Recovering the Archaeometry and Archaeological Analysis Research Support Center (CAIAAA) in Tribute to Teresa Chapa Brunet

Abstract

This paper aims to recognize the role played by Dr. Teresa Chapa Brunet as the director of what was then called the CAI of Archaeometry and Archaeological Analysis between 2014 and 2018. Throughout this text, we will review the early years of the CAI of Archaeometry, starting in 2007, its challenges, its evolution, and how Teresa Chapa Brunet’s leadership marked a turning point. Due to a series of circumstances between 2011 and 2013, the center was almost completely dismantled in 2013. When Teresa took over as director of the CAI in 2014, she faced the task of rebuilding the center. To achieve this, she had to provide the CAI with resources, personnel, and work teams that would allow the unit's activities to resume. Her work helped create an infrastructure and lay a foundation that still endures today, upholding the CAI’s original philosophy of Archaeometry and Archaeological Analysis, focused on the documentation and protection of archaeological heritage through the application, research, and development of innovative non-destructive technologies.