Klarich, Elizabeth A.

Preliminary abstract: Funding is requested to support a collaborative archaeological research project in the Lake Titicaca Basin of Peru that includes (1) a field project at the site of Pukara, Department of Puno, and (2) a training component for Peruvian undergraduate students focused on local site museum development. First, the field project consists of two months of mapping and excavations within two major areas at the site--the central district and the site periphery--to evaluate models for why and how Pukara developed into the first regional center in the northern Lake Titicaca Basin during the Late Formative Period (500 BC- AD 400). The mapping and excavations will be co-directed by the ICRG co-applicants, Elizabeth Klarich and Luis Angel Flores Blanco, Andean archaeologists with distinct perspectives based on their regional field experience, academic training, and specific research interests. After the conclusion of the field project, recovered materials will be inventoried, analyzed, and curated. The co-applicants will work jointly in all stages of the field project, including publication of findings in both Spanish and English. Secondly, the proposed training component provides an opportunity for four undergraduate students to develop a permanent exhibit documenting prehistoric and modern pottery production within the Museo L’tico Pukara.