Ancient Tiwanaku

Nearly a millennium before the Inca forged a pan-Andean empire in the South American Andes, Tiwanaku emerged as a major center of political, economic, and religious life on the mountainous southern shores of Lake Titicaca. Tiwanaku influenced vast regions of the Andes and became one of the most important and enduring civilizations of the pre-Columbian Americas. Yet for centuries, the nature and antiquity of Tiwanaku remained a great mystery. Only over the past couple of decades has archaeological research begun to explore in depth the fascinating character of Tiwanaku culture and the way of life of its people. Ancient Tiwanaku synthesizes a wealth of past and current research on this fascinating high-altitude civilization. In the first major synthesis on the subject in nearly fifteen years, John Wayne Janusek explores Tiwanaku civilization in its geographical and cultural setting, tracing its long rise to power, vast geopolitical influences, and violent collapse.

Introduces the striking artwork and fascinating rituals of this highland culture through approximately one hundred works of art and cultural treasures.

The Tiwanaku The city of Tiwanaku lies ruined in the rugged Andean steppe of Bolivia twelve thousand feet above sea level, the highest urban settlement of the ancient world. Its wide streets open towards ramparts of glaciated mountain peaks and the intense blue waters of Lake Titicaca. Gigantic stone sculptures and shattered architectural blocks suggest profound antiquity and the passage of great events, now lost and unremembered. Here, two and a half thousand years ago, a distinct society emerged which over the course of thirteen centuries developed one of the greatest civilizations and the first empire of the ancient Americas. This book, the first published history of the Tiwanakan peoples from their origins to their present survival, is a feat of scholarly and archaeological detection undertaken and led by the author. Alan Kolata draws together the evidence of historical documents from the time of the Iberian conquest, accounts and legends of the contemporary inhabitants, and the results of extensive excavations in order to provide a narrative covering three thousand years. In doing so he addresses and explains features of Tiwanakan culture that have long puzzled scholars: the origins of their uniquely massive architecture, the nature of their sophisticated hydraulically-engineered agriculture, their obsession with decapitation and the display of severed heads, and not least the reasons for their mysterious and sudden decline at the end of the tenth century. The book is illustrated throughout with photographs, maps and drawings, and is fully referenced and indexed. Although written to appeal to the nonspecialist and assuming no prior knowledge of the subject, this is a book of scholarly import, and likely to become the standard work for many years.

First Published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The Tiwanaku state was the political and cultural center of ancient Andean civilization for almost 700 years. Identity and Power is the result of ten years of research that has revealed significant new data. Janusek explores the origins, development, and collapse of this ancient state through the lenses of social identities--gender, ethnicity, occupation, for example--and power relations. He combines recent developments in social theory with the archaeological record to create a fascinating and theoretically informed exploration of the history of this important civilization.

There are a host of ancient ruins in South America, claimed by the Inca, inherited by the Inca, conquered by the Inca and built by the Inca. Although one label has stuck on each monument or ancient site, it is clear there are many layers of construction, physically and conceptually. Academics and Scholars still debate who built these, monuments, did they inherit them? Was there a Pre-Inca culture, but everyone can appreciate how advanced the ‘Inca Ancient Ruins’ found in the highlands of South America. The Inca were largest empire ever seen in the Americas and the largest in the world at that time, yet doubt is cast on their monuments and origins. Tiahuanaco, a region of Bolivia that holds many remnants of ancient civilizations, demonstrates some of the most unique and amazingly precise examples of stonework in the world. The ancient people who created these walls and buildings used such a high degree of mathematical expertise that the workmanship is astounding even to modern day people. They marvel at how the stone-cutters from long ago created all of it with simple hand tools.The high plains of Peru and Bolivia in the Andes Mountains holds a wealth of historical sites, each one more amazing than the next. Scholars and archaeologists had only seen the same type of masonry in ancient Egypt before this. Although some historians call this Inca architecture, this later time period civilization had little to do with creating these fantastic structures. The Incas dominated this area from approximately the 13th to 14th centuries AD up until the time of the Spanish explorers' conquest of the region. Indeed, they built some magnificent structures, but the ones most interesting for their precision and longevity came from even older groups. Some of these empires were called the Wari and the Tiahuanaco. They existed hundreds or even thousands of years before the Inca came to power.Multiple historians who specialize in architectural studies have dedicated a lot of their time and knowledge to figuring out how ancient groups of people who did not use advanced tools or even the wheel could create such structures. The most advanced chisels and hammers of the time would have been created from copper, stone, and wood. With these simple hand tools, people dug granite, andesite, and porphyry out of quarries. After transporting them to the final locations, they then carved them with smooth precision so they would fit together almost seamlessly.What techniques could these ancient experts use to make such flat and smooth surfaces, exact angles, and joints that would not allow a single blade of grass to squeeze between? Historians can only guess about some of the methods that allowed for such unique stone cutting and building styles.

​Over the millennia, from stone tools among early foragers to clays to prized metals and mineral pigments used by later groups, mineral resources have had a pronounced role in the Andean world. Archaeologists have used a variety of analytical techniques on the materials that ancient peoples procured from the earth. What these materials all have in common is that they originated in a mine or quarry. Despite their importance, comparative analysis between these archaeological sites and features has been exceptionally rare, and even more so for the Andes. Mining and Quarrying in the Ancient Andes focuses on archaeological research at primary deposits of minerals extracted through mining or quarrying in the Andean region. While mining often begins with an economic need, it has important social, political, and ritual dimensions as well. The contributions in this volume place evidence of primary extraction activities within the larger cultural context in which they occurred. This important contribution to the interdisciplinary literature presents research and analysis on the mining and quarrying of various materials throughout the region and through time. Thus, rather than focusing on one material type or one specific site, Mining and Quarrying in the Ancient Andes incorporates a variety of all the aspects of mining, by focusing on the physical, social, and ritual aspects of procuring materials from the earth in the Andean past.