Skip to main content

Arturo Posnansky Biography

Arturo Posnansky

(Arturo or Arthur Posnansky; Vienna, 1874-La Paz, 1946) Bolivian archaeologist.Born into a family of Polish origin, he studied in his country and in Bavaria, and became an engineer and doctor in natural sciences.At the end of the 1890s, during the rubber rush, he worked in a river transport company, for which he made numerous expeditions and explorations through the Amazon of Bolivia and Brazil.On behalf of the company, he carried out the hydrographic survey of the Acre River.

Arthur Posnansky

When the independence movement broke out in the state of Acre in 1900, Posnansky supported the Bolivian government; During the war he made his river boat available to the authorities of La Paz, which he renamed Iris, to participate in the blockade of the Acre River.After the defeat of Bolivia in the war he decided to return to Europe.In 1903 he returned to Bolivia and established his residence in La Paz.He then began a brilliant and multifaceted scientific career as an engineer, explorer, anthropologist, archaeologist, historian, photographer, film director and owner of mines; Thanks to his scientific merits, the Bolivian government granted him Bolivian citizenship.

In the 1920s he founded the film production company Cóndor Mayku, with which he produced and directed numerous shorts, documentaries and feature films.One of the most important works produced by his production company was La Gloria de la Raza , a feature film that Posnansky himself directed in 1928.In this case, he used the cinematographic medium to disseminate his discoveries and draw attention to the monumental character of pre-Columbian civilizations.Posnansky was the central character in the film, in which, accompanied by a native as a guide, he visited the ruins of pre-Columbian cultures.

He dedicated a large part of his life to photographing, filming and studying the ruins of Tiwanaku, which, according to his investigations, was the city in which all the civilization of South America originated, a theory that was never accepted by the scientific community.He thought that the Tiwanaku culture had started in the region around 1600 BC.and lasted until 1200 AD.In 1922 he founded the Tiwanaku Archaeological Museum, which he endowed with an important collection of lithic pieces, ceramics and other samples of the Tiwanaku culture and other pre-Columbian cultures of the region.Posnansky also photographed mining towns, villages and numerous rural settlements, topics on which he published numerous books.

In the field of engineering, Posnansky focused his attention on the treatment of the waters of the highlands and their drainage to the western basin, then Bolivian territory.Around 1930 he proposed the construction of a dam near Lake Titicaca, which would be fed by diverted rivers from the Eastern Cordillera.In this way it intended to take advantage of the water for irrigation, the production of electrical energy and the creation of new navigable routes.In 1937 he spread his proposal to empty the waters of the Desaguadero River towards Pisagua through a complicated system of aqueducts and tunnels.With this project he intended to generate a large amount of electrical energy, which could even be exported to Argentina.

He was appointed by the Bolivian government as director of the National Museum of Bolivia.His prestige earned him the election of president of the Archaeological Society and the Institute of Folklore of Bolivia.He wrote numerous works throughout his life, among which are Tiwanaku and Islands of the Sun and the Moon; Tiwanaku, the cradle of American man; Prehistoric monuments of the Andean highlands; The Chipaya language; Anthropology and sociology of the inter-Andean races and of the adjacent regions .An eminent archaeologist and anthropologist, Arthur Posnansky brilliantly expounded his doctrines on the antecedents of the discovery of America and the origins of pre-Columbian civilization, and his scholarly work has an obvious literary interest due to its qualities.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The history of the flags of the world

Maybe you've ever stopped to think where the flags come from, because they have those colors or shapes, because some have drawings and others have stripes.Because there are flags of different countries that are very similar, it may be a coincidence or perhaps they have something in common.To this and other questions we will answer in this article that we have titled The history of the flags of the world. History of the flags of the world | Origin of the Flags The flags are responsible for generating the identity signals of a country , it is the embodiment of a series of values ​​that hold a community together or region that share a series of characteristics, whether geographical, cultural or historical. When several nations have shared a common period in history, it is normal that they also share symbols, examples such as the flags of the Nordic countries or as with New Zealand and Australia. Today all countries are represented by their corresponding flag, but ...
Post a Comment
Read more

X-ray history

The X-rays were discovered in 1895 and from there they became a very revolutionary application in many branches of science, from astronomy to radiographs that we have not done so many times.the 120th anniversary of the X-rays knowing his inventor and the research that led him to such an important scientific advance. Article index Who invented the X-rays? The inventor or, rather, the person who discovered the X-rays was Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen , a German physicist who was focused on the field of electromagnetics Nothing else to present his discovery, Rontgen's theory received great attention from critics and public, and was translated into French, English or Russian. Although it is not a name as well known today as that of others you celebrate writers, the name of Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen is written in gold letters in the medical field, where he has had and has and numerous applications.The importance of his discovery was such in his day that he was the first Nobel Prize ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jose Maria Galvez Alonso Biography

José María Gálvez Alonso (Matanzas, 1834-Havana, 1906) Cuban lawyer and politician.After studying law at the University of Havana, he sympathized with the independence movement of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes that led to the Ten Years' War (1868-1878), and served their cause from New York, taking charge of the leadership of the newspaper The Revolution .Due to the complaints and appeals that he published on its pages, he was arrested and imprisoned by the Spanish authorities, and released with the amnesty that was granted once the war ended. José María Gálvez Alonso then founded the Partido Liberal Autonomista (1881), formation that during the following years competed for power with the Conservative Party.Gálvez, who advocated bringing Cuban society and institutions to a point of maturity and sufficient stability as a step prior to independence, also directed the Economic Society of Friends of the Country.He was president of the short-lived autonomous government of Cuba (1897-18...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jose Oller Roca Biography

José Oller Roca (Terrasa, 1839-Paris, 1922) French businessman, one of the leading figures in Belle Epoque Paris, creator of the Moulin Rouge.His instinct and his entrepreneurial character made him for years considered the greatest entertainer of Parisian nights. Although born in Spain, Oller Roca moved to Paris at the age of three, as his father, Francisco Oller Xatart, had gone to the capital of the Seine from his native Catalonia to start a textile business which was immediately prosperous.José's two brothers, Alejandro and Juan, were born in Paris and his mother, Teresa Roca, died. José Oller's childhood was spent in a placid and comfortable environment.He was educated as an intern at the Liceo de Saint Denis, and expanded his training with trips to Europe and visits to his relatives in Spain, where he perfected his knowledge of Spanish.After finishing his studies, he helped his father in the weaving business for a time, but soon began to study some personal projects...
Post a Comment
Read more

Joseph Boussinesq Biography

Joseph Boussinesq (Saint-André-de-Sangonis, 1842-Paris, 1929) French mathematician.He also studied physics and was a professor of different disciplines in Paris.A member of the Academy of Sciences, his work covered very diverse fields of physics, mathematics and philosophy.His statistical studies on hydrodynamics are especially interesting.His works include Infinitesimal Analysis Course and Analytical Theory of Heat.
Post a Comment
Read more

Joseph Reinach Biography

Joseph Reinach (Paris, 1856-1921) French journalist.He started in the journalistic profession through the Parisian newspaper La République Française , where from 1877 he began to publish interesting political analyzes that placed him at the epicenter of French public life in the last quarter of the century XIX.He acquired such importance in such a short space of time that in 1881, following the proclamation in France of the Third Republic, President León Gambetta called him to his side to place all his trust in him and appoint him head of his secretariat. At only thirty years old (1886), he became editor-in-chief of La République Française .Once this position was released, he directed a noisy journalistic campaign from the pages of the newspaper against the nationalist and populist politics of Georges Boulanger (the " General Revanche ").With this and other similar matters of maximum national interest, Joseph Reinach continued to rise in French public life and, in 188...
Post a Comment
Read more

Angel Zárraga and Argüelles Biography

Ángel Zárraga y Argüelles (Durango, 1886-Mexico, 1946) Mexican painter and poet.Very soon he began to combine his interest in the visual arts with his innate literary vocation, and the sum of both creative activities made him one of the great figures of Aztec culture of the first half of the 20th century. As a member of the Mexican diplomatic corps, for several years he was stationed in Paris as cultural attaché to the Aztec embassy.In the French capital, Ángel Zárraga y Argüelles had the opportunity to establish contact with the main artistic figures of the moment, to learn about the latest trends and currents in European art and to participate in different groups such as the Society of Decorating Artists of Paris, which provided the opportunity to extend the field of his artistic creations to the noblest spaces of old Europe. Thus, the Mexican painter was commissioned to execute the frescoes that decorate the crypt of the church of Suresnes, the Via Crucis of the church of Meu...
Post a Comment
Read more

Joseph Rotblat Biography

Joseph Rotblat (Warsaw, 1908-London, 2005) British physicist of Polish origin trained by the University of Warsaw.He participated in the Manhattan project to build the atomic bomb, resigning in 1944 and returning to the United Kingdom.He worked in the fields of nuclear physics and X-rays, although he was noted for his activity against nuclear weapons.He was one of the organizers of the Pugwash conference, of which he was general secretary (1957-1973) and, from 1988 until his death, president.In 1995 he received the Nobel Peace Prize, which he shared with the Pugwash conference that he chaired.
Post a Comment
Read more

Jose Maria de la Cruz Prieto Biography

José María de la Cruz Prieto (Concepción, 1799- id ., 1875) Chilean military and politician.He fought in the War of Independence and, as chief of staff, in the war against Peru and Bolivia (1839).Candidate for the presidency in 1851, he revolted when Manuel Montt won the elections, and was defeated in the battle of Loncomilla.
Post a Comment
Read more

Jose Rivera Indarte Biography

José Rivera Indarte (Córdoba, 1813-Santa Catalina, 1845) Argentine poet.He first praised the dictator Rosas in poems such as El hymn federal (1834) and El hymn de los restauradores (1835), and then attacked him ( The tyrant Juan Manuel Rosas ), for which he was exiled to Montevideo, where he wrote The Hebraic Melodies .
Post a Comment
Read more