Tiwanaku State Research Articles

The changing ‘nature’ of Tiwanaku religion and the rise of an Andean state

The means by which past complex societies thrived at high altitudes remain puzzling. In this paper I suggest that religious ideology and ritual practice shaped the cultural processes that fostered Tiwanaku state rise in the south-central Andean highlands. Physical changes in the monumental core of the state's principal centre are particularly revealing. Material transformations in monumental axiality, spatiality, materiality and iconography were critical elements in a changing religion that sought to integrate the symbolism of prominent generative forces such as mountains, vital elements such as water and recurring celestial cycles. After ad 500, Tiwanaku's innovative religion meshed imposing natural features with timeless solar cycles. This embodiment and objectification of nature was increasingly critical for a polity that thrived precariously on an effective coordination of fishing, herding and new technologies of high-altitude farming. The symbolic appropriation of the natural world and its immanent spiritual forces was constitutive of Tiwanaku's political integration of diverse societies and productive landscapes.

Distant Colonies and Explosive Collapse: The Two Stages of the Tiwanaku Diaspora in the Osmore Drainage

AbstractThe geographic expansion of Tiwanaku people and culture (cal A.D. 500–1150) in the south-central Andes can be viewed as a two-staged diaspora. This article defines and categorizes diasporas, suggests archaeological correlates and theoretical implications, and reconstructs the Tiwanaku diaspora. The first stage was a colonizing diaspora in the context of the functioning Tiwanaku state, limited to a few mid-elevation places such as the middle Osmore drainage near Moquegua and probably Cochabamba. The second stage was a much more extensive victim/refugee diaspora driven by the violent disintegration of the colonies around A.D. 1000, in conjunction with either the collapse of Tiwanaku or its radical reorientation by a militaristic elite. Second-stage diaspora populations that settled in sparsely populated areas such as the upper Osmore drainage or the Carumas–Calacoa region established dispersed, small, defensible villages. Those that settled among a larger or more established host population such as the Chiribaya in the coastal Osmore Valley integrated as a marked, lower-status minority. This explosive collapse suggests that Tiwanaku was composed of multiple groups whose differing interests could not be contained. Supporting evidence is drawn primarily from the Osmore drainage, especially the coastal segment.

Top-down or bottom-up: rural settlement and raised field agriculture in the Lake Titicaca Basin, Bolivia

Differing interpretations regarding the organization of past intensive farming are often distinguished as “top-down” or “bottom-up” perspectives. The development of intensive farming and its social organization are attributed to either nascent states and centralized governments or the incremental work of local communities or kin-based groups. We address the social organization of raised field farming in one region of the Lake Titicaca Basin of the Andean altiplano, Bolivia. We evaluate past research in the Katari Valley, including our own, based on recent settlement survey, excavation, and a variety of analyses. Taking a long-term perspective covering 2500 years, we find that relations of production and rural organization changed greatly over time in relation to changing sociopolitical conditions. Local communities played dynamic roles in the development and organization of raised field farming, yet its intensification and ultimate recession were keyed to the consolidation and decline of the Tiwanaku state. We conclude that the top-down/bottom-up dichotomy is overdrawn. Local communities and their productive practices never operated in a political or economic vacuum but both shaped and were transfigured by regional processes of state formation, consolidation, and fragmentation.

Cranial vault modification as a cultural artifact: a comparison of the Eurasian steppes and the Andes

This paper details the practice of intentional cranial vault modification in the Eurasian steppes as well as in the pre-Columbian Andes focusing on the similarities and differences in how the practice was used to respond to changes in society. The appearance of vault modification in the steppes and the forms seen in the cemeteries of the Syr Darya and Amu Darya River deltas are discussed. Temporal changes in the pattern of modification are also investigated, especially the dramatic homogenization of the custom resulting from the conquests of the Huns. This is contrasted with incidences of cranial modification in the south-central Andes, including the appearance of deliberate head shaping as well as shifts in the practice during the expansion of the Bolivian Altiplano state of Tiwanaku. Similarities in the use of cranial vault modification between these unrelated areas and in the alterations of the practice resulting from foreign contact are considered in light of vault modification's role as a malleable cultural artifact.

Tiwanaku and Its Precursors: Recent Research and Emerging Perspectives

The Lake Titicaca Basin provides a fascinating case study for examining the prehistoric rise of complexity and archaic state development. The development of the Tiwanaku state and preceding polities involved conjunctions of regional environmental, socioeconomic, and ideological transformations. Significant social, economic, and ideological diversity characterized each major phase, indicating that the creation of inclusive domains of shared values, practices, and identities was critical to the formation of polities in the region. Tiwanaku and its precursors were, in great part, incorporative sociopolitical phenomena in which social diversity remained vital throughout their histories.

Rethinking disaster-induced collapse in the demise of the Andean highland states: Wari and Tiwanaku

The role of drought in the collapse of the ancient states of the Andean Middle Horizon has received a great deal of attention in recent years. The only Andean valley where both principal states of this time period, Wari and Tiwanaku, had established settlements is in Moquegua, Peru. Based on a GIS network analysis of ancient irrigation systems and detailed palaeoclimatic data, I assess the assertion that a centuries-long drought caused the collapse of state colonies in this valley circa AD 1000. I conclude that the onset of the drought significantly postdated collapse and suggest that factions of Tiwanaku social groups who allied themselves with Wari settlers upset the ecological balance of water use in the valley prior to the end of the first millennium AD. The increase in agricultural activity in the upper sierra in conjunction with the political instability caused by the fissioning of Tiwanaku political power in the valley created an environment of vulnerability for the Tiwanaku state colonies. It was the complex interaction of social and ecological factors that led to the collapse of the largest western colony of the Tiwanaku state. The Wari imperial colony played a pivotal role in this collapse by establishing an administrative center in the upper valley that drew away resources from the Tiwanaku state below. Ironically, the political instability caused by the Tiwanaku colonial collapse may have been instrumental in the downfall of the Wari colony as well.

Environmental thresholds and the empirical reality of state collapse: a response to Erickson (1999)

We are grateful for the opportunity to respondto Erickson's (1999) critique of our articles onhuman-environment interactions in the LakeTiticaca basin of Bolivia (Ortloff & Kolata 1993;Abbott et al. 1997; Binford et al. 1997). Hisdecision to publish this critique in ANTIQUITY,rather than in the journals in which our articlesappeared, permits us to reach a broaderaudience. Erickson labels our interpretationsa form of 'neo-environmental determinism', buthis rejection of our conclusions stems fromserious misunderstandings and is misleadingto readers who have not examined our originaldata. He (p. 634) claims:1 our research represents 'simplistic reductionistthinking' that treats humans as 'passivepawns' of environmental change;2 our dating of the chronic drought in the Andeanaltiplano after AD 1150 is impreciseand not correlated with the 12th-centurydisintegration of the Tiwanaku state; and3 the drought did not affect intensive agriculturalproduction.

Domestic Life and Vertical Integration in the Tiwanaku Heartland

Recent research on the Tiwanaku state has documented the evolution of regional settlement patterns and agricultural systems, but little is known of changes at the subregional level outside the capital. Analysis of a sequence of domestic occupations excavated at Lukurmata, Bolivia, provides information on how individual households within the Tiwanaku core area were consolidated into the Tiwanaku polity. Changes in residential patterns and artifact assemblages suggest that Lukurmata households were initially connected to the Tiwanaku polity through exchange and religious ties. A new level of assimilation developed in the eighth and ninth centuries A.D. These changes, including agricultural intensification, illustrate the increasing integration of individual households into the Tiwanaku political economy and social order as the landscape developed. The nature and timing of these changes are consistent with current hypotheses of a transformation in Tiwanaku political and economic organization near the end of the Tiwanaku IV period (A.D. 400-800).

Dyes from the Tumilaca and Chiribaya Cultures, South Coast of Peru

During the terminal stages of the Tiwanaku state at the end of Middle Horizon, at least two new cultural groups appeared in the archaeological record of the coastal Osmore valley in southern Peru. The cultures are now known as Tumilaca and Chiribaya. Radiocarbon dating, as well as stylistic and technological comparison of textile remains, established the coexistence and close relationship between both cultures. Chemical and physical examination of textiles from both cultures was undertaken to gain a better understanding of the dyestuffs and techniques used. Attempts were made to identify dyestuff mordants by energy dispersive analysis of X-rays (EDXRF). Dyestuffs were analysed by the complementary use of UV-vis absorption spectrophotometry (UVAS), thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and a number of microchemical tests. Distinct differences were found in the dyestuffs and textile techniques used in both cultures.

Lukurmata: household archaeology in prehispanic Bolivia

Household archaeology, together with community and regional settlement information, forms the basis for a unique local perspective of Andean prehistory in this study of the evolution of the site of Lukurmata, a pre-Columbian community in highland Bolivia. First established nearly 2000 years ago, Lukurmata grew to be a major ceremonial centre in the Tiwanaku state, a polity that dominated the south-central Andes from 400 to 1200 AD. After the Tiwanaku state collapsed, Lukurmata rapidly declined, becoming once again a small village. In his analysis of 1300-year-old changes in Lukurmata, the author traces patterns in the organization of domestic life, household ritual, ties to other communities and mortuary activities, as well as household adaptations to political and economic trends.

Climate and Collapse: Agro-Ecological Perspectives on the Decline of the Tiwanaku State

After approximately 700 years of growth and colonial expansion, the Tiwanaku state disintegrated as a regional political force in the south-central Andes between c. AD 1000-1100. This paper examines the collapse of the state of Tiwanaku through the lens of its agricultural history. We argue that the proximate cause of Tiwanaku's decline as a politically integrated, expansive state society was the deterioration and ultimate abandonment of its regional-scale agricultural systems, both in its core area in the Andean altiplano and in its economic colonies in the lower-altitude yungas zones. We present evidence that the collapse of Tiwanaku intensive agriculture was triggered by regional change in climatic conditions recorded in highly-resolved palaeoenvironmental data derived from the Quelccaya ice cap of southern Peru and in sediment cores from Lake Titicaca. Our analysis of the Quelccaya data documents a radical climate change in the south-central Andes during the post-AD 1000 era in the form of a statistically significant decrease in mean precipitation level that persisted until c. AD 1400. By defining vulnerability classes for various agricultural technologies used in different regions of the Tiwanaku state, we then relate this palaeoclimatic data to performance of specific core area and colonial Tiwanaku agricultural systems. We demonstrate that chronic drought conditions led to sequential collapse of these distinct agricultural systems: irrigation-based agriculture in Tiwanaku colonies at lower altitude failed first, followed by groundwater-dependent raised-field systems in the altiplano. Agricultural and settlement pattern changes in the post-AD 1000 period are correlated with the palaeoenvironmental data to present an integrated view of the coupling of climate and cultural process. The full implications of the agro-ecological collapse model presented here reach well beyond an explanation for the decline of Tiwanaku alone.

Tiwanaku Temples and State Expansion: A Tiwanaku Sunken-Court Temple in Moquegua, Peru

Until recently, an entrenched view of Tiwanaku expansion in the south-central Andes as a primarily cultic phenomenon precluded discussion of state-built ceremonial facilities outside of Tiwanaku’s immediate hinterland of the Bolivian altiplano. However, recent research in the Tiwanaku periphery has found specialized ceremonial architecture that reflects the solidification of central control and the development of a provincial system. Excavation at the Omo M10 site, in Moquegua, Peru, has exposed the only Tiwanaku sunken-court temple structure and cut-stone architecture known outside of the Titicaca Basin. A reconstruction of the Omo temple complex demonstrates direct parallels with Tiwanaku ceremonial centers of the altiplano in architectural form and ceremonial activities. This suggests that patterns of state-centered ceremony and peripheral administration underwent a dramatic transformation with the explosive expansion of the Tiwanaku state during the period known as Tiwanaku V (A. D. 725–1000).

Beyond State Collapse: Rural History, Raised Fields, and Pastoralism in the South Andes

The underlying rhythms of peasant society play an important role in shaping rural traditions in the wake of political collapse. Such a view has been a prominent theme in rural history since its bold development by French historian Marc Bloch in the 1930s, and it has a valuable role to play in contemporary anthropology and in the framing of current theory on state collapse. As state societies never collapse completely, nor equally in all their parts, it is the tenacity of rural society for survival that helps explain the restructuring of earlier state‐level systems in a post‐state setting. The view taken here is that social evolution is not just a “top‐down” phenomenon, but also a “bottom‐up” development, wherein rural society develops a new means of coping with emerging economic problems after state demise. The specific case examined is the continued construction and use of raised fields in the Lake Titicaca basin after the collapse of the Tiwanaku state. Raised fields, a highly productive technology geared toward high annual yields, continued to be built into the Late Intermediate period of the South Andes. One must ask why such a technology was implemented in the wake of state collapse and urban life. The answer posed here is that raised fields were a means of subsidizing pastoralism in the region of Lake Titicaca, and that post‐state economic restructuring, which occurred collectively, voluntarily, and within the context of reciprocal kin relations, was aimed at maintaining camelid wealth.

The Technology and Organization of Agricultural Production in the Tiwanaku State

Utilizing data from six seasons of field research, this article focuses on the question of the technology and social organization of intensive agricultural production in the Andean state of Tiwanaku. Recent literature in Andean archaeology and ethnohistory asserts the dominance of local kin groups in the organization of agricultural production rather than supracommunity state authority. The analysis presented here takes issue with this perspective as applied to the core territory of the Tiwanaku state during the period from ca. A. D. 400 to 1000 (Tiwanaku IV-V). I conclude that in this period: (1) the technology of Tiwanaku intensive agricultural production turned on the creation of an artificial regional hydrological regime of canals, aqueducts, and groundwater regulation articulated with massive raised-field systems, and (2) the organization of agricultural production in this core territory entailed structured, hierarchical interaction between urban and rural settlements characterized by a substantial degree of political centralization and the mobilization of labor by social principles that reached beyond simple kinship relations.

Hydraulic analysis of Tiwanaku aqueduct structures at Lukurmata and Pajchiri, Bolivia

Abstract Recent archaeological research at the urban settlements of Lukurmata and Pajchiri on the southern shores of Lake Titicaca, Bolivia has revealed that open channel flow aqueducts were critical elements in the technological repertoire of Tiwanaku hydraulic engineers. Six stone faced and rubble-filled aqueducts directly linked to partially modified and canalized natural quebradas were identified, mapped, and dated by ceramic and structural associations to the Tiwanaku IV–V phases (c. ad 400–1100) at these two sites. A 50 m segment of the smallest aqueduct at Lukurmata was completely excavated to its base, while the intentionally shaped channel of a massive aqueduct at Pajchiri was surface profiled and mapped at intervals of 3 m over a nearly 90 m long, mid-structure segment. The modern theory of the hydraulics of open channel flows is applied to the analysis of aqueduct channel morphology, slope, structural characteristics, and design intent. The analysis concludes that these aqueducts functioned primarily as drainage structures which served to reduce the infiltration of surface water into the groundwater reservoir, and not to irrigate closely associated raised field, agricultural complexes. Additionally, the paper evaluates the general hypothesis that Tiwanaku state hydraulic engineering in the specific context of the urban environment concentrated on designing drainage systems that were intended to control local conditions of ground saturation, mass wasting and sediment transport.

Changes in Activities with the Shift to Agriculture in the Southeastern United States

Changes in Activities with the Shift to Agriculture in the Southeastern United States

The Agricultural Foundations of the Tiwanaku State: A View from the Heartland

In this essay I explore the nature, role, and significance of intensive agriculture in the ancient state of Tiwanaku, which was centered in the high plateau of southern Peru and northwestern Bolivia. Significant primary evidence that the state of Tiwanaku systematically reclaimed immense tracts of now abandoned agricultural land around the borders of Lake Titicaca is adduced and evaluated.I conclude that Tiwanaku was a dynamic, expansive state based squarely on an effective, surplus-producing system of intensive agriculture, that the intensification agricultural production through large scale reclamation of flat, seasonally inundated land along the margins of Lake Titicaca was a prime economic strategy of the Tiwanaku state, and that this strategy was devised and managed by a hierarchically organized, central government.