A Brief History of Research

The first and possibly the only archaeologist to work at the site before we initiated research in 2005 was Stig Rydén.

While community members suggest that either Maks Portugal Zamora or Max Portugal Ortiz conducted some work there, we have not been able to verify this, and they left no published record or report of that work.

By all accounts, Stig Rydén (1947:11) was far more interested in Pukara than Khonkho Wankane, in that in his travel to Bolivia in 1938 his "main object was archaeological study with particular reference to chullpa graves in the Bolivian highland," which date to the post-Tiwanaku "Colla" culture.

In fact, Pukara was one of several post-Tiwanaku sites that Rydén excavated in the immediate vicinity, which also included the Inca and Early Colonial site of Chaucha de Kula Marka in the lower foothills directly below and south of Pukara.