier archaeologicalreconstructions of Posnansky. Arthur Posnansky (1873-1946) was an important contributorto Bolivian culture history, being not only a pioneer in Bolivian archaeology, but alsoin Bolivian cinematography, in the development of the national park system, and in theintroduction of the first automobile into Bolivia. He was trained as a naval engineer inhis native Vienna, a skill which he quickly parlayed into a fortune in Bolivia in therubber boom, in terms of transporting the latex by river transport. With the loss ofArce to Brazil in 1903, he shifted his focus to other fields. He brought the firstgasoline-powered motorboat to Lake Titicaca that year, and while visiting theexcavations of the French Crequi-Montfort and Senechal de La Grange Mission, under thedirection of George Courty, during trips to the lake, he became very intrigued with thesite of Tiwanaku and its place in Bolivian prehistory. Posnansky shortly thereafterbegan his extensive collection of material artifacts from Tiwanaku, constructing the-"Palacio Tihuanacu" in 1917-1918 to house the stela, ceramics and other materials whichhe collected. This structure and its collections were subsequently sold to the state,becoming the current Museo Nacional de Arqueologia