The Juch'uypampa cave is a Middle Horizon Tiwanaku burial site (AD 500-1100), located in the Pulacayo region of Bolivia. Five naturally-preserved mummies (two juveniles and three adult men) were recovered from the cave, and textiles and other grave goods from Tiwanaku were found with them. The cave is quite remote from the Tiwanaku centers of power, some 600 kilometers from the Lake Titicaca capital city, and about the same from the large Tiwanaku colony of San Pedro de Atacama in Chile.
Cemeteries of the Tiwanaku such as Chan Chan and Coyo Oriental are generally located near large residential sites, and most of the people buried in them are local with some immigrants from Tiwanaku. Strontium analysis of the three adult men interred at Juch'uypampa indicates that the mummies are local people, not from either Tiwanaku or San Pedro de Atacama.
Sources
This glossary entry is part of the About.com Guide to the Tiwanaku Empire and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Knudson, Kelly J., et al. 2005 The origin of the Juch'uypampa Cave mummies: strontium isotope analysis of archaeological human remains from Bolivia. Journal of Archaeological Science 32(6):903-913. Free download
