Gonzalez Rodriguez, Cristian; (2025) Computational, comparative and landscape perspectives on chullpa-type architecture on the Andean Plateau. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This research investigates chullpas, tower-like funerary monuments that are widespread across the Andean Plateau, spanning parts of Bolivia, Peru, Chile, and Argentina. These structures likely reached southern Peru between 900 and 1200 CE and persisted into the post-contact period. Their architectural variations and regional groupings could potentially be tied to distinct ethnic or linguistic identities described in early historical sources. This study starts with a consideration of chullpa traditions across the Andean Plateau, and then focuses on the Carangas region of Bolivia, drawing comparative reference from northern Chile’s Atacama region to understand how these monuments materialised ancestral presence and projected social identity. The fieldwork and analysis undertaken for this PhD recorded more than five hundred chullpas, documenting variables such as floor plans, construction materials, spatial location, visibility and orientation, as well as undertaking a new dating program. The data were analysed using computational and comparative methods to identify patterns of regional variability, social hierarchy, and community integration. Variations in construction materials (adobe, unworked stone, cut stone) and architectural forms reflect regional traditions and shifting expressions of identity. Prominent chullpas indicate status differentiation, while clustering patterns suggest social aggregation. Their placement—near water sources, agricultural fields, movement routes, and sacred peaks—together with offerings of drinking vessels, lithic blades, and copper minerals, underscores their integration into ritual economies and Andean ontologies of landscape. This study also traces the development of regional chullpa traditions, showing that during the Late Inca Period, chullpa construction intensified and incorporated architectural refinements such as painted adobe and cut-stone masonry, likely associated with ritual reorganisation and emerging visual codes of authority. Late and colonial-period chullpas reveal continuity amid change, as communities reused and re-signified these monuments. Their orientations toward celestial bodies and landmarks demonstrate integration with Andean calendrical systems and cosmological principles. By analysing chullpas within their architectural, spatial, and temporal contexts, this research highlights their centrality in Andean practices of identity assertion, territorial organisation, and cosmological engagement. The thesis contributes to broader debates on ritual landscapes, the materialisation of ancestry, and the political role of funerary architecture in the ancient Andes.

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