Rosa Fung Pineda

Rosa Eloida Fung Pineda was born in 1932 in Casma, Ancash, Peru, to Santiago Fung and Victoria Pineda. Spanish Wikipedia and reference works place her in a Chinese immigrant family. She spent her early years in Casma, then moved to Lima for secondary school at Lima High School (later Colegio Maria Alvarado) from 1948 to 1952 and at G.U.E. Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera from 1953 to 1954.

She entered the National University of San Marcos (UNMSM) to study ethnology and archaeology from 1955 to 1958, working as a research assistant in anthropology at the same time. Field experience came early: she worked with Maria Reiche in the early 1950s and again in 1956, and with Seiichi Izumi and the University of Tokyo expedition in 1958. She earned her bachelor's degree in 1963 and her doctorate in 1967 with a dissertation on Las Haldas. Postgraduate study followed at the University of Arizona in 1968 to 1969.

Fung began teaching archaeology at San Marcos in 1964 and became the first tenured female archaeologist in the Division of Social Sciences. She directed the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology from 1973 to 1978, coordinated the Archaeology Programme from 1981 to 1984, and directed the social studies graduate programme from 1985 to 1986. She also taught briefly at Arizona State University in the 1960s and later at the graduate school of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru.

Her research focused on Preceramic, Initial Period and Early Horizon societies on Peru's north-central coast and on the role of maritime resources in Andean social complexity. She directed excavations at Las Haldas in 1963 and 1964, worked at Chankillo in the 1960s, and in the 1970s continued post-earthquake work at Chavin de Huantar after Luis Lumbreras and Hernan Amat. Other sites in her record include Chivateros, Bermejo, Bandurria, Curayacu and Pacopampa. She published widely on textiles and on methods in Peruvian archaeology, including Quehaceres de la Arqueologia Peruana (2004). In 1999 San Marcos named her professor emeritus. A 2008 issue of Arqueologia y Vida was dedicated to her life and work.

Fung married the American archaeologist Edward P. Lanning; the couple had two children. She kept strong ties to Casma and to the Chinese-Peruvian community while building her academic life in Lima. Colleagues described her as a demanding teacher who opened professional archaeology to women in Peru and as a critic of lending national artefacts abroad without proper safeguards for Peruvian collections.

Rosa Fung Pineda died in Lima on 4 September 2026. Agencia Andina and the Peruvian Ministry of Culture reported her death; English Wikipedia notes the ministry announcement around 6 September 2026. No public cause of death was given in the main reports. Academic and cultural institutions in Peru expressed condolences to her family, students and colleagues.

Fung is remembered as a pioneer among professional women archaeologists in Peru and as a scholar who tied coastal fieldwork to questions about the maritime foundations of Andean civilisation. Her teaching at San Marcos, her museum leadership, her work at Las Haldas and Chankillo, and her writings on textiles and method remain part of the training of Peruvian archaeologists. Spanish and English Wikipedia articles, the Commons portrait from 1968, and the Ministry of Culture tribute mark the public record of her life.