“Sacred Mountains, Ceremonial Sites, and Human Sacrifice Among the Incas” will be the topic of a lecture by Argentinian archaeologist Dr. Constanza Ceruti on Monday, Sept. 10, at California State University, Fresno.

She will speak at a 7 p.m. meeting of the Fresno County Archaeological Society/San Joaquin Valley Chapter, Archaeological Institute of America.

The meeting will be in the Alice Peters Auditorium of the University Business Center. Admission is free. Parking restrictions will be relaxed in the University Business Center portion of Lot J.

The presentation is co-sponsored by the Fresno State Department of Geography and by Fresno City College.

Ceruti will talk about her high-altitude archaeological work with colleague Dr. Johan Reinhard. Time Magazine called their discovery of three Inca sacrificial burial sites near the summit of the Llullaillaco volcano in northwest Argentina (at an elevation of more than 22,000 feet, the highest archaeological site in the world) one of the 10 most significant scientific discoveries of 1999.

Ceruti is one of the few scientists, and the world’s only woman, to work in high-altitude archaeology.

Named a 2005 National Geographic Emerging Explorer, she has conducted research on more than 100 mountains above 16,500 feet.. Ceruti is director of the Institute of High Mountain Research at Catholic University in Salta, Argentina.

For further information, call 278.5236 or 325.8020 or e-mail jamesk@csufresno.edu.