The Chiripa culture existed between the Initial Period/Early Horizon, from 1400 to 100 BCE along the southern shore of Lake Titicaca in Bolivia.

[1] There are fourteen upper houses with thatched roofs and double walls of cobble and adobe, arranged in a trapezoid surrounding the sunken plaza.

[3] During the Early Horizon period, farmers maintained small gardens where quinoa and other plants grew and were harvested for consumption.

Around 800 BCE, we find samples composed almost entirely of quinoa at Chiripa's social and political center, the Montículo (a type of mound).

[4] The Taraco Archaeological Project (TAP), directed by Dr. Christine Hastorf, is investigating the Early and Middle Formative occupation at Chiripa, 1500–100 BCE.

[4] Early in the Late Chiripa phase, the structure "Choquehuanca" was no longer used and another sunken enclosure, "Llusco", was built in the southern portion of the site.

Llusco was closed about 600 BCE, and construction of the site's most prominent feature, a 50-x-50-m platform mound called the Montículo, was begun.

The presence of large quantities of quinoa seeds at the Montículo suggests that this food played an important role in the activities at this location.