Tiwanaku

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Tiwanaku: Spiritual and Political Centre of the Tiwanaku Culture*
UNESCO World Heritage Site
State Party	Bolivia
Type	Cultural
Criteria	iii, iv
Reference	567
Region**	Latin America and the Caribbean
Inscription history
Inscription	2000  (24th Session)
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List. ** Region as classified by UNESCO.

Tiwanaku (Spanish spellings: Tiahuanaco and Tiahuanacu) is an important Pre-Columbian archaeological site in western Bolivia. Tiwanaku is recognized by Andean scholars as one of the most important precursors to the Inca Empire, flourishing as the ritual and administrative capital of a major state power for approximately five hundred years. The ruins of the ancient city state are near the south-eastern shore of Lake Titicaca, about 72 km (44 miles) west of La Paz, Bolivia. The site was first recorded in written history by Spanish conquistador and self-acclaimed “first chronicler of the Indies” Cieza de Leon. Leon stumbled upon the remains of Tiwanaku in 1549 while searching for the Inca capital Collasuyu. Some have hypothesized that Tiwanaku's modern name is related to the Aymara term taypiqala, meaning "stone in the center", alluding to the belief that it lay at the center of the world.^[1] However, the name by which Tiwanaku was known to its inhabitants has been lost, as the people of Tiwanaku had no written language.

Contents 1 Cultural development 2 Architecture and art 3 Religion 4 Archaeology 5 Further notes 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Cultural development

The site of Tiwanaku was founded in approximately 1200 BCE as a small agriculturally-based village, with a number of similar neighbors. The high altitude Titicaca Basin required the development of a distinctive farming technique known as "raised-field" agriculture, which are only found in today's South America as experimental, government-funded projects. In antiquity, they comprised a significant percentage of the agriculture in the region, along with irrigated fields, pasture, terraced fields and cocha (small lake) farming. Artificially raised planting mounds (known as "suka kollus" in the local Aymara language) are separated by canals filled with water. The canals supply moisture for growing crops, but they also absorb heat from solar radiation during the day. This heat is gradually emitted during the bitterly cold nights, providing thermal insulation. Over time, the canals also were used to farm edible fish, and the resulting canal sludge was dredged for fertilizer. The use of various agricultural techniques allowed local communities to grow and population to increase.

Though labor-intensive, suka kollus produce impressive yields. While traditional agriculture in the region typically yields 2.4 metric tons of potatoes per hectare, and modern agriculture (with artificial fertilizers and pesticides) yields about 14.5 metric tons per hectare, suka kollu agriculture yields an average of 21 tons per hectare.,^[2]

Significantly, the experimental fields recreated in the 1980s by University of Chicago´s Alan Kolata and Oswaldo Rivera^[3] suffered only a 10% decrease in production following a 1988 freeze that killed 70-90% of the rest of the region's production. This kind of protection against killing frosts in an agrarian civilization is an invaluable asset. For these reasons, the importance of suka kollus cannot be overstated.

The community grew to urban proportions between AD 600 and AD 800, becoming an important regional power in the southern Andes. According to early estimates, at its maximum extent, the city covered approximately 5.0 square kilometers, and had as many as 40,000 inhabitants. However, satellite imaging was used recently to map the extent of fossilized suka kollus across the three primary valleys of Tiwanaku, arriving at population-carrying capacity estimates of anywhere between 285,000 and 1,482,000 people.^[3]

More narrowly, the proposed population range is between 570,000 and 1,111,500. This is based on

1. 190 km² of suka kollus discovered so far;
2. the Bolivian and Peruvian experimental staple tuber production rates of 21 and 10.65 metric tons per hectare respectively;
3. 533kg of tuber consumption per person per year; and
4. assumptions of 75% utilization and double cropping.^[3]

Tiwanaku's unique art style is found in vast areas covering modern highland Bolivia, Peru, Argentina and Chile. It is difficult to tell, however, whether these areas were part of an empire in the political sense, under cultural and commercial influence, or independent trading partners.

Tiwanaku collapsed around AD 1000, possibly due to environmental reasons, from an invasion of new people from the south, a loss of faith in the Tiwanaku religion, or a combination of all three. The area around Tiwanaku was not abandoned, but the city fell into decay and its characteristic art style vanished.

The Mollo culture of Bolivia's altiplano area developed thereafter, exhibiting a continuity with Late Tiwanaku in architectural style.^[4]

[edit] Architecture and art

Tiwanaku monumental architecture is characterized by large stones of exceptional workmanship. In contrast to the masonry style of the later Inca, Tiwanaku stone architecture usually employs rectangular ashlar blocks laid in regular courses, and monumental structures were frequently fitted with elaborate drainage systems. Bronze or copper "double-T" clamps were often used to anchor large blocks in place.

The stone used to build Tiwanaku was quarried and then transported 40 km or more to the city. They were moved without the aid of the wheel, though much of the distance was over water. The monumental architectural core of the city has been looted for treasure and mined for building stone for centuries, and buildings are in an advanced state of decay. Some of the more important buildings have been excavated and at least partially restored. These include the Akapana and Puma Punku stepped platforms, the Kalasasaya and Putuni enclosures and the Semi-Subterranean Temple. These are the structures that are visible to the modern visitor.

The Akapana is the biggest platform on the site measuring 200 meters on each side and 15 meters tall. the Pumapunku is another huge platform measuring 150 meters on each side and 5 meters tall. The largest ashlars of andesite or sandstone weigh over 100 tons. The heaviest stone block weights 131 tons and was dragged from a quarry 10 km away. One of the sunken temples includes projecting heads of volcanic tuff which may imply remote Chavin influence. Nearby is the Kalasasaya temple the largest and most important architectural complex and principal temple. It was built with walls of sandstone pillars and smaller blocks of Ashlar masonary. There are many more colossal stone statues, gateways and blocks including one that is 7.5 meters tall weighing well over 10 tons. ^{[5] [6]}

The Tiwanaku art style is distinctive, and, together with the related Huari style, defines the Middle Horizon of Andean prehistory. Significant elements of both of these styles (the split eye, trophy heads, and staff-bearing profile figures, for example) seem to have been derived from that of the earlier Pukara culture in the northern Titicaca Basin.

[edit] Religion

The name of the religion of Tiwanaku is unknown because they had no written language.

Their myths have been passed down to the Incas and the Spanish who in turn took that part of South America. They worshipped many gods, and one of the most important gods was Viracocha, the god of action, shaper of many worlds, and destroyer of many worlds. He created people, with two servants, on a great piece of rock. Then he drew sections on the rock and sent his servants to name the tribes in those areas. In Tiwanaku he created the people out of rock and brought life to them through the earth. The Tiwanaku believed that Viracocha created giants to move the massive stones that comprise much of their archeology, but then grew unhappy with the giants and created a flood to destroy them.

Viracocha is carved in the Gateway of the Sun, to overlook his people and lands. Along with Viaracocha, another statue is in the Gateway of the Sun. This statue, many believe is associated with the weather : "a celestial high god that personified various elements of natural forces intimately associated the the productive potential of altiplano ecology: the sun, wind, rain, hail - in brief, a personification of atmospherics that most directly affect agricultural production in either a positive or negative manner" ,^[7]. This statue is more complicated than Viracocha in that it has twelve faces covered by a solar mask and at the base thirty running or kneeling figures,^[8]. Some scientists believe that this statue is a representation of the calendar with twelve months and thirty days in each month ,^[9]. All stone statues seem to have some meaning, usually agricultural.

Other stone carvings, however, also show religious purposes surrounding the ideas of their dead kings. The Tiwanaku made use of large "above ground burial chambers for the social elite ... known as chullpas" ,^[10]. These held the bodies of the kings of the past in order of seniority around principle plazas. Each body was elaborately adorned and addressed in order to influence "all of those meteorological phenomena responsible for the growth or destruction of agricultural crops" ,^[11].

[edit] Archaeology

Much of the architecture of the site is in a poor state of preservation, having been subjected to looting and amateur excavations attempting to locate valuables since shortly after Tiwanaku's fall. This destruction continued during the Spanish conquest and colonial period, and during 19th century and the early 20th century, and has included quarrying stone for building and railroad construction and target practice by military personnel.

Detailed study of Tiwanaku began on a small scale in the mid-nineteenth century. In the 1860s, Ephraim George Squier visited the ruins and later published maps and sketches completed during his visit. German geologist Alphons Stübel spent nine days in Tiwanaku in 1876, creating a map of the site based on careful measurements. He also made sketches and created paper impressions of carvings and other architectural features. A book containing major photographic documentation was published in 1892 by engineer B. von Grumbkow. With commentary by archaeologist Max Uhle, this was the first in-depth scientific account of the ruins.

In the 1960s, an attempt was made at restoring the site, but by very uninformed parties.^{[citation needed]} The walls pictured to the right, of the Kalasasaya, are almost all reconstruction. The original stones making up the Kalasasaya would have resembled a more "Stonehenge" like style, spaced evenly apart and standing straight up. Unfortunately, the parties that made the reconstructions decided to make the Kalasasaya be enclosed by a wall that they themselves built. Ironically enough, the reconstruction itself is actually much poorer quality stoneworking than the people of Tiwanaku were capable of.^{[citation needed]} It should also be noted that the Gateway of the Sun, that now stands in the Kalasasaya, is not in its original location, having been moved sometime earlier from its original location, which is unknown.^{[citation needed]}

Modern, academically-sound archaeological excavations were performed from 1978 through the 1990s by University of Chicago anthropologist Alan Kolata and his Bolivian counterpart, Oswaldo Rivera. Among their contributions are the rediscovery of the suka kollus, accurate dating of the civilization's growth and influence, and evidence for a drought-based collapse of the Tiwanaku civilization.

Today Tiwanaku is a UNESCO world heritage site, and is administered by the Bolivian government.

Recently, the Department of Archaeology of Bolivia (DINAR, directed by Javier Escalante) has been conducting excavations on the Akapana pyramid. The Proyecto Arqueologico Pumapunku-Akapana (PAPA, or Pumapunku-Akapana Archaeological Project) run by the University of Pennsylvania, has been excavating in the area surrounding the pyramid for the past few years, and also conducting Ground Penetrating Radar surveys of the area.

In the past years, an archaeological field school, offered through Harvard's Summer School Program, conducted in the residential area outside the monumental core, has raised the controversy amongst local archaeologists^[12]. The program was directed by Dr. Gary Urton^[13] of Harvard, expert in quipu, and Dr. Alexei Vranich of the University of Pennsylvania. The controversy had to do with fact that permissions to excavate Tiwanaku, being such an important site, are only provided to certified professional archaeologists and, rarely to independent Bolivian scholars who scarcely can present proof of funding to carry on archaeological research. That time permission were given to the Harvard's Summer School to allow a team of mostly conformed by untrained students to dig the site. The controversy, charged with nationalistic and political undertones that characterized the archaeology of Tiwanaku ^[14] faded rapidly without any response from the directors, however, the project did not continue in subsequent years.

[edit] Further notes

On January 21, 2006 newly-elect Bolivian president Evo Morales attended an indigenous spiritual ceremony at Tiwanaku where he was crowned as Apu Mallku ("Supreme Leader") by indigenous people of the Altiplano and received gifts from many groups of indigenous peoples from various parts of Latin America and the world.

During the fad for theories suggesting extraterrestrial visits in prehistoric times, pseudoscientists advancing these ideas were fond of ascribing an immense age to Tiwanaku, on the order of 15000 years.^[15]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Tiwanaku Placemarks
• UNESCO World Heritage Site
• Interactive dig (Archeology Magazine, Archaeological Institute of America)
• Panoramic view of Kalasasaya
• Research done at the University of Pennsylvania
• Tiahuanaco on emuseum.mnsu.edu
• Tiwanaku. Photo Gallery
• Tiwanaku society by tiwanakuarcheo.net
• Daily Life at Tiwanaku
• Tiwanaku, Photo Gallery and Articles
• Tiwanaku (Tiahuanaco) Site Bibliography

Coordinates: 16°33′17″S 68°40′24″W / -16.55472, -68.67333

v • d • e World Heritage Sites in Bolivia Jesuit Missions of the Chiquitos · Fuerte de Samaipata · Noel Kempff Mercado National Park · City of Potosí · Historic City of Sucre · Tiwanaku: Spiritual and Political Centre of the Tiwanaku Culture

v • d • e  Pre-Columbian Civilizations and Cultures
North America	Ancient Pueblo (Anasazi) – Fremont – Mississippian
Mesoamerica	Huastec – Izapa – Mixtec – Olmec – Pipil – Tarascan – Teotihuacán – Toltec – Totonac – Zapotec
South America	Norte Chico – Chavín – Chibcha – Chimor – Chachapoya – Huari – Moche – Nazca – Tairona – Tiwanaku – Mapuche
	The Aztec Empire	The Maya civilization	The Inca Empire (Inca civilisation)
Language	Nahuatl language	Mayan languages	Quechua
Writing	Aztec writing	Mayan writing	Quipu
Religion	Aztec religion	Maya religion	Inca religion
Mythology	Aztec mythology	Maya mythology	Inca mythology
Calendar	Aztec calendar	Maya calendar
Society	Aztec society	Maya society	Inca society
Infrastructure	Chinampas	Maya architecture	Inca architecture (road system) Incan agriculture
History	Aztec history		Inca history
People	Moctezuma I Moctezuma II Cuitlahuac Cuauhtémoc	Pacal the Great Tecun Uman	Manco Capac Pachacutec Atahualpa
Conquest	Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire (Hernán Cortés)	Spanish conquest of Yucatán (Francisco de Montejo) Spanish conquest of Guatemala (Pedro de Alvarado)	Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire (Francisco Pizarro)
See also
Indigenous peoples of the Americas – Population history of American indigenous peoples – Pre-Columbian art