Mameria has pre-Columbian stone ruins that are the remains of ancient Incan coca plantations, some of which were sacked by the Peruvian helicopter-borne General Ludwig Essenwanger in 1980, a year after the area was first brought to the attention of the outside world by the also helicopter-borne expedition made by French-Peruvian explorers Herbert and Nicole Cartagena, guided by Peruvian campesino/adventurer Goyo Toledo.
The next year his brother Gabino, and Guillermo Mamani, made their way to Mameria to look for, and find, Goyo.
In the mid-1990s the Peruvian adventurer Darwin Moscoso made a long journey to Mameria, later producing a fine map of the area.
An in-depth review of the history and archaeology of Mameria can be found in Deyermenjian's article Mameria: An Incan Site Complex in the High-Altitude Jungles of Southeast Peru, in the Volume 3 Number 4 (2003) issue of Athena Review.
Deyermenjian sees Mameria as having functioned as an Incan frontier settlement, providing coca to the Incas of the highlands in pre-Conquest times, which became totally forgotten after the fall of the highland Incas to the Spaniards, protected until even now by its remote location, difficulty of access, and the difficulty of life there.