A Taxonomy for Pre-Hispanic Stone Walls in Southern Peru

Due to Peru’s outstanding historical and cultural diversity, various pre-Hispanic stone constructions exist. These structures date from the Lithic period (10000 BCE) to the fall of the Inca Empire (1532 CE). Because of environmental conditions and time, these buildings have deteriorated and, in some cases, collapsed. Unfortunately, information about these structures is limited, such as their construction process or structural behaviour. This research proposes a structural classification for southern Peru pre-Hispanic Stone Walls, based on information collected during field visits to different archaeological sites in the regions of Puno and Cusco, Peru. In this taxonomy, eight parameters were considered: the time of construction, the use of the structure, the current height, the leaves and arrangement of the walls, the type of joint, the size of the stones, and the finish of the stones. The classification of the existing typologies was carried out in nineteen stone archaeological sites. This database contributes to the development of the classification of the different stone constructions in Peru, with common criteria for future taxonomic studies of the existing construction typologies.