A Nordic Touch: Stig Rydén at Khonkho Wankane
Not long after Bolivian authorities encountered Khonkho, a Swedish archaeologist was invited to help with its excavation. Stig Rydén (1947:82) arrived in Machaca toward the end of 1938, after having finished his oft-cited excavations and ceramic analyses in Tiwanaku. Machaca was more closely aligned with his primary interest in South America, which was to study the "Chullpa-graves" of the Bolivian highlands (1947:11). Rydén took photos, made drawings, conducted surface collections, analyzed monolith iconography, and excavated twelve pits at Khonkho Wankane. He was the first to conduct excavations on the "knoll" north of the main Wankane Mound, what we term the Putuni Mound.
Rydén noted that Khonkho is bounded to the east and west by natural ravines fed by mountain springs to the north. Based on still-visible outlines of upright stone slabs, Rydén (1947:82) considered Khonkho "a smaller-scale counterpart of Kalasasaya at Tiahuanacu" (Figure 6a).
Figure 6a: Stig Ryden's map of the primary structures of the Wankane platform (Ryden 1947).
Based largely on surface features, Rydén considered the Khonkho mound to consist of "three rectangular courtyards" (1947:86). The largest was the NE courtyard, what we now term the Main Plaza; bounding its west side was the NW courtyard, what we now term the Dual-Courtyard complex; and on the south side of both was the S courtyard, our Trapezoidal Court (1947:86-89).
On the Wankane Mound, Rydén excavated one unit inside of the Main Plaza (Pit 6), one unit in its East Platform (Pit 7), one unit on the west slope of the mound (Pit 4), three units in the northwest quadrant of the mound (Pits 3, 5, and 8), and two units in post-Tiwanaku tombs on the south side of the west platform (Pits 1 and 2) (Figure 6b).
Figure 6b: Plan of structure foundations, burials, and features excavated by Stig Ryden on the east platform of Khonkho Wankane, 1941 (adapted from Ryden 1947).
Though Rydén recovered ceramic sherds representing a variety of styles and forms, including styles we now know date to the Late Formative, he was struck by the presence of "Decadent" Tiwanaku and smaller amounts of post-Tiwanaku pottery in several pits.
Rydén (1947:154) concluded that Khonkho Wankane was first occupied during what we now term Tiwanaku V (AD 800-1100) and continued to be occupied into post-Tiwanaku times. Thus, he came to a conclusion quite different from that of Maks Portugal. Rydén (1947:153) based his conclusions on Khonkho's "architectural style, the excavated finds, the monoliths adjoining the ruins, and, to some extent, the character of the graves." Of the architecture, Rydén (1947:154) considered the courtyards similar to those of the Kalasasaya at Tiwanaku, but noted that at Khonkho the stones were smaller, and the structures "impress one as being poorer and more degenerate." Rydén interpreted the Jinchun Kala and Wila Kala monoliths as "Decadent" Tiwanaku rather than pre-Tiwanaku sculptures (1947:164). In this he followed Wendell Bennett's (1934) inaccurate and late chronological designation for the "Bearded Monolith" in the Sunken Temple at Tiwanaku. Summarizing his observations, Rydén concluded that the Late Formative, or what was then known as "Early Tiahuanaco," was "altogether unrepresented" at Khonkho (1947:154).
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