Huasamayo, Pampa grande de Loma l’Ántigo (Catamarca, Argentina)

2019

The Huasamayo site, located in the Valle del Cajon (province of Catamarca, Argentina), is characterised by immense agricultural structures and a pre-Columbian village. This important plateau forms a unique archaeological landscape complex, the study of which would allow a better understanding of the agrarian use of a high-altitude region, as well as a deepening of the knowledge of power plants, used by local populations for hundreds of years, and their diffusion, perhaps in connection with the long trans-Andean routes such as the Qhapaq Ñan.

With this in mind, and in collaboration with the Botanical Garden of Neuchâtel, ArchaeoConcept proposed a pre-project to study and conserve this landscape ensemble. A multidisciplinary team composed of archaeologists and an archaeo-botanist visited the site in December 2019 and made contact with the administrations and researchers of the University of La Plata (Argentina) in order to develop a possible collaboration.