Maks Portugal Zamora:
Founder of archaeology at Khonkho Wankane
Maks Portugal excavated Khonkho Wankane between 1937 and 1941 (Portugal 1941, 1955; Rydén 1947). He was the first to describe its elaborately carved monoliths; the Jinchunkala, Wilakala, Tatakala- located in situ in the site's central plaza- and what Proyecto Jach'a Machaca has christened the "Portugal Monolith" (see Ohnstad, this volume). He notes that the aforementioned commission excavated twelve randomly placed units, the first eight of which "did not yield the desired results" (1941:297), whatever that desire was. Yet precociously, and based on monolithic iconography, Portugal concluded that Khonkho dates to a "primitive" pre-Tiwanaku epoch.
Working in the area of Khonkho's East Platform, Portugal (1955) encountered at least three structure foundations in his excavations, two of them rectilinear and one semi-circular. The semi-circular foundation abutted one of the rectilinear walls (Figure 5).
Figure 5: Adapted illustration of structures, burials, and
features excavated by Max portugal in the east part of the
Wankane platform, 1941 (from Portugal Zamora, El Misterio de
las Tumbas de Wanqani. Khana 11-12: 51-67).
Associated with them were "dispersed materials of stone, some worked, and camelid bone" (Portugal Zamora 1955:62). Based on associated artifacts we can date this occupation to the Late Formative, while the second rectilinear foundation dates to the Tiwanaku period.
Portugal encountered two cist tombs associated with the Late Formative occupations, in both of which metal adornments were particularly notable. Even now, these are two of the best described Late Formative burials known from the southern Lake Titicaca Basin. The first, Tomb A, contained what he considered a local "authority" (Portugal Zamora 1955:62). The person had been interred wearing a necklace of pendant bronze stars, a bronze pectoral in the form of a circle, and a bronze pin. The person also wore a bronze labrette, or chin ornament. S/he had been covered with burnt vegetation before the tomb was covered with a capstone. Less than a meter to the northeast was Tomb B (Portugal Zamora 1955:64-65). Most of its human remains had disintegrated. The only remnant part of the cranium, the frontal bone, had been covered with red ochre. Like the interred person in Tomb A, this person had been buried wearing a bronze labrette. Its right arm extended toward a cache of offerings that included a circular bronze pendant, pin, and necklace of bronze adornments joined by a piece of gold lamina.
Portugal Zamora encountered three tombs dating to the Tiwanaku period. All of them included Tiwanaku-style vessels as burial offerings, and one included a camelid-effigy incensario (Portugal 1955:66). He concluded that these burials post-dated the monoliths encountered at the site. As noted in his son's posthumous publication (Portugal Ortiz 1988:16), he later refined his position. According to Max Portugal Ortiz, his father had hypothesized that Khonkho was inhabited by a society "with clear class divisions." The use of red sandstone in Khonkho's architecture and monoliths, he continued, identifies the site as part of the "Pa-Ajanu" stone sculptural style. Portugal considered Pa-Ajanu to date to the "Qeya period," what we now term Late Formative 2 (AD 250-500). Following predominant trends in Bolivian archaeology, he interpreted this style as representing Tiwanaku's early, "proto-urban" expansion. Essentially correct, his interpretation was disregarded until very recently.
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