Chiripá

The Chiripa culture existed between the Initial Period/Early Horizon, from 1400 to 850 BC along the southern shore of Lake Titicaca in Bolivia. The word chiripa in Spanish means "lucky break".

The site of Chiripa consists of a large mound platform that dominates the settlement. On the platform is a rectangular sunken plaza with a carved stone in the center of the plaza. (Plaza dimensions: 22 x 23.5 meters, 517 m2). Rituals occurred in specially prepared public places like the plaza suggesting the importance of rituals in the creation and maintenance of legitimacy and power.

There are fourteen upper houses with thatched roofs and double walls of cobble and adobe, arranged in a trapezoid surrounding the sunken plaza. These were first identified by Bennet (1936 ). Each had decorative wall paintings, prepared yellow clay floors and between building wall bins, believed to be for ceremonial storage. Access to the plaza and upper houses was limited to two openings, each on the North and South side of complex. Access to individual upper houses was a single stone door. Access to wall bins was by single ornate window.

Bennet (1936) excavated burials in the floors of one of the upper houses. Most of the stone-marked burials were children or infants. Adult burials were not usually marked. Gold, copper, shell, and lapis goods were found in many of the stone-marked infant/child graves. While these goods were only found in the one stone-marked adult grave. Adult skeletal remains were often found in bundles in parts of the site above ground. Variability in grave goods and structure of burials may suggest different statuses in society.

During the Early Horizon period, farmers maintained small gardens where quinoa and other plants grew and were harvested for consumption. Around 800 BC, we find samples composed almost entirely of quinoa at Chiripa's social and political center, the Montículo (a type of mound)

The Taraco Archaeological Project (TAP), directed by Dr. Christine Hastorf, is investigating the Early and Middle Formative occupation at Chiripa, 1500 BC-100 AD TAP has subdivided this occupation into three phases: Early Chiripa (1500-1000 BC), Middle Chiripa (1000-800 BC), and Late Chiripa (800 BC-AD 100), based on ceramic styles and architecture and agriculture.

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