SITE DIRECTORY
Photograph of Structure 1 at Huayrachinas looking northeast.
The site of Huayrachinas consists of the stone foundations of 30 circular and 15 rectangular structures which are dispersed around the head of a dry quebrada approximately 500 m to the north of the current plaza of Porco. Traces of at least 20 huayrachinas, after which the area is named, are situated on the ridgetop to the east of these buildings.
Topographic map of Huayrachinas.
The architectural remains at Huayrachinas are similar to those found at other Inka storage centers in the southern Andes where circular and rectangular storage buildings (qollqas) are interspersed. The nature of the architecture at Huayrachinas strongly suggests that the site was constructed by the Inkas to store provisions for mining personnel. This would have included carbon to fuel the huayrachinas as well as food and supplies for workers and administrators, almost all of which would have been imported from lower elevations, such as the area around Visijsa (present day Yura) 30 km to the southwest. However, all excavated contexts reflected reuse during the early Colonial period, and the largest building, a rectangular structure (Structure 1) located near the center of the site, appears to have been constructed after the Spanish conquest as small quantities of European goods were found in a stratum underlying the building’s foundation.
Decorated late-prehispanic and early colonial bowls
from Huayrachinas.
Smelting feature in Structure 1.
Funding for this project provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities,
the National Science Foundation, the Curtiss T. Brennan and Mary G. Brennan
Foundation, and Colorado State University.
Please direct any comments or questions about the project to the director,
Mary Van Buren.
Web site designed by Andrew Mueller