Walter Alva Alva He was born in Cajamarca on June 28, 1951. He lived in Trujillo at a very early age and completed his secondary studies at the San Juan National College. As a schoolboy he had the friendship of Professor Max Díaz, who had been director of the Archeology Museum of the National University of Trujillo, and it was he who motivated him to study pre-Hispanic societies. Enthusiastic, the young Walter Alva organized excursions to the archaeological sites near the town and visited several places in the Jequetepeque Valley, making a collection of the fragmentary surface. With this material he set up an exhibition at the school.
Walter Alba's higher studies
After completing his secondary studies, he entered the then School of Anthropology (from which the Archeology program was later separated in 1975). He had Dr. Jorge Zevallos Quiñones as professor there and obtained his degree in 1982 with the thesis Las Salinas de Chao:an early settlement in northern Peru , a work that was later published in Germany (1987). In 1975 he joined the National Institute of Culture as supervisor of archaeological monuments in Lambayeque and since then he has carried out a
deep investigative work. He carried out a study of Formative ceramic collections from the Jequetepeque Valley which, although they were out of context because they came from clandestine excavations carried out in the 1960s, allow studies of a stylistic nature.
Excavations and discoveries
He excavated Purulén, a Formative period settlement located in the Alto Zaña (1983); and also in Udima, in the province of San Pablo (Cajamarca). Likewise, the excavations he carried out in Ocupe have revealed the art of mural painting in the Lambayeque culture.
Later he made recognition of geoglyphs in the Zaña valley. He has also carried out research in Santa Rosa (huaca La Tina). In 1987 he had to face a gang of looters who devastated the area and had come to loot a Moche tomb that had rich grave goods. Thanks to a police operation, part of that treasure was recovered, but the next day hundreds of people were depredating the site. It was then agreed to provide him with permanent police protection. Walter Alva believed it necessary to carry out excavations in order to rescue other tombs and prevent them from being looted. Thus, with scarce resources, sleeping in tents and facing the hostility of the adjacent population, work began. The fame of the looted tomb prompted many archaeologists to visit the site. Months later, Walter Alva obtained funding from the National Geographic Society and was then able to continue his project until the tomb was discovered. It was the first time in America that a burial of this importance was scientifically recovered. Later the pieces were taken to Germany for restoration. The discovery of Sipán has meant a boost to Peruvian archeology and the revaluation of the Moche culture . He gave rise to the National University of Trujillo organizing a colloquium to make a state of the question of the investigations carried out on that culture.
He has motivated private companies to finance research projects, such as El Brujo, and at the tourism level, the north coast has benefited from a strong increase. Walter Alva has been director of the Hans Heinrich Brüning National Archaeological Museum since 1977.
Walter Alba Life Recognition
In 1990 the National University of Trujillo gave him the distinction of the First Degree of the Liberator Simón Bolívar and in 1991 the Universidad Particular San Martín de Porres conferred on him the doctorate honoris causa . That same year the municipality of Lima named him a distinguished neighbor. The Peruvian government also decorated him with the Order of the Sun. Among his bibliographic production we have: Early ceramics from the Jequetepeque Valley (Munich 1986); Recent research in the Zaña valley (Munich 1987); The Chao Salt Flats (Munich 1987); Purulén, a Normative site in the Zaña Valley (1987); A geoglyph from the Zaña valley (Trujillo 1987); Sipan (Lime 1994). Two of his articles on the Sipán discoveries appeared in 1989 and 1991 in National Geographic magazine.