Carlos Ponce Sanjinés

Carlos Ponce Sanginés (6 May 192518 March 2005) was a Bolivian archaeologist and restorer who dedicated a significant part of his life to the study of Tiwanaku.

Biography

Ponce Sanginés was born in La Paz, Bolivia in May 1925 and graduated from the archaeology program at the Higher University of San Andrés before specializing at the National University of Córdoba, Argentina.

In 1958, he founded the "Center for Archaeological Research at Tiwanaku" in Bolivia, becoming one of the first Bolivians to study the archaeological site.

He played a crucial role in establishing the National Museum of Archaeology on 31 January 1960, which until then had the status of a multidisciplinary museum. This change was a result of a study conducted by Ponce Sanginés when he served as the Director of the Center for Archaeological Research in Tiwanacu, with the museum being overseen by the architect Gregorio Cordero Miranda at that time.

In 1964, Ponce Sanginés served as the Minister of Peasant Affairs. In that same year, he, along with his wife, Julia Elena Fortún, discovered one of the best-preserved stelae of that culture in Tiwanaku, which was later known as the "Ponce Monolith" in his honor.

Notable publications "Tiwanaku Pottery" (1948). "Bolivian Archaeology" (1957). "Mollo Pottery and the Sculpture of a Chiripa Stone" (1963). "Concise Description of the Semi-Subterranean Temple of Tiwanaku" (1964). "Tunupa and Ekako" (1969). "Cataloging Bolivia's Archaeological Heritage" (1974). "Tiwanaku: Space, Time, and Culture" (1976). "Tiwanaku: 200 Years of Archaeological Research" (1999).