Jisk'a Iru Muqu

Jisk'a Iru Muqu is a pre-Columbian open-air site in the Aymara community of Jachacachi, 54 km southeast of Puno, Peru, in the Lake Titicaca Basin [1]. Occupied from c. 3400-1600 BCE (Late Archaic to Early Formative), it was the first Archaic open-air site excavated in the Titicaca Basin, discovered by Mark Aldenderfer in 1994 [1] [2] [3]. Excavations recovered obsidian tools, a gold necklace, and early domestic architecture showing reduced residential mobility [1] [4]. The site provides critical evidence for the transition from mobile foraging to settled village life in the south-central Andes [1] [5].