Potrero de Payogasta: La Arquitectura de una ciudad Incaica del Noroeste Argentino

In Northwest Argentina, Potrero de Payogasta was an important Inca administrative settlement. The architecture, which shows an occupation prior to the Santamariana culture, has been enlarged and modified by the Incas. This study analyzes in detail the architecture, the settlement pattern and the constructive techniques, as part of a wider project of restoration of the site.

We must point out that the present kind of analysis is new in the region, where there is no previous experience of archaeological restoration. Some of the Inca buildings are very large, and the good state of preservation has yielded valuable information about Inca architecture in the peripherial regions of the empire. The Kallanca, a building of 300 square meters of inner surface, is the most important type of its kind in Argentina.

Schávelzon, D. y Magadán, Marcelo L.: "Potrero de Payogasta: La Arquitectura de una ciudad Incaica del Noroeste Argentino" Ancient America, pp173-188. Contributions to "New World Archaeology”, editado por Nicholas J. Saunders, Oxbow Books, Park End Place, Oxford, Greit Britain, june 1992.