History of Investigations at the Site of Chiripa MATTHEW S. BANDY THE FIRST MENTION OF Chiripa as an area of archaeological or antiquarian interest seems to have been by Padre Pedro Marabini in a short piece in the Boletin de la Sociedad Geogrdfica de La Paz in 1920. Marabini described the mound at the site in the following terms: Se trata aqui de un pequenio cerrito o en su cir- cular enteramente rodeado de menhires profundamente plantados en el suelo del que sobresalen medidas desiguales, debido quiza's a la desigualidad de la erosion por las diferentes clases de piedras. (cited in Ponce 1957) He also described another 'cerrito' about 2 kilometers away, in the direction of the lake. Given that the mound is currently less than I kilometer from the lake, it is not clear to what he was referring. Such a feature has not been located or noted since. Marabini makes no mention of looting or destruction of the mound, though it may have been present. He concludes with a suggestion that scien- tific work be conducted on the mound: ...no dudamos de que tambien aqui como en Huacullani una excavaci6n metodica pudiera ser de muy buenos resultados para la ciencia arqueologica. (cited in Ponce 1957) WENDELL BENNETT It would be fourteen years before this suggestion was to be taken up, though probably unknowingly, by Wendell Bennett (1936), em- ployed at the time by the American Museum of Natural History in New York. In 1934 Bennett excavated at Chiripa after he concluded his season in Tiwanaku in which the Bennett Monolith was unearthed. This was the same season in which he excavated at Lukurmata and Pajchiri. He stayed in Chiripa for five weeks, living in the now-ruined hacienda house. Bennett excavated one large trench, two structures and four smaller trenches in the mound, and six other trenches nearby. Figure 4 displays his and others' excavations on the mound. Of the non-mound trenches, he has little to say. Three were apparently located 'in the field to the north of the mound', where the parking lot for the mound is currently located (two of these are indicated on his 10 Early Settlement at Chiripa, Bolivia published site plan ind on figure 4). Another trench was located "near the road just east of the house" and another "in a low mound to the south- east of the house" (probably under the school by this point). Finally, one small trench (CH- I 1) was excavated "at the old Chiripa ranch, about one mile east of the present hacienda," a site we have not yet been able to locate with certainty. In the mound, he placed a trench in the center of the central sunken court, another in the center of the east wall, and another along the southern portion of the west wall. The walls of the court had already been heavily disturbed by the hacienda landowners who extracted building stone for the hacienda house and church. Quanfying marks are still visible on a number of the exposed stones of this central court. He thus was excavat- ing basically the looters' backdirt. Some portions of the walls were preserved intact and were drawn. In addition, he excavated a long east-west trench on the north side of the mound, exposing a badly disturbed section of the facing wall of the Tiwanaku period "temple" platform. The bulk of Bennett's efforts, however, were devoted to the excavation of a very large (2 m wide by 30 m long) trench from the northwest interior corner of the Tiwanaku sunken court to the northern edge of the mound. This trench was excavated in places to a depth of five meters, and collapsed only minutes after the profile drawing was finished. Fortunately, no one was injured. Through an analysis of his drawing of the profile of this trench, Bennett defines four stratigraphic units in the mound's history. 1. A pre-mound stratum, characterized as reflect- ing remains of domestic habitation. It contained remains of walls, ash lenses, middens, and so forth. This stratum extends beyond the limits of the mound, and so he believes it to predate mound formation. 2. A house stratum, containing the well-known double-walled houses. These houses were built upon a layer of artificial fill, and were associ- ated with a stone-walled sunken court with a yellow clay floor. The houses were destroyed by fire. 3. A depositional episode associated with the construction of the Tiwanaku sunken court. Artificial fill was placed on top of the ruins of the houses, and the central court and facing wall were constructed. A large number of burials were associated with this activity. 4. A post-temple period, represented by 'Deca- dent Tiahuanaco' burials. Houses 1 and 2 were discovered while excavating this trench. It is to these structures that Chiripa owes the modest fame that it has achieved. The west wall of House 1 was destroyed in the process of trench excavation. After it was realized that these houses were present, Bennett expanded his trench and completely excavated both struc- tures. In all, Bennett excavated twenty-eight burials and five fragmentary deposits of human bone. The Chiripa burials were clearly distin- guished from the Tiwanaku ones by types of grave goods and cranial deformation. Bennett notes some evidence of disturbance that was present before his arrival. Most obvious was the looting of the Tiwanaku sunken court for architectural stone. He also notes, however, that the eastern portion of the exterior mound facing wall had been disturbed, and that construction of adobe corrals (the chancheria) to the south had removed part of the mound in that area. MAKS PORTUGAL ZAMORA Y MARIA LUISA SANCHEZ BUSTAMENTE DE URIOSTE There is some confusion as to the exact date when these two carried out excavations at Chiripa. This confusion is compounded by the almost anecdotal evidence that their project did, in fact, take place. This work is known, to my knowledge, only through a four-page 1940 report to the Bolivian Minister of Education entitled Los Hallazgos de la Hacienda Chiripa. This report was used by Portugal Ortiz (1992) in an article published in the Universidad Mayor de San Andres' journal, Textos Antropologicos. In addition, Javier Escalante has published a plan derived from these excavations (1994, fig. 56). The work is also referenced in an unpublished report by Gregorio Cordero Miranda (n.d.). According to the Portugal Z. report, he and Sra. Bustamente were sent on a reconnaissance expedition to the Taraco Peninsula by the Bolivian Ministry of Education. They were charged Histo,w of Investigations 11 1040.00-) 1 1 1030.(0)- 1020(.0(0- 1010.00- 1(K0.0)- 99(.(0)- 980.(X)- 970.00- 960.00- 950.00- D 17 96. 50 96.50 Mont. 3 Mont. 2 99* so .qt- M..o. 1-A Mont. Il-A Mont. 1-B 0 .9 So 3W 940.(X) I I I I I I 99(.(0) (X)0.(0) TAP 1996 excavations Browman excavations Kidder excavations Bennett excavations Portugal Z. excavations I I 1010.(0 1020.(X) Hypothetical Upper House e Datum 1030.00 1040.00 1050.(0 106(1.(K) 0.25 meter contour lOm FIGURE 4 Plan of Monticulo excavations with all previous excavations. 980(X) U D L. 12 Earvl Settlement at Chiripa, Bolivia specifically with investigation of Chiripa and Huacullani, and of prospecting for additional sites in the area. Indeed, Portugal Z. is the first to mention the site of Chiaramaya, near Chiripa, which is only mentioned again by Erickson (1975). Portugal O., who obviously is in posses- sion of the Portugal Z. report and quotes from it at length and verbatim (1992), states that the work took place in 1940. Cordero (n.d.), on the other hand, states that Portugal Z. and Bustamente were present in Chiripa in 1937. Given that Cordero's report was probably written in 1955 or 1956, I am inclined to credit his date and to assume that Portugal 0. simply took the date of Portugal Z.'s report to be the year of the excavations. Whatever the case, Portugal Z. stayed 'algunas dias' with Srta. Sara Penia, sister of the owner of the hacienda. He notes that some disturbance had taken place on the mound since the work of Bennett, only three years earlier. ...es triste decirlo ha desaparecido el angulo N.O. del morro, quedando destruidos los importantes hallazgos del arqueologo Bennett, en la actualidad queda muy poco del famoso morro... ...la esquina N.E. del morro que ahora por su cercamiento presenta a la vista de vuelo de pajaro una linea escalonada corresponiendo la ultima parte a la cancha de tenis... (1940:2) In the interim the hacendados, the Penia sisters, had constructed a tennis court on the north side of the mound. In the construction of this tennis court, they had cut into the north face of the mound, destroying Bennett's House 1 and most of House 2. Only the southwestern angle of House 2 was preserved. The construction of this tennis court was particularly egregious, as the hacendados, present during Bennett's excavations, clearly knew of the presence of these structures; they most likely weren't even backfilled. Seen in this light, Portugal Z.'s assertion that El siempre ignora el valor historico de los monumentos y al mandato de sus superiores destruye sin piedad cuanto terreno esta al alcance de sus picotas y azadas, ha ocurrido eso con el precioso morro de Chiripa y he quedado hoy mostrando los restos del bandaje en su pared del lado Este. . . (1940:2) seems particularly disingenuous. This passage does, however, indicate that the destruction of the eastern face of the mound, noted by Bennett as disturbance, was well-advanced by 1937, and was probably already in the state observed by Kidder in 1955, with the easternmost portion of the Chiripa houses on that side removed. Portugal Z. and Bustamente seem to have cleaned the remains of Bennett's House 2, and then to have proceeded with new excavations. Like the year in which the project took place, the location of these excavations is a matter of some uncertainty. Escalante's redrawings of what is almost certainly one of Portugal Z. and Bustamente's excavation plans (1994, fig. 56; also Portugal 0. 1992:15) clearly indicate that the house excavated corresponded to that house later termed House 3 by Kidder. That is, the excava- tions were located on the northwest corner of the mound, immediately adjacent to Bennett's House 2 excavations. Portugal Z.'s text, however, indicates that the house he excavated was located on the northeast corner of the mound. La comision ordeno trabajar una zanja diago- nal pasando por el limite del llamado "templo" por Bennett, se encontraron dos piedras con cimientos haciendo aingulo parece que este dato rectificara la hipotesis de Bennett; continuando siempre en esta zanja se encontraron los restos de una pared se continu6 trabajando algunos dias hasta descubrir una "casa"de 6.70 mts. por 3.40 mts. de ancho muy semejantes a las encontradas por el arqueologo norteamericano. (1940:3) First of all, then, the trench exited the "templo" diagonally, exposing an intact corner. This could not, then refer to the northwest corner of the mound, since Bennett's trench of three years previous had removed that corner of the "templo," and had encountered no intact corner. The house encountered could not possibly be Kidder's House 3, then, as it would have to be on the wrong side of the mound. He continues (1940:3), in reference to this mysterious house: History of Investigations 13 La pared S.0. dio por resultado el hallazgo de la puerta de entrada, la misma que lleva al centro de las paredes un hueco para puerta corrediza... The door of the house, then, was located in the southwest wall of the house. Cordero (n.d.: 2) adds: En el sector Noreste, exactamente en este angulo parcialmente destruido se levantan algunas paredes, segutn referencias de los propietarios estas fueron limpiadas por la sefiora Maria S. B. de Urioste y el sefior Maks Portu- gal en el aiio 1937 con excelentes resultados... This indicates beyond doubt that the house excavated was 1) one of the corner houses of the mound complex, like House 2, and 2) that it was located in the northeast corner of the mound, assuming the door, like the doors of all the known Chiripa mound houses, faced the sunken court. All this is to say that the house excavated by Portugal Z. and Bustamente de Urioste was the one termed House C by Kidder. Escalante's identification of this structure as House 3 is apparently mistaken. The traces of their trench are, in fact, still visible on the surface of the northeast corner of the mound. In all respects, the house seems similar to Houses 1 and 2. In addition four burials were found under the floor of the house (tombs 7- l 0). Six more tombs were excavated. Tombs 4, 5, and 7-10 are described by Portugal Z. (1940), while tombs 1, 2, and 3 remain something of a mystery. The burials under the house floor and others contained quite elaborate grave goods including gold plumes and plaques in two cases. KIDDER, CORDERO, SAWYER, COE Y "LA SENORA DE KIDDER" In 1955 another archaeological project arrived at Chiripa. Like previous investigators, they enjoyed the hospitality of the proprietors, Sra. Hortensia Penia de Ituralde and her sister, Srta. Sara Peiia during their thirty-seven days in resi- dence. Arriving after a series of excavations at Tiwanaku, the party consisted of Gregorio Cordero Miranda, "delegado del Ministerio de Educaci6n" (Cordero n.d.: 1) and: ...los miembros de la Comision Arqueologica americana presidida por el Dr. Alfred Kidder II, Subdirector del Museo de Pensilvania e integrada por el doctor Alan S. Sawyer, conservador del departamento de Artes Decorativas del Instituto de Artes de Chicago; Dr. William Coe, Arque6logo Asistente del Dr. Kidder y la seniora de Kidder. (Cordero n.d.: 1) Almost no information on the excavations of this project has been published. The only sources of which I am aware are Kidder (1956) and the very important article by Karen Mohr Chavez (1988, particularly, for our purposes, figure 3) based on the access of that author to Kidder's unpublished material. In addition, Cordero (n.d.) prepared a nine-page typewritten report on his part in the excavations, which remains unpublished, and Chaivez's (then Karen Mohr) M.A. thesis (1966) contains some additional information. Cordero indicates, and Chaivez corroborates, that the work of "la Mision Kidder" was divided into three mini-projects, each investigator having a separate excavation area for which he was respon- sible. Thus, Sawyer constructed a map of the mound and worked on the northeastern and eastern portions of the monument. He cleared the previ- ously excavated House C (as indicated by Cordero's remark, quoted earlier), and seemingly (according to Chavez 1988, fig. 3) discovered traces of another House on the north side of the mound and adjacent to House C; this would be House B. These walls seem to have been observed on or near the surface, and no true excavation of this house seems to have been undertaken. Addi- tionally, Sawyer cleaned the eastern profile of the mound, already noted as much-disturbed by Bennett and Portugal Z. In this profile he discov- ered the remains of a number of additional houses, as Cordero (n.d.:2) recounts: ...esta casa [House C] estaba muy unida a otra que se encontraba en el lado este, parcialmente cortada muestra en sus lados laterales muros dobles y corresponde a la parte interior de una construccion, viendose una entrada principal al centro... ...inmediatos a esta pared se notan otras paredes que posiblemente corresponden a otras casas... Chaivez (1988, fig. 3), presumably drawing 14 Early Settlement at Chiripa, Bolivia from Sawyer's notes ahd map, indicates that four such houses were discovered in the mound's eastern profile: Houses D - G. Cordero's descrip- tions and a photograph published by Kidder (1956, fig. 17) show that the remaining undisturbed portion of House D, perhaps the easternmost 1/3 of the house, was excavated by Sawyer. He also seems to have engaged in some trenching to define the walls of the partially destroyed structures he observed in the mound's eastern profile. The details of Sawyer's excavations, map, and profile drawing remain to be published. Coe, meanwhile, was engaged in investiga- tions on the northwest corner of the mound. Kidder states that work in this area began with the cleaning of the quite substantial mound profile created by the construction of the tennis court. Cleaning of this profile revealed the surviving southwest corner of House 2, as well as a stone wall and other deposits underlying this house. According to Chaivez and Cordero, Coe then proceeded to clean the corner of House 2 and excavated the northeast corner of the adjacent house to the south, House 3. Destroying the exposed portions of these houses, and thereby destroying the last traces of House 2, he deepened his excavations to expose the remains of two structures underneath the corner of House 2. This is the so-called 'Lower House Level', as opposed to the 'Upper House Level' of Houses 1-5 and B- G. Apparently the excavations went even deeper than this, to expose strata of the 'Sub-Lower House Level' (perhaps equivalent to Bennett's 'Pre-Mound strata', or perhaps simply construc- tion fill for the Lower House Level structures). Details of these lower levels are lacking, however, though it appears that the lower excavations were quite limited in extent. Excavations in this area are illustrated in Kidder (1956, figs. 14-16) and Chaivez (1988, fig. 1). Kidder and Cordero, meanwhile, were working on the western side of the mound. Cordero himself participated in these excavations, while he only observed the others. Thus it is in connection with this area that Cordero provides the most complete and detailed information. Taking as a datum point a large upright in the western wall of the uppermost Tiwanaku "temple," they proceeded to excavate a one-meter wide trench from this stone westward. This large upright was drawn by Bennett (1936, fig. 16) and used by him as an elevation point for his temple excavations. It later served Browman as a datum also. At a point 6 m west of the large upright, at a depth of 30 cm, a double-coursed fieldstone wall was encountered. The trench was expanded to the west of this wall and eventually revealed that this wall was part of an enclosure, the east wall of which (the wall initially encountered) had a length of 7 meters. These walls were probably at one point walls of a rectangular building-the west wall of which had been removed by recent distur- bance. No interior floor surface was encountered in the excavations. Kidder and Chaivez attribute this structure to the Tiwanaku period. It is possi- bly contemporary with the Tiwanaku period sunken temple on the mound. Kidder and Cordero then deepened their excavations in the interior of these walls, discover- ing somewhat below the upper walls the remains of one of the "Upper Houses," previously un- known, which they labelled House 5. This house, all but the southwest corner that was untouched, was completely excavated, and the floor (yellow clay plaster) removed in order to search for sub- floor burials. Additionally, a small portion of the southwest corner of the adjacent house to the north, House 4, was excavated, indicating that, as on the east side of the mound, adjacent houses shared a common outer bin wall. This is indicated on Chaivez's map (1988, fig. 3). The House 5 excavations are depicted in Kidder (1957, figs. 12- 13). The 1955 project resulted in a three-phase history of the Formative occupation of the site of Chiripa, derived from the stratigraphy of the mound. These phases were: 1) the Upper House Level, 2) the Lower House Level, and 3) the Sub- Lower House Level. Through radiocarbon dating these phases were placed at 600-100 B.C., 900-600 B.C., and 1400-900 B.C., respectively (Chaivez 1988: 18; see also Ralph 1959). These strati- graphic levels were ceramically defined by Mohr (1966). Kidder persisted in thinking of the mound as a 'village' of 15 'houses', as opposed to Bennett's proposed 14. Kidder backfilled his excavations, a practice History of Investigations 15 which we must regard as commendable. However, he still generated a formidable amount of backdirt. This soil was heaped up in the center of the mound's central sunken court, forming a sharp conical heap. This pile is visible on the aerial photos of the August 1955 flight of the Instituto Geograifico Militar, indicating that the excavation was probably com-pleted by this time. This backdirt mound was later to present an obstacle to the excavations of Browman. DAVID BROWMAN AND GREGORIO CORDERO MIRANDA Browman spent two seasons working at Chiripa, in 1974 and 1975. He was accompanied by Gregorio Cordero Miranda, the same Cordero who had participated in Kidder's excavations. Also present were four of Browman's students from Washington University, Clark Erickson, Darwin Horn, Charles Miksicek, and Jonathan Kent, most of whom went on to advanced studies in Andean prehistory. The details of these excavations are no more clear than are those of the earlier projects. The most detailed account that has appeared is Browman's (1978a). Other related documents include Browman (1978b, 1980, 1981, 1991), Erickson (1975), and Kent (1982). According to Browman (1978a:807), the work consisted of "two seasons of clearing at the temple of Chiripa, including three stratified cuts testing earlier deposits." Interestingly, this was the first project at the site that did not excavate an Upper House Level structure. Instead the majority of time in the field was devoted to clearing the central sunken court of the mound, from which some 1450 cubic meters of fill was eventually removed (Browman 1978a:81 1). All of this fill seems to have been screened, representing a monumental effort. This 'temple' had been dis- turbed heavily, both by looting and stone-robbing on the part of the hacendados and by the previous excavations of Bennett. Browman was able, nonetheless, to find some "undisturbed pockets" (1978a:8 10) which yielded "Tiwanaku III" ceram- ics. This, to Browman, indicated that this late temple was constructed in the Tiwanaku III period. His late temple evidence is not presented in a form that allows us to evaluate this interpretation. The central court was excavated in an 'ice cube tray' strategy, leaving a grid of 'witness sections' covering the temple. Sometime after Browman left the field it was decided that these balks prevented tourist access to the temple, and they were removed, with only a central witness column being left intact. This column was still standing as of June 1998. In addition to the temple excavations, three small units were excavated in undisturbed levels. To my knowledge, the location and details of these excavations have not been published. However, a CIAT topographic map of the mound which was produced with Browman's support indicates excavations in 1) the northeast interior corner of the central sunken court; 2) at the base of the 'tennis court profile'; that is to say, under the prior location of Bennett's House 2; and 3) on the north face of the mound, immediately north of the former location of House 1. The walls of Bennett's trench and the 'tennis court profile' were also cleaned and, presumably, drawn. These locations have been confirmed by onsite discus- sion with persons present at the excavations. Since we have no indication of the labels given by Browman to these excavation areas, we will refer to them simply as Pits 1-3, in the order listed above. Pit 1 apparently revealed the remains of a central sunken court predating the Tiwanaku III one, which Browman attributes to his Mamani phase, corresponding to the Upper House Level. This earlier temple had been heavily disturbed by Tiwanaku-phase robbing of stones for use in the later temple (Browman 1978:810). Browman also claims to have found evidence of an exterior mound-facing wall relating to the Upper House Level, and separate from that of the Tiwanaku phase temple. Evidence for this retaining wall could only have come from Pit 3, since in the area of Pit 2 the mound had already been removed (by construction of the tennis court) to below the level this wall would have occupied. The contexts referred to by Browman as relating to the earlier Condori and Llusco phases could have been from any of the three pits. Fur- ther clarification of this issue must await publica- tion of relevant data by Browman. On the basis of the excavation of these three pits, Browman elab- orated a three-phase chionology of the Formative 16 Early Settlement at Chiripa, Bolivia period at the site. The dates of these phases seem to change slightly between publications but are approximately (from Browman 1991): Condori (1350-850 B.C.), Llusco (850-650 B.C.), and Mamani (650-50 B.C.). Browman (1978a) be- lieves these to be roughly equivalent to Kidder's Sub-Lower House Level, Lower House Level, and Upper House Level, respectively. Browman's project shifted more dirt than any project at the site before or since. His disposal of backdirt has had a major effect on the contem- porary topography of the mound. Backdirt, both Browman's own and that of Kidder, which had to be removed from the center of the mound, seems to have been dumped in three main locations: 1) in the area to the southwest of the hacienda house, providing fill for the northwest corner of the soccer field; 2) over the south face of the mound, covering the area of pig pens, by that time already abandoned and in ruins; and 3) around the north- west corner of the mound, that is in the area of the 'tennis court' cut. Dirt seems to have been re- moved from the center of the temple in wheelbar- rows, through the gap left by the Bennett trench, and dumped on the flat surface of the now- abandoned tennis court. The dumping over the south face of the mound has prevented major slumping and erosion of the mound. The dumping in the tennis court has also prevented erosion and slumping, but has obscured the original outlines of the court in some areas.