The Archaeology of Tiwanaku The Myths, History, and Science of an Ancient Andean Civilization

189 Pages·1999·62.82 MB·English

by  Juan V. Albarracin-Jordan (Ph.D.)

THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF
TIWANAKU
The Myths, History, and Science
of an Ancient Andean Civilization
Juan V. Albarracin - Jordan (Ph.D.)
Juan Albarracin-Jordan
was born in La Paz, Bolivia,
in 1962. He received his
B.A., in Anthropology
(1985), from the University
of North Texas, and his M.A.
(1988) and Ph.D. (1992),
in Archaeology, from
Southern Methodist
University. Dr. Albarracin-
Jordan has conducted
archaeological research in
the Tiwanaku Valley for
more than a decade. He
has also done extensive
archival and biographical
research while at the
Center for Advanced Study
in the Visual Arts (National
Gallery of Art, Washington
D.C.), in 1996, where he was
an Inter-American
Development Bank/Ailsa
Mellon Bruce Visiting Senior
Research Fellow. A former
Director of the National
Institute of Archaeology of
Bolivia, he has written
numerous articles for
professional journals in the
United States, Germany,
and Bolivia. He is the
author of Tiwanaku.
Arqueología Regional y
Dinámica Segmentaria and
co-author of
Asentamientos
Prehispánicos del Valle de
Tiwanaku. Currently, he
teaches at the Universidad
Mayor de San Andrés and
serves as Vice-president of
the Bartolomé de Las
Casas Foundation.
THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF
T
IWANAKU
The Myths, History, and Science
of an Ancient Andean Civilization
JUAN V. ALBARRACIN - JORDAN (PH.D.)
Cover: Tiwanaku Inciensario (c. A.D. 800), Regional Museum of Tiwanaku.
© Juan Albarracin - Jordan (Ph.D.)
Casilla 4920.
Déposito Legal: 4-1-45-99
ISBN: 99905-0-006-1
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Calle 20 N° 1691 Barrio Comibol (Villa Fátima)
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Printed in Bolivia
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in
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writing from the author.
For Adriana and Alexia
Acknowledgments
This kind of scientific endeavour is the result of personal as well
as group effort. Although I spent numerous months surveying in the
Tiwanaku Valley, excavating at various sites, analyzing the
archaeological materials, writing and editing reports, articles, and
books, such as this one, I owe my motivation and resolute persistence
to extraordinary individuals. They provide the continuous
encouragement, necessary for sustaining confidence in my personal
efforts.
Home was the most important source of inspiration; literally, I
grew up watching my father read and write, ceaselessly, about the
history of Bolivia, while my mother was a role model for perseverance.
I admire Tania, my sister, for bearing with an archaeologist as a
brother. Twelve years of academia in the United States of North
America shaped a great deal of my intellectual development. Larry
Naylor (University of North Texas) was the source of my initial interest
in anthropology; David Freidel, Fred Wendorf, David Meltzer, and
Anthony Marks (Southern Methodist University) were exemplary
mentors in archaeological method and theory. I am eternally in debt to
all my field assistants and the Aymara speaking, peasant communities
of the Tiwanaku Valley that permitted my archaeological work in their
land. This book is about their history, seen from an archaeologist’s
perspective.
Fieldwork in the Tiwanaku Valley was supported by a
Dissertation Improvement Grant from the National Science
Foundation (BNS 8919021) and from CORDEPAZ (DL 868-89).
Additional funds were provided by the National Endowment for the
Humanities (RO 21806-88) and the National Science Foundation (BNS
8805490), granted to Alan Kolata. As a Senior Visiting Fellow, in 1996,
at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA), at the
National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., I had the opportunity to
investigate the lives and work of E.G. Squier, Wendell C. Bennett,
Adolph Bandelier, Max Uhle, and Alfred Kidder II. My gratitude to
Joan Pillsbury for all the help that she provided during my fellowship
at the CASVA.
I thank Lic. José Tejeiro, Director of the Dirección Nacional de
Antropología y Arqueología (DINAAR) for allowing me access to
photograph artefacts that are displayed at the Regional Museum of
Tiwanaku. Figure 2.8 was provided by the Department of
Conservation and Data Center at the DINAAR.
Writing and editing this book demanded a lot of time, time away
from family. María Eugenia, Adriana, and Alexia understood this
“time out of time” and provided all the love and support. To them I
owe the crystallization of this work.
CONTENTS
Preface i
PART I
1 The Natural Scenario of the Tiwanaku Valley 1
Climate 6
2 History of Social Thought and Archaeological
Research at Tiwanaku 9
Colonial Period: Early Phase (1532-1 6 6 0 ) 10
Colonial Period: Late Phase (1661-1824) 13
Republican Period: First Phase (1825-1900) 14
Republican Period: Second Phase (1901-1951) 18
Republican Period: Third Phase (1952-1982) 23
Republican Period: Fourth Phase (1983-Present) 26
3 Brief History of Aymara Social Organization
and Land Tenure
31
The Ayllu: The Basis of Aymara Sociopolitical
and Economic Organization 31
Local Perception of the Past 39
PART II
4 Models of Social Organization:
Archaeological Implications 41
The Urban Revolution Model 41
The Altiplano Model 42
The Centralized Bureaucracy Model 43
The Local Autonomy Model 44
PART III
5 History Before Tiwanaku 47
Tiwanaku’s Consolidation: Diversity Becomes One 52
6 Tiwanaku’s Rise to Prominence 57
The Ancient Capital 57
Akapana 58
Kantatayita 59
Semisubterranean Temple 59
Kalasasaya 60
Pumapunku 61
Putuni 61
The Hinterland 62
The Agricultural Landscape 65
Raised Fields 65
Terraces 66
Qocha 67
The Social Organization of Agricultural Production 68
Iwawi: A Key to the Puzzle 69
An Evaluation of the Models of Social Organization 71
Nested Hierarchies and Agricultural Production 75
Tiwanaku Beyond Its Hinterland 79
7 The Loss of Power and Prestige 81
The Aymara Invasion Hypothesis 81
The Climate Degradation Hypothesis 83
Culture Change and Continuity 84
Ceramics 84
Settlement Pattern 85
Agricultural Fields 86
Funerary Traditions 87
The Ethnohistoric Record 88
The Inkas in the Tiwanaku Valley 89
Bibliography 91
PREFACE
... In any case, objetive minds do not exist outside
culture, so we must make the best of our ineluctable
embedding.
Stephen Jay Gould,
Time’s Arrow, Time’s Cycle (1987:7).
S ince the early sixteenth century, when the Spanish chroniclers
recorded the aboriginal myths of origin and described the
ancient monuments of the Andes, Tiwanaku achieved a
prominent position in the study of ancient South American civilization.
The earliest witnesses of pre-Inka architecture were puzzled by its
magnitude and complexity, an extraordinary legacy that stood silent in
the profoundness of antiquity.
The defeat of the Inka, in the hands of a few Spanish soldiers,
in 1532, opened a new chapter in the history of mankind. Although
earlier discoveries in Asia and Central America had bewildered
European western civilization, showing that human nature
transcended European models, the richness and diversity of the
natural resources and the cultural achievements in the Andean and
Amazonian regions dwarfed the standards of imagination. Francisco
Pizarro. the famed conquistador, launched extensive and venturesome
expeditions to all corners of the Inka dominion, or Tawantinsuyu.
Included among the early adventurers were notable observers,
1