Wilhelm Gustav Dießl

Wilhelm Gustav Dießl (also spelling: Diessl ; born November 27, 1931 in Krummau , Czechoslovakia ; † October 10, 2007 in Linz ) was an Austrian engineer and internationally recognized hobby archaeologist . In Latin America research he was considered an expert on early cultures in certain Andean regions in Peru .

Live and act

Dießl received training at HTL Maschinenbau in Linz and graduated from high school in 1951 . After that he worked as a designer in Linz and as operations manager of a steel construction company in Caracas (Venezuela) on behalf of VOEST-Alpine Industrieanlagenbau from Linz. His professional activity has taken him to more than 20 countries, with nine major projects in Latin American countries.

In addition to his main job and after retiring, Dießl studied ethnology and archeology and worked practically in these disciplines. In Latin American research , Dießl was a recognized expert on ancient American studies , archeology and ethnomathematics in Peru. He was a member of several scientific associations such as the Austrian Research Group on Latin America , MERASA (Mesa redonda de Arqueología en la Sierra de Ancash, Peru) and LAKAR (Berlin).

Dießl published several publications on his Latin American research, some of them in Spanish; Among other things, many specialist articles in various journals in Caracas, Buenos Aires (Argentina), Trujillo and Vienna (Austria), a monograph on the Chavín region in Peru (1988) and a study on the Huantar, San Marcos and Chavín regions there (2005 ). He gave lectures on archaeological topics at congresses in Copenhagen (Denmark), Uppsala (Sweden), Bonn , Chimbote (Peru), Salzburg (Austria), Perugia (Italy) and Cambridge (England), as well as at the invitation of museums and other institutions .

The Chavín de Huántar archaeological site in the Peruvian Andean region of Chavín.

During his professional assignments abroad and his retirement, he mainly carried out studies of early cultures in the Sierra de Ancash , an Andean region in Peru . He researched the geography and archaeological sites of the three districts of Huantar, San Marcos and especially Chavín, with the Chavín de Huántar complex there . This site is considered to be the oldest stone structure in Peru and was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985. On this research he published the study Huantar San Marcos in Spanish in 2005 , illustrated with 75 photos and more than 600 plans, maps and drawings by the author.

As part of its ethno mathematical research Dießl dealt among other things with the knot-writing system Kipu the Incas and the abacus -like computing device Yupana of the Incas that from Ecuador to Bolivia was widespread and was still used in 1970 in Bolivia. He worked on the creation of a corpus and a typology of the Yupanas.

Dießl was married, had two children and lived in Linz, where he also died.

Publications (selection)

• Chavin, Technology, Architecture and Art in an Early High Culture in Peru . Museum of Encounter, Krenglbach-Schmiding (Austria) 1988 (= series of publications of the "Museum of Encounter"; Vol. 1). (Monograph)
• Kipu and Kipucamayoc. History and evolution . Report on the international seminar from October 19-22, 1988 in Huampani near Lima (Peru), organizer: CONCYTEC (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia, Peru) u. MIPRE (Ministerio de Presidencia, Peru), published by the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia, Lima 1988.
• Pyramids and cities in the Andes. For five millennia! In: 500 Years of Mestizaje in Language, Literature and Culture , edited by Sonja M. Steckbauer u. Kristin A. Müller, Bibliotheca Hispano-Lusa, Salzburg 1993, ISSN  1019-1119 .
• Huantar San Marcos. Sitios Arqueologicos en la Sierra de Ancash . 1st edition, Instituto Cultural RVNA, Lima (Peru) 2005, ISBN 9972-9694-2-8 . (Spanish)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Diessl, Ing. Wilhelm Gustav on the website of the Institute for Latin American Studies at the University of Hamburg ( Memento of the original from June 11, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : Virtual specialist library - cibera: German-speaking Latin America research. 
2. ↑ Institute for Latin American Studies at the University of Hamburg  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : Virtual specialist library - cibera: German-speaking Latin America research.  
3. ↑ Austrian Latin America Institute; Latin America Studies Online : Wilhelm Diessl: Archaeological Investigations in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru.
4. ↑ Institute for Latin American Studies at the University of Hamburg  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : Virtual specialist library - cibera: German-speaking Latin America research.  
5. ↑ Example: Friends of Völkerkunde Wien, in the Museum für Völkerkunde Wien ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : Autumn program 2005, event on November 16, 2005: Prof. Dr. Christian F. Feest speaks with Ing.Wilhelm Diessl, Linz: From the flight of the Bolas to Chavín, or the layman as an expert. 
6. ^ 4th South American Meeting Vienna 2007; Online conference report  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : Page 85: Presentation by Wilhelm Diessl: Kipus and Yupanas (PDF file)