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This paper analyses the research carried out in the Tiwanaku World Heritage site in Bolivia, using unmanned aerial vehicles and satellite images. The combined use of images with different scales has made it possible to locate many archaeological structures unknown to date (drainage systems, walls, circular crop marks, and a possible dock). The Sentinel‐2 images, which were processed using principal components analysis and histogram equalization, show the river beds, flood‐prone areas, and several buried drainage channels surrounding the most important structures. The archaeological evidence obtained with the digital terrain model and natural color/multispectral images enables us to contrast a new dimension of land and water uses that go beyond what was known to date. In the same way, these images enable us to understand in detail the environmental characteristics, land use, building distribution, and flood defense structures of the Tiwanaku culture throughout its history, within the context of the environmental conditions of the Bolivian altiplano. This study allowed the authors to collect new information and pose questions on the relationship of this site with water, as well as a better understanding of the extent and habitat of this historical population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A community is an active assemblage of human and non-human elements bound together by interactions. Archaeologies of communities shed light on sets of overlapping and geographically emplaced assemblages of individuals, practices, spaces, buildings, objects, animals and landscapes. This article presents an archaeology of communities based a remarkably well preserved Late Formative (ad 1–500) patio group at Khonkho Wankane, Bolivia. Excavation data provide a high-resolution chronology and document two varieties of assemblages: (1) those that played a greater role in biologically and socially reproducing the community, such as daily food and tool production; and (2) those that played a greater role in its transformation, such as gatherings, work parties and construction projects. In the patio group, intimate meetings took place in small, private spaces where incense was burned. Larger gatherings took place in an outdoor space where painted Kalasasaya small jars and bowls were active elements in interactions between residents and visitors. These events most likely involved work parties that contributed to the physical and social construction of the community. Assemblages at multiple scales built a diverse Late Formative community, which played a principal role in regional interaction networks. Within a few generations of residents leaving their homes in Khonkho, local and regional interactions generated the emergence of a state at Tiwanaku. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dress can be a powerful statement of status, ideology, and ethnic identity. Archaeological textiles in their original contexts may provide insight to these and many other facets of social life. This study takes a contextual approach to study and interpret a set of four high-quality garments found in a single child burial at the Tiwanaku site of Omo M10 in Moquegua, Peru (700-1050 AD). By integrating the histories of textile objects and social groups, we consider the identity of the deceased, and how the layers of funerary dress reflect the child's relationship to the community of mourners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El artículo discurre sobre los proyectos arqueológicos del sitio de Tiwanaku en Bolivia. La autora comenta sobre su importancia cultural y artística durante el periodo prehispánica, y describe las sociedades corporativas y multiétnicas de Tiwanaku. También se presentan una serie de imágenes del sitio arqueológico.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the cultural landscape of the archaeological area of Tiwanaku (Bolivia) using multiscale, multispectral and multitemporal satellite data. Geospatial analysis techniques were applied to the satellite data sets in order to enhance and map traces of past human activities and perform a spatial characterization of environmental and cultural patterns. In particular, in the Tiwanaku area, the approach based on local indicators of spatial autocorrelation (LISA) applied to ASTER data allowed us to identify traces of a possible ancient hydrographic network with a clear spatial relation with the well-known moat surrounding the core of the monumental area. The same approach applied to QuickBird data, allowed us to identify numerous traces of archaeological interest, in Mollo Kontu mound, less investigated than the monumental area. Some of these traces were in perfect accordance with the results of independent studies, other were completely unknown. As a whole, the detected features, composing a geometric pattern with roughly North–South orientation, closely match those of the other residential contexts at Tiwanaku. These new insights, captured from ASTER and QuickBird data processing, suggested new questions on the ancient landscape and provided important information for planning future field surveys and archaeogeophyical investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: While political integration can be achieved by many means, here we focus on the use of feasting and statecraft in the Inka Empire of the Andean Late Horizon (c. AD 1400–1532) in South America. In order to examine Inka political integration of the Lake Titicaca Basin of Bolivia, we examine paleomobility and paleodiet through radiogenic strontium and stable oxygen and carbon isotope data in archaeological camelid remains from the site of Tiwanaku. Mean radiogenic strontium isotope values from all archaeological camelid enamel and bone samples is 87Sr/86Sr = 0.70998 ± 0.00179 (1σ, n = 48), mean stable oxygen isotope values from a sub-set of archaeological camelid enamel and bone samples is δ18Ocarbonate (VPDB) = −10.0‰ ± 2.6‰ (1σ, n = 18) and mean stable carbon isotope values from a sub-set of archaeological camelid enamel and bone samples is δ13Ccarbonate (VPDB) = −9.0‰ ± 1.7‰ (1σ, n = 18). While many camelids consumed in these feasting events were likely local to the Lake Titicaca Basin, others came from a variety of different geologic zones, elucidating our understanding of Inka statecraft and the role of feasting in political integration in empires in the past. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Using a contextualized bioarchaeological framework, in this article, I examine the complex relationship between the Tiwanaku polity of the Bolivian altiplano (C.E. 550–1000) and the inhabitants of the San Pedro de Atacama oases of northern Chile, in Tiwanaku's far periphery. I focus on how influences from Tiwanaku might have affected the presentation of Atacameño group identity in the mortuary context. I compare skeletal and mortuary data from 300 individuals buried during the peak of Tiwanaku influence in the Atacama to assess mortuary context, trauma, and body modifications. Results suggest a complex response to Tiwanaku influence. Data from the grave and mortuary assemblage reveal traditional Atacameño tombs with occasional foreign objects. Evidence of increased traumatic injury suggests that this relationship was not without some conflict. Finally, the maintenance of bodily expressions of local identity indicates a society that used their bodies to mark Atacameño identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Andes, prominent mountains are revered as earthly spirits that protect, but may also punish, their human constituents. These apu were often linked to distant ancestors and are considered the most important local deities. During the phase of the earliest highland Andean expansive states (ad 600–1000), the Wari and Tiwanaku utilized mountain worship as a means of establishing hegemony over local peoples who considered these mountains as places of ancestral origins. By usurping the apu , or including them in the pantheon of imperial deities, the expansive state effectively held these sacred places hostage and incorporated local belief systems into an imperial ideology. Recent research has yielded new clues to the worship of mountain peaks, including the usurpation of a unique geological mesa formation at Cerro Baúl as the basis for the Wari colonization of its southern frontier. Furthermore, research on the mountain summit has revealed architectural complexes oriented to, and presumably dedicated for, rites of veneration to the higher snowcapped volcanic peaks visible from this mountain summit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information elating to a study of basal integrative processes on Tiwanaku, Bolivia. Location of the country; Information on settlements during 1200 B.C.-A.D. 100; What Bolivia provides to the Tiwanaku core area; Changes in the residential patterns; Demographic information on the country; Illustrations of the changes; Methodology used in the study; Results of the study.

The article explores the form and meaning of public, politico-religious symbolism in two native Andean capitals: Cusco and Tiwanaku. The principal social instrument for conceiving and experiencing the interpenetration of cult and command in Cusco was the ceque system which was central to the Inca people's notions of their own identity as an ethnic group and to their belief in their right to rule other nations. The city of Tiwanaku in late pre-Hispanic Andean society was associated with its role as a place of origin in cosmogonic myths.