Quilmes ruins, Tucumàn, Argentina (far NW)

26:30S   66:00W     1hr by bus + 1hr walk S of Cafayate

This is an impressive fortified citadel built on the hillside under Cerro Altos del Rey, Heights of the King. There are some stone mortar and pestles at the entrance, and a city of buildings with massive double stone walls. These pre-Inca ruins are without any doubt, the most important in all Argentina, and probably more so than they realise.

There is much information available about their demise after successfully fighting off the Incas and resisting the Spanish for over 100 years - the story is that half were killed in the bloody battles and punishments handed out in their eventual defeat in 1665, hundreds more killed in the 1500km forced march of the survivors to resettle in their assigned reservation near Buenos Aires, where the rest died through famine and ill treatment within a few short years. And, as the handout at he entrance gate on site indicates, they are - quite understandably - still very angry about it.

There is scant information available about the site itself. A guide points out one of the large slabs with numerous bowls carved into it that lies at the entrance to one of the buildings, partially buried by the entrance walls, and explains that these were used for food preparation. Perhaps he is right, but I doubt it, and he is certainly missing the point of their original purpose, for they are in exactly the same form of the slabs in central Peru and southern Ecuador that until recently were claimed to be for the preparation of ceremonial drugs and herbal medicines, but now discovered to be some form of astronomical calendar. Whichever, the large slabs are more than common flour mortars, and at Quilmes, apart from the one that has been identified as a calendar, the rest currently serve as a footpath for visitors.

The guide continues past a terraced ceremonial courtyard without saying a word.

Sadly, the focus is only on the post-spanish history. Various articles differ in their otherwise plagiarised summaries, and state the earliest origins are from either 800 BC or 800 AD, the latter being most likely, and the confusion probably coming from the spanish for BC being AC. Although these peoples did not invent writing, and nor did the spanish make good records, there is much that can be learned from more rigorous archaeology - if I can get them interested, which I am trying to do with various departments here.

There will be more from me on this as I visit other important sites nearby, but in the meantime, if you visit:
   - Don`t walk on the slabs with bowls carved into them; and
   - Don`t walk on the walls.