The Colca Valley Regional Survey Project Crew:

Steve Wernke (Director), Willy Yépez Alvarez (Lic., Universidad Católica de Arequipa), and Erika Simborth Lozada (Bach., Universidad Católica de Arequipa) during the recent survey of the puna zone (ca. 4200 meters above sea level) of the community of Yanque.

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Welcome to the Colca Valley Regional Survey Project Homepage. This site describes the activities and preliminary findings of a systematic archaeological survey project of the central portion of the Colca Valley and surrounding uplands, located in the western Andes of Peru in the Department of Arequipa.

The survey, part of an integrated archaeo-historical dissertation research project by Steve Wernke (University of Wisconsin-Madison, U.S.A.), systematically recorded all surficially visible archaeological sites in a 90 square kilometer area in the modern Districts of Yanque and Coporaque in order to understand changes in ecological-economic and sociopolitical organization throughout the prehispanic and early colonial periods.

Questions or comments? Please do not hestitate to contact me.

The Colca Valley Regional Survey Project has been made possible through funding by a Dissertation Research Grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, with additional institutional support by the Centro de Investigaciones Arqueologicas de Arequipa (CIARQ). The project is approved and supervised by the Instituto Nacional de Cultura of Peru. Financial support for academic training for the project was provided through a Title VI Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship from the U.S. Department of Education.