SPECIAL PROJECTS Huayllaquepa de Punkurí Authors: Victor E. Falcón Huayta, Rosa Martínez Navarro, Milano Trejo Huayta Introduction The huayllaquepa of Strombus galeatus from   Punkurí Research is being done on a trumpet or huayllaquepa from the sea shell Strombus galeatus whose habitat includes the warm waters that extend from the Peruvian and Ecuadorian frontier up to Mexico. It is a piece from the   Department of Organic Materials of the MNAAHP that, because of its characteristics, becomes an indispensable antecedent for the reconstruction of ritual and musical history of the early precolumbian societies of the Peruvian Andes. The huayllaquepa was associated with a burial offering found in Punkurí, a temple located in the Nepeña valley, some 405 Km. north of Lima. The object was recovered in the framework of the excavations of Julio C. Tello in 1933 and, until recently, was lost. The investigation led to the investigation of its origin and recovery in three main aspects: a) the reconstruction of the archaeological context of origin, indispensable for the spatial and temporal location of the object and thus be able to determine its function and significance b) the conservation and restoration treatment for shell and c) the exploration of the sonorous characteristics and musical possibilities of the huayllaquepa. On the basis of stylistic comparisons and the verified absence of ceramics in the temple that contained the burial offering, a chronological range has been deduced for Punkurí that wavers between the 22nd and 19th centuries B.C., which makes this huayllaquepa of S. galeatus the earliest evidence of its kind in the Americas.