Ancient Ruins Found In Bolivia

Locals stumbled upon the remains while clearing the ground to build a new market in the tourist town of Copacabana.

While many of the unearthed tombs, textiles, clay pots and jewelry belonged to the well-documented Tiwanaku and Inca cultures that populated the area hundreds of years ago, some relics go back as far as 3,000 years, when a little-known religious tradition called Yayamama is thought to have flourished in the Andes.

Archeologist Sergio Chaves, working for Central Michigan University says:”They carved sculptures [in stone] with a man on one side and a woman on the other.”

Chaves said the Yayamama built a series of small temples by the lake, each two hours by foot from the other, and says he will study the stratified remains to try to better understand how different Andean cultures evolved.

“Starting from the oldest period, we have the Yayamama. And gradually we have … the Tiwanaku some 1,000 years ago, the Inca, the colonial period, the hacienda era, [and] the republic.”

“There’s a lot to be proud of in here, and we have to find our identity in these things. To understand the present and plan for the future, we have to look at the past.”

But Chaves said not everyone in Copacabana, near the border with Peru, is as excited about the past as he is. Apparently locals are determined to finish the construction of the market they started in June.

WHAT! Screw the market. The 3,000 year-old ruins will have MUCH more “turistic value” that some modern market.

Chaves adds, “We’ve had to work really hard to show the architecture, the remains, so people realize that they have a huge cultural value.”

Bolivianos: Escuchan!

[Image via David Mercado, Reuters]

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