Research Items

Abstract

Archaic Culture of the Northern Andes MM. A. Metraux and H. Lehmann figure and describe (J. Soc. des Am6ricanistes, N.S. 29, 1) archaic objects sculptured in stone which were acquired in the course of an expedition to the plateau lands of Bolivia in 1931. Some time was spent at Oruro, where they were advised of the existence of a collection of these objects. They traced them to the village of Bele"n in the province of Cercado, forty-five kilometres from Oruro. Here similar examples were found sparsely scattered among miscellaneous rubbish, derived from buildings, in a mound in the centre of the village. The mound was about fifteen metres high and about thirty metres long. Other sculptures were found in the walls of adjacent enclosures and buildings, as well as a number of inscribed plaques, some built into the structure of the church. Excavation of the mound was impossible. Much potsherd material was scattered about the mound, but of modern origin. The objects collected, archaic in style, consisted of a number of heads of Felidae of a varying degree of realism, heads with conventional representations of the human features, a llama, in which the natural form of the stone is merely elaborated, and a number of stones and plaques with geometrical ornament. There is also a figure of a demon. A small number of such archaic sculptures had been recorded previously; but nothing was known of their origin and affinities, beyond that they showed no relation to any known form of Andine prehistoric art. They were evidently intended for affixing to the walls of a building, and with this as a clue a relation with the earliest phase of the Tia-huanaco culture is established. It is therefore concluded on a basis of comparative study that these sculptures represent the most southerly extension of an archaic north Andean culture, and the most archaic phase of Andean sculpture and art.