Condormarca | Incapirca Waminan | Kunukuarqo | Mesapata | Uscunta | Ushnupata | Vilcashuaman

Mesapata


This platform has between two and four levels. The stonework of the top level comprises finely worked grey andesite although the quality varies, whereas the lower tiers are constructed of modified fieldstone.


For ethnohistorical research, sound level measurements were taken with a drum and a pututu. The terrain on the south side of the platform drops away relatively steeply limiting the distance to which measurements cound be recorded along this side. Wind speed caused problems as wind levels gusted to over 74 decibels.

A test pit was excavated on the east side of the top tier of the platform, uncovering a sequence of eight layers of fill down to two metres under the turf and overlying the dark grey andesite bedrock.

To have limited soil cover over the bedrock outcropping around the structure indicates that the fills will have been brought in from some distance away. The view of the eastern horizon is much closer and more impeded than the rest of the horizon profile.

Research focus at Mesapata

Archaeology
Ethnohistory 
Geoarchaeology 
Landscape analysis

Image captions:
 

1-2. View of the platform at Mesapata
3. Testing the soundscape with a drum
4-5. Measuring the ushnu platform
7-10. Views of the platform
11-14. The view from the platform