Carlos Ponce Sanginés

Carlos Ponce Sanginés (La Paz, Bolivia; May 6, 1925 – La Paz, Bolivia; March 18, 2005) was a Bolivian archaeologist and restorer who dedicated a significant part of his life to the study of Tiwanaku.

[1] Ponce Sanginés was born in the city of La Paz in May 1925 and graduated from the Archaeology program at the Universidad Mayor San Andrés in that city before specializing at the University of Córdoba, Argentina.

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 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.

[1] He restored the Kalasasaya temple and initiated excavations at the Akapana Pyramid site.