Tiwanaku

As the only place simultaneously occupied by the Middle Horizon (A.D. 600–1000) Andean states, the Tiwanaku and the Wari, the Moquegua Valley in southern Peru is of critical importance to understanding relations between the two states. Visual studies of Tiwanaku and Wari ceramics in the valley have elucidated differences in form and decoration. The procurement of raw clays was central to the production of these ceramics, and understanding where people procured their clay may provide insight into the social and economic interactions between these two states. Survey of the Moquegua Valley indicates the extensive availability of raw clays. Results of laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) analyses of clays indicate that there is heterogeneity in the chemical signature of the valley's clays and that at least five different clay groups can be distinguished. Comparison of these clays with LA-ICP-MS analysis of ceramics from a Tiwanaku site and a Wari site demonstrates that although Tiwanaku and Wari colonists in Moquegua used locally available clays during the Middle Horizon, the clay sources exploited by potters from each state were different and derived from areas located within their respective middle and upper valley territories. This information provides a basis for future chemical analysis of ceramics from the Moquegua Valley and improved understanding of past social and economic interactions. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

En el presente artículo se pretende determinar las principales convenciones representacionales que gobiernan el sistema iconogáfico de la litoescultura Tiwanaku, especificando las diferentes formas de interrelación y combinación entre sus diversos componentes. En base a ello, se elabora una secuencia estilística de sus principales obras escultóricas como una herramienta de trabajo para acercarse a las formas políticas desarrolladas entre el Estado altiplánico y otras entidades culturales de los Andes Centro Sur.

In the previous issue of CAJ, Heggarty (2007) set out how certain key principles and methods of historical linguistics can be exploited to open up another window on the past, from a perspective quite different and complementary to that offered by the archaeological record. Following this up, we turn here to an ideal case-study for exploring how the various patterns in linguistic (pre-)histories can be matched with their most plausible correlates in the archaeological data. Beyond our initial illustration of the Incas we now look further afield, to set the sequence of major civilizations of the Andes into its linguistic context, tracing the expansion trajectories of the main Andean language families further back in time, stage by stage, ultimately to their most plausible original homelands. The linguistic story emerges starkly at odds with assumptions widely held among archaeologists of the region. Indeed we encounter a paradigm case of how only a radical rethinking can reconcile our two disciplines' findings into a single, coherent, holistic prehistory for a human population — in the Andes, a prize now tantalizingly within our reach.

"The emergence of first generation states is among anthropology’s most enduring points of research. Such a state emerged around A.D. 500 in the southern Lake Titicaca Basin, at Tiwanaku. This state shares many characteristics with other early states, but the process of its formation was distinct. Traditional state origins models do not adequately explain the preceding centuries, when there was an unprecedented historical rupture in social organization. This dissertation follows a perspective of emergent practice, which locates the cause and production of social change in practices, traditions, and interactions, from which social groups and institutions emerge. This perspective outlines general processes of social change, while detailed genealogies of practices are necessary to document specific historical trajectories.

During the Late Formative, the southern Lake Titicaca Basin was dotted with ceremonial centers with earthen mounds, sunken temples, carved monoliths, and residences. These centers and their communities were larger and qualitatively different than anything prior, but little is known about their builders, residents, and visitors. Residents’ domestic practices at Khonkho Wankane and Kk’araña, Tiwanaku provide data on the social groups that formed the communities at each site. Residents shared many cultural practices and traditions. Walled compounds were home to large, powerful social groups. There is little evidence of status differences, trade specialization, or competition. The fundamental process to increasing complexity was organizing gatherings and work-parties, which framed dense networks of interactions. Residents hosted events in walled, outdoor spaces, and served food or drink in red-rimmed Kalasasaya small jars and bowls. The populations of these ceremonial centers was relatively low, and temporary visitors were recruited, generating labor forces that built many large construction projects. Interactions at these centers generated large communities focused at ceremonial centers, and were central to the emergence of the state at Tiwanaku. Despite this radical change in social organization, many domestic practices and traditions first established during the Late Formative would be continually reproduced for hundreds of years.""

El estudio de la tecnología, estilo, iconografía y algunos datos del contexto de los textiles hallados en un entierro colectivo en una cueva en la localidad de Pulacayo (este del salar de Uyuni, Depto. de Potosí, Bolivia) lleva a vincular a estas prendas con estilos procedentes del centro Tiwanaku y de los oasis de Atacama. De esta manera, el hallazgo de los textiles confirma el carácter bicomponente de este entierro emplazado en el área intermedia que conecta estos oasis con los valles orientales de Cochabamba, y con el centro de Tiwanaku, proveyendo de datos para proponer una probable ruta de tráfico entre los centros de origen de estos estilos, y avalando la existencia de antiguos contactos a larga distancia durante la Fase Coyo o V del Salar (700-900 DC).

Tiwanaku, Bolivia, is a pre-Columbian archaeological site, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the “capital of the Aymara world.” Annually on the Winter Solstice (June 21), Tiwanaku and its nearby quiet village of the same name are transformed into a place of national importance. Urban Bolivian pilgrims who attend the Solstice participate in a project of becoming part of “the Aymara,” laying claim to the abstracted Aymara as the root of the nation. This ritual event emphasizes “the Aymara” as both descendents of pre-Columbian Tiwanakotas and as contemporary political actors, reinforcing the category of “the Aymara” as a coherent political body with deep historical roots. The Solstice is a fundamentally urban event transpiring in rural space that symbolically incorporates the growing – and politically powerful – urban Aymara populations of the cities of La Paz and El Alto. This ritual is a performance of a rural ideal enacted in a nonurban urban space: a pre-Columbian city recast as both archaeological site and contemporary rural village, a place linked simultaneously to one city of the past and another of the present.