Building techniques and materials for 500-year-old long-lived earth monuments: Chullpares in Huayllani-Condor Amaya (La Paz, Bolivia)

•The material is mainly an organized mixture of geogenic sediments and plant fibers.•These components were mixed, overlapped and compressed to form an internally organized fabric.•The product is a mechanically resistant low porous ‘suspension-like’ blend.•These fabric attributes produce an efficient water circulation control system.•Composition as well as manufacture and decay effects vary from one chullpar to another.