Pucara de Tilcara

The Pucará de Tilcara is an archaeological site formed by numerous constructions carried out by the Tilcaras, a partiality of the Omaguacas, at a strategic point on the Quebrada de Humahuaca, in the Province of Jujuy, Republic of Argentina.

It is located 1 km south of the city of Tilcara, on a hill 80 meters high, next to the confluence of the Huasamayo River and the Grande River, which runs there at 2450 ms. no. m.. It was an ideal place to defend against attacks, since it dominated the crossroads of the only two roads in the area. On one side, it is defended by the cliffs over the Rio Grande and on the other, by the rough slopes. In the more accessible slopes they built high walls. The pucarás had not only defensive purposes but also social and religious ones. From that height they could control the surrounding cultivated fields and the houses of the peasants in the low lands.

It is one of the most important and well-known areas of the ancient pre-Hispanic populations of the Humahuaca region. It has an extension of 8 to 15 hectares and is approximately 1160 ± 70 years old. Its occupation extended until the Inca period, becoming an administrative llacta. In the pucará several neighborhoods of houses, corrals, a necropolis and a place for sacred ceremonies, among other spaces, are identified.

Discover and reconstruction

It was discovered in 1908 by the ethnographer Juan Bautista Ambrosetti, during one of his archaeological investigations in northwestern Argentina, in the company of his disciple (and later follower of his work), Salvador Debenedetti. summers of the following three years, both explored the Pucará and extracted some three thousand pieces. These materials and their observations allowed them to form an idea of what life was like for its inhabitants before the arrival of the Spanish.

View of the Pucará de Tilcara.

Around 1911, Debenedetti had the idea of restoring the ruins. With the approval of Ambrosetti, who was Director of the Ethnographic Museum of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Buenos Aires, the land was cleared in an extension of about 2000 m² and the walls were raised to a height of just over one meter.

But Debenedetti was not satisfied with carrying out only this first work and in 1929 (already director of the Ethnographic Museum, succeeding Ambrosetti after his death) he proceeded to a new exploration of the place together with his disciple Eduardo Casanova, with the purpose of carry out your goal. However, when he died the following year, this project was cut short.

Casanova, as professor in charge of the chair of American Archeology at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters (UBA), resumed the project in 1948 and completed the reconstruction, with the help of the University of Buenos Aires. The Jujeño government donated the Pucará lands to the Faculty with the commitment to create an Archaeological Museum. This plan was only fulfilled in 1968, when it celebrated its inauguration, under the name of Dr. Eduardo Casanova. A high-altitude Botanical Garden was also created.

Inca provincial capital

During the Inca Empire, the pucará of Tilcará functioned as the capital of the huamani (province) of Humahuaca. There were multiple state workshops dedicated to the production of objects in alabaster and marble, which were finally transported to Cusco as tribute. It was the residence of the curacas family to which Viltipoco belonged. The tomb of an Inca noblewoman was also found with her grave goods.

Current situation

He will be able to reach Tilcara in his current situation.

Monument of the Pucará de Tilcara.

Only a few mentions in texts and traces on the ground have remained as records of the reconstruction. The method used was based on archaeological methods from the early 20th century century and in good sense. At present, the approach of the internal route and the reconstructions of the ceilings are considered adequate. On the contrary, the reconstruction of the walls and the vehicular access caused noticeable changes. On the site there is also a truncated pyramid that is not related to the architectural tradition of the region.

With the current analysis of photographs, plans, sketches, publications and other productions prior to 1910, an attempt is made to identify part of the transformations carried out during the reconstruction. The planimetric survey will allow to control the impact of the tourist route and the weather, among other factors, to develop a better preservation of the place.

The Archaeological Museum "Dr. Eduardo Casanova" Today it has 7 traditional exhibition rooms and another 3 temporary ones, so that the visitor can interact with the exhibition and talk with the guides and researchers. Today it is an important tourist attraction, even more so since the Quebrada de Humahuaca was declared part of the World Heritage Site.

Tilcara in popular culture

Flora del Pucará de Tilcara.

• The Pucará de Tilcara is known at the Latin American level for being the place chosen by the Argentine band Soda Stereo to record the video clip of its emblematic song When the tremor passes.

• In his studio album, Algerian peso, edited in 1997, the musicians Ricardo Iorio (leader of Almafuerte) and Flavio Cianciarulo (founding member of Los Fabulosos Cadillacs) dedicated a composition to the native villages of Tilcara.

• In 2009, the Intoxicated group published the video clip of its musical theme Girl of Tilcara, filmed in this same town.

• The Argentine rock band, Divididos, also recorded a documentary and a show there in 2010.

• In 2010, on the occasion of the Bicentennial of the May Revolution, the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic coined a commemorative series consisting of five circulation coins of $ 1 (a weight), which represented different geographical regions of Argentina, including the Pucará de Tilcara.

Main bibliography

• The Pucará of Tilcara, by Eduardo Casanova (1978), Universidad de Buenos Aires, Fac. de Filosofía y Letras, Instituto Interdisciplinario Tilcara.
• Archaeological Museum and Museum of the "Pucará de Tilcara"by Elena Belli, María Zaburlín and Verónica Seldes, in the section "Dossier: Museums of the UBA", by A. Ascárate, P. De Titto and R. Martínez Mendoza, of the magazine UBA: CrossroadsNo. 26, June 2004, of the University of Buenos Aires.
• Angiorama, Carlos (2004). «About Incas and Metals in Humahuaca: Metallurgical production in yellows in Tawantinsuyu times». Relations (Buenos Aires): 39-58. ISSN 0325-2221. Consultation on 19 May 2022.
• González, Alberto Rex (1982). «The Inca Provinces of the Ancient Tucumán». Revista del Museo Nacional 42: 317-380. Consultation on 11 May 2022.