tiwanaku expansion into the western titicaca basin, peru

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7.

Tiwanaku Expansion into the

Western Titicaca Basin, PeruCharles Stanish, Kirk Lawrence Frye,

Edmundo de la Vega, and Matthew T. Seddon

THE TIWANAKU

STATE

was the largest autoch-thonous polity to develop in the Andes south of

Cuzco before the Spanish conquest (Figure 1.3).Sometime in the first millennium AD

, the Tiwan-aku state extended its influence over a vast terri-tory covering parts of four modern nations anda variety of ecological zones. Tiwanaku artifactshave been found over an area of approximately400,000 km

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, an area the size of modern Califor-nia.

Defining the processes of state formationand territorial expansion of the Tiwanaku polityoutside of its core territory stands as one of themost important and intriguing problems in An-dean prehistory. Tiwanaku expansion involves anumber of related questions. What was the na-ture of the Tiwanaku political economy? Was Ti-wanaku an expansionist state at all, or was itsinfluence in areas outside of the Tiwanaku Val-ley a result of social, religious, or other nonpolit-ical factors? Was Tiwanaku a conquest statestructurally similar to the later Inca empire, ordid it expand through more subtle political andeconomic strategies by establishing exchange re-lationships and colonies in targeted provincial

areas? If it was indeed an expansionist state,when did Tiwanaku expand? Was its expansionearly, during, or before its Tiwanaku III or Qeyaperiod, or did its major expansion occur later?These questions are central in understanding theprocesses of the Tiwanaku expansion through-out the vast south central Andean region. In thischapter, we present settlement data from the

western Titicaca basin area that serve to answersome of these questions.

Our knowledge of the Tiwanaku polity in itscore region (the Tiwanaku, Catari, and Desagua-dero River Basins) is based upon several de-cades of research on the Peruvian and Boliviansides of the lake. The archaeological research of Arturo Posnansky (1945), Wendell Bennett(1934a, 1934b), Stig Rydén (1947), and CarlosPonce Sanginés (1981) has served to define a

broad cultural chronological framework for theregion. This chronology, which we refer to as the“Bennett-Ponce” chronology (Bermann 1990:55;Stanish 2003), is based upon two relatively goodstratigraphic cuts by Bennett (out of ten exca-vated) and other excavations by Ponce Sanginésand Gregorio Cordero at the site of Tiwanaku. Itis also based upon a stylistic typology of Tiwan-aku materials collected from these and othersites from around the area.

In the Tiwanaku core territory, definable Ti-wanaku I pottery manufacture is reported tohave begun around 300 BC

. Subsequent Tiwan-aku pottery styles (Tiwanaku III–IV) were man-ufactured up to around AD

1100. Recent

excavation and survey data reported by SoniaAlconini Mujica (1995) and Paul Goldstein(1989) in Moquegua; Marc Bermann (1990) atLukurmata; and Juan Albarracin-Jordan and

James Mathews (1990), as well as John Janusek(2003; Chapter 10, this volume) in the TiwanakuValley, have refined this chronology, althoughproblems still remain with the Bennett-Ponce


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chronology. In spite of these problems, it is stillthe only viable framework we have, and we willcontinue to utilize it for interpreting the archaeo-logical data from the western Titicaca region.

Early archaeological research outside of thecore Tiwanaku area established the fact that Ti-wanaku materials were widely distributed overthe south central Andes. Alfred Kidder (1943) re-connoitered the northern Titicaca region. He de-scribed several Tiwanaku sites in the region,including Incatunuhuiri (1943:13), Asiruni, andSarapa (1943:10). Incatunuhuiri is located nearIchu, directly northwest of Chucuito. Asiruniand Sarapa are located in the Ilave Pampa. Inca-tunuhuiri is a large, terraced hill that has Pukaraand Tiwanaku occupations. It also has a semi-

subterranean sunken court with carved stonestelae. Kidder inferred that there was complexarchitecture from the sites of Asiruni and Sarapaas well. Both of these sites had Tiwanaku occu-pations. Kidder described Tiwanaku pottery atthese sites and is therefore one of the first ar-chaeologists to document a Tiwanaku presencein the Ilave region. A few years later, MarionTschopik described three late Tiwanaku vesselsthat she purchased in Chucuito (M. Tschopik1946:41), confirming a Tiwanaku presence inthat immediate area as well. The exact nature of

this presence, however, remained poorly under-stood.

John Rowe (1956) published a brief report onthe site of Huayna Roque in Juliaca. This site sitson one of the large mountains in the area nearthe modern town of Juliaca. The habitation areais located along the edges of the hill. Unfortu-nately, the site has been badly disturbed. Tiwan-aku pottery is located throughout the site area,however, and there is little doubt that HuaynaRoque was a major Tiwanaku settlement (LisaCipolla and Rolando Paredes, personal commu-

nication 2001). John Hyslop conducted the first systematic

reconnaissance of the area located between Punoand Desaguadero. Based upon these data, heproposed the “Tiwanaku and Antecedents Mac-ropattern.” The Tiwanaku and Formative periodpatterns were similar, as the name of the settle-ment macropattern implies. He observed that Ti-wanaku sites in the Lupaqa area wereconcentrated near the lakeshore, that these sites

may have been associated with raised fields, andthat the nature of the Tiwanaku occupation mayhave been similar to that of the later Lupaqa“Kingdom” (Hyslop 1976:92–98).

Hyslop’s work confirmed the suggestion of earlier researchers that there were indeed anumber of Tiwanaku sites in the region. How-ever, many questions remain. The precise date of Tiwanaku expansion, for instance, remains asubject of debate. Several archaeologists havesuggested a Tiwanaku IV date for the expansionof Tiwanaku outside of its core territory. PonceSanginés (1981:78–79) argued that Tiwanaku en-claves were established in Ayacucho and Aricaduring Tiwanaku IV times. Kolata (1983:252–253) recognizes the Tiwanaku IV period as the

time in which Tiwanaku “achieved true imperialstatus,” establishing colonies in lowland Boliviaand the Pacific coast. These observations aresupported by Goldstein’s data from Moquegua.In the upper reaches of this coastal valley, theearliest occupation by Tiwanaku was during theOmo phase, a time that corresponds to the “mid-dle or later part of Phase IV of the Bolivian Ti-wanaku sequence” (Goldstein 1989:61). Finally,Browman (1984) suggests a date of AD

300–400for “an ever-quickening series of expanding eco-nomic networks” by the Tiwanaku state, dates

consistent with other archaeologists who see Ti-wanaku expansion in the early Tiwanaku IV pe-riod. In sum, previous research had clearlyindicated that Tiwanaku sites were located inthe western Titicaca area. The nature, date, andintensity of that occupation were unknown.

It is in this research context that we report onour research in this chapter. The data reportedhere are based upon survey and reconnaissancein several areas. In the Juli-Pomata region weconducted a full regional coverage pedestriansurvey of an area measuring 360 km

2

. A similar

survey was conducted in the Chucuito region(Frye and de la Vega, Chapter 11, this volume).Systematic, intensive reconnaissance was carriedout in the Ccapia and Desaguadero River areas,and nonsystematic reconnaissance was carriedout in the rest of the area up to Paucarcolla (Fig-ure 7.1). Subsequent work was conducted byCarol Schultze (2000) in the Puno Bay. AmandaCohen (2000, 2001) surveyed the Pukara Valley,and various members of Programa Collasuyu


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have completed survey in the Huancané-Putinaarea, as well as in the perimeter of Lake Arapa.

[FIGURE 7.1

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Tiwanaku sites are easily identified by the pres-ence of a high density of decorated Tiwanakupottery on the settlements and, in some cases,

architectural modifications using Tiwanaku can-ons. Tiwanaku pottery in the region is recog-nized by very distinctive shapes and designmotifs. Certain Tiwanaku fineware pastes arealso distinctive and represent imports into theregion. The best Tiwanaku marker, however, ispottery in the form of kero, tazón

(flaring sided bowl), and incense burner shapes. In most cases,the pottery was locally made, but a number of

FIGURE 7.1. Survey and reconnaissance areas discussed in the chapter


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nonlocal imports were also found on these sites.We argue that the existence of substantial quanti-ties of Tiwanaku pottery on a site indicates astrong relationship to the Tiwanaku state. Whereother iconographic traditions are not present, andwhere there is architectural modification using Ti-wanaku canons, we can argue that the site was inthe Tiwanaku political orbit. In the case of Tuma-tumani near Juli (Figure 7.2), for instance, thework of Steadman (in Stanish and Steadman1994) nicely illustrates how the pre-Tiwanaku as-semblage contained iconographic and vesselform elements from both the north and south Titi-caca Basin, along with a local ceramic tradition.During the Tiwanaku occupation, in contrast, alliconographic canons were from the southern ba-

sin, specifically from the Tiwanaku state.[FIGURE 7.2

The Tiwanaku occupation of the western re-gion is represented by a number of diverse sitetypes in the area. Our survey work allows us to

define a number of site types for Tiwanaku pe-riod occupations:

• Large, artificial mounds, which are greaterthan 50 x 50 m at the base, represent the first

type of site. These mounds are built withartificial fill that was used to construct non-domestic architectural features. This sitetype represents a considerable labor invest-ment and is a kind of elite/ceremonial con-struction. The mounds are not just collapsedstructures, but rather represent considerablequantities of fill intentionally used to createarchitectural features.

• Small, artificial habitation mounds representa second type of Tiwanaku site in the region.

These artificial mounds are small, generallymeasuring less than 20 x 20 m at the base,and represent individual collapsed houses.The distinction between large and small

FIGURE 7.2. Map of Tiwanaku sites in the Juli-Pomata region


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mounds is greater than merely a differencein size. Unlike the large mounds, the fillfound in this second site type was not inten-tionally moved to build corporate construc-tions. Rather, small mounded sites representcollapsed domestic structures that thenturned into a mound after abandonment. Itis not unusual for small mounds to haveintrusive tombs placed on top. These sitesare generally found in the pampas near thelake.

• Sites built on low, generally nondefensible,natural hills with domestic terraces representthe third major site type in the study area.These sites often have sunken courts on thehilltop and represent an architectural repre-

sentation of the Akapana-Kalasasaya sunkencourt tradition—a tradition that reached itsfullest and most dramatic expression at thesite of Tiwanaku itself (see Hastorf, Chapter5, this volume).

• The domestic terrace settlement is the mostcommon Tiwanaku site type. The domesticterrace type accounts for a significant per-centage of the habitation sites and housed amajority of the total population in the inten-sively studied areas. Many of the hillsides in

the region are terraced and used today foragricultural purposes. Our research clearlyindicates that a substantial number of theseagricultural terraces may have originally

been built for domestic purposes and werelater plowed under for agriculture land use.The agricultural and domestic terraces arealmost always faced with fieldstones. Today,one can observe house compounds built onthe hillside terraces in a pattern that appearsto go back millennia.

• Tiwanaku artifact scatters that lack any evi-dence of domestic terracing or other construc-tions are occasionally found. These are usuallydispersed sites built on flat land, generallynear the lake or in the puna regions. Thesesites could represent small destroyed moundsor very light or transient occupations. Dis-persed sites are rare in the region, accountingfor a small percentage of the habitation sitesfound in our work throughout the region.

• “Conical mounds” are a seemingly rare sitetype in the Ilave River area on the IlavePampa. They are also found in the RamisRiver area as well. These are earthenmounds that are small at the base (10 m indiameter, for instance) but quite high (5–8m). These appear to be habitation and/orceremonial constructions of unknown originand distribution.

• Tiwanaku cemeteries are found throughoutthe western Titicaca basin area as well, andare almost always associated with nearbyhabitation areas. There are no above-groundTiwanaku tombs, such as chulpas

(burial tow-ers) or slab-cist tombs. All Tiwanaku tombsdiscovered so far are below-ground cists

without any surface features.

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The Northwestern Titicaca Region

The northwestern Titicaca region is the area of the sixteenth century Aymara señorío

of theColla. The Colla polity extended approximatelyfrom the bay of Puno in the south to the Canaspolity in the north and the Canchis polity to theeast. There has been no systematic survey in thisarea to date. Mario Núñez (1994) has publisheda review of the known Tiwanaku sites in thePuno area. A number of sites have since been de-stroyed or are now covered by modern construc-tions. They were identified by the presence of Tiwanaku diagnostics recovered from rescuework or as a byproduct of construction activi-ties. Núñez lists a number of such sites, includ-ing one found in the present site of the ColegioNacional en Puno located in Barrio José Antonio

Encinas; the site of Huajjsapata, located 300 mfrom the Plaza de Armas; the site of MolloqoMata, located near the lake off the main high-way south of Puno (Molloqo Mata was also vis-ited by Hyslop [1976]); and Punanave, locatedabove the military base south of Puno. Núñezalso notes that Tiwanaku artifacts were locatedon Isla Salinas and, of course, Isla Esteves (Fig-ure 7.1). Isla Esteves was at least 15 ha in size,with evidence of corporate architecture.


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We also located several additional sites inthe Puno area. For example, a small unnamedsite was located approximately 500 m from IslaEsteves on the side of the hill. The site had a fewterraces that measure about 75 x 50 m total. Theoccupation appeared to be purely domestic,with no evidence of Tiwanaku finewares. At theeastern side of the Punanave hill is a major do-mestic terrace site with Tiwanaku Expansive oc-cupations. The site is composed of at least fourterraces. Unfortunately, the site is being minedfor gravel and will be lost in the next few years.

Another site, Chuchuparqui, is located onthe road north from Isla Esteves along the hilladjacent to the railroad tracks and lake edge. It islocated on the larger southern hill between Vis-

cachane and Chullune. It is a modest-sized do-mestic terraced hill site, approximately 3 to 4 hain area. There are four to six domestic terraceson all sides up to a flat area that probably had asunken court and/or a ceremonial area. The siteof Toclomara is located at the curve on the sameroad as Chuchuparqui. It is a substantial domes-tic terrace site with abundant Upper Formative,Tiwanaku, Late Intermediate period, and Incaperiod occupations. This site is at least 3 ha insize, possibly more, and it is associated with theraised fields below. A series of broad domestic

terraces are located above and below the curveon the road. Although the Tiwanaku occupationappears to be restricted to the lower terraces, it isstill considered large anyway (greater than 1.0ha). There is no evidence of corporate architec-ture on this site.

Several Tiwanaku sites have been reported between Puno and Paucarcolla. Revilla Becerraand Uriarte Paniagua (1985:86–95) report findingTiwanaku levels in their excavations at the site of Sillustani. They also note the presence of Tiwan-aku ceramics on a site called Patas, 2 km north of

Sillustani (Revilla Becerra and Uriarte Paniagua1985:46). Likewise, they found “miscellaneous”fragments at the site of Cerro Ale, 3 km north of Sillustani (Revilla Becerra and Uriarte Paniagua1985:46). Similarly, L. Steadman (1995) notes asignificant Tiwanaku occupation at the site of Paucarcolla. Recently, Carol Schultze completed afull regional coverage of the Puno Bay. Her workconfirms the existence of a major Tiwanaku en-clave in the Puno Bay.

The Chucuito Region

The Chucuito-Cutimbo region was intensivelysurveyed using a full coverage methodology. Allextant archaeological sites were recovered in anarea of approximately 200 km

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(Figure 7.1).Twenty-seven Tiwanaku sites were located. Allof these sites are concentrated near the lake-shore, with only one site located in the higher-altitude puna zone. Two of the sites within thestudy region were reported by Hyslop (1976),one located on the lower slopes of Cerro Ccotaand another at Camata. Tiwanaku sites werefound in two main topographic zones: in flatpampa areas near the lakeshore and on the sur-rounding hill slopes. The majority of sites in thepampa are small habitation mounds associated

with relict raised-field systems, while largersites, of which Camata is an example, are locatedon natural hills rising above the lakeside plain.Hill slopes sites were situated on small domesticterraces located along the base of the surround-ing hills. The majority of the sites are small andinclude five cemeteries, seven hamlets, ten smallvillages, and four large villages. One site is atemple construction with no apparent occupa-tion. The total combined occupation size of allTiwanaku sites in the survey is not large, at 12.93ha.

Tiwanaku sites in the Chucuito-Cutimbosurvey occur in clusters in four specific areas:Pampa Huataraque, Pampa Pirape, Ichu Pampaand near the modern town of Chucuito. ThePampa Huataraque group includes the un-named habitation sites of CC-47, CC-66, and CC-197, and a small cemetery identified as CC-65.Site CC-47 is one of the sites reported by Hyslopand is the largest site in the Huataraque group,measuring 1.2 ha in size. The second cluster of sites, found in the Pampa Pirape area, is themost clearly associated with relict raised-field

agricultural systems. Two canals, one on thenorth side and another on the south side of thepampa, were recorded and mapped. Site CC-54is located near the northern canal, while CC-25and CC-38 are found along the southern one.Sites CC-57, CC-53, CC-45, CC-58, CC-60, andCC-48 are situated along a road that was in useduring the Late Horizon (Hyslop 1984:130). Thelargest site in the group is Camata (CC-52), firstdescribed by Hyslop (1976:381) and intensively


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excavated by L. Steadman (1995). Steadmannoted a concentration of slipped Tiwanaku ce-ramics associated with what may have been a Ti-wanaku period plaza structure at Camata(Steadman 1995:8–9), but a modern house com-pound occupies the area where a structure mayhave been, making detailed observation theredifficult. Although Camata may have includedsome formal architecture, the Tiwanaku occupa-tion is approximately 2.0 ha in size, much re-duced from the 3.5 ha reported by L. Steadman(1995:9) for the Late Formative occupation. Thesettlement pattern in the Pampa Pirape is there-fore two tiered, with smaller sites located be-tween larger ones within the small-sized raised-field system.

A third area of Tiwanaku sites is situatedsouth of the modern town of Chucuito. Two Ti-wanaku sites, CC-92 and CC-94, are located onthe slopes of a quebrada

along the southern flankof Cerro Atoja. These are associated with a canalthat may have extended into the ChinchiraPampa. CC-92 is 0.5 ha in size, and is defined bydispersed ceramic artifacts across several do-mestic terraces and an associated cemetery fur-ther up the slope.

The fourth and final grouping of Tiwanakusites in this region is found in the Ichu pampa.

Three Tiwanaku sites were found in this area, in-cluding Incatunuhuiri, an important Formativeperiod site. Mapping and intensive surface col-lections at Incatunuhuiri indicate a small Tiwan-aku occupation restricted to an area of 0.5 haalong the sides of a canalized quebrada at the

base of the Incatunuhuiri hill on the northeastside. Only a few Tiwanaku fragments werefound on the slopes of Incatunuhuiri, and nonewere found at the Formative period temple com-plex at the summit. Other sites in the Ichu areainclude CC-102, a low mound measuring 0.04 ha

and located in the pampa above the Panameri-can highway. CC-103 is a site along the modernroad that was disturbed when the road was re-constructed. Like the sites found in the PirapePampa, the sites in the Ichu Pampa area repre-sent small-scale agricultural settlements associ-ated with lakeside raised fields.

Site CC-215 deserves special mention. Lo-cated on the island of Quipata, CC-215 is an im-pressive although modest (1.0 ha) truncated

pyramid structure which, given its architecturalstyle, suggests a civic ceremonial function. Enig-matically, however, no decorated ceramics werefound at the site, and with the exception of a fewTiwanaku plainwares there were almost no sur-face ceramics at the site at all.

The Tiwanaku settlement data from theChucuito-Cutimbo survey area provide impor-tant comparisons with settlement data fromother areas in the western Titicaca Basin. Similarto other studied areas, the Tiwanaku settlementpattern in the Chucuito-Cutimbo is associatedwith raised-field agricultural systems. The areaof highest site density, the Pampa Pirape, is alsothe area with the greatest potential for raisedfields. In contrast to the Juli-Pomata and Ccapia

areas (this chapter), no large Tiwanaku civic-cer-emonial centers (sites over 4 ha) were found inthe survey area. Although two sites were docu-mented in the survey area that may have beenused as Tiwanaku civic-ceremonial sites, thelargest, Camata, does not appear to have func-tioned as an important political center in Tiwan-aku times. While the Formative occupation inthe Chucuito-Cutimbo is characterized by aclear site size hierarchy and the occupation of several densely settled ceremonial centers, withIncatunuhuiri being by far the most important,

the Tiwanaku occupation of the region is verydifferent. None of the Formative period ceremo-nial sites in the Chucuito-Cutimbo area were re-occupied during Tiwanaku times, suggestingthat the Late Formative political system had de-clined prior to the expansion of Tiwanaku influ-ence in the region.

The Juli-Pomata Region

The Juli-Pomata area was intensively surveyedusing a full regional coverage methodology(Stanish et al. 1997). All extant archaeological

sites were recovered in an area of approximately350 km

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. We discovered about forty Tiwanakusites in the area from the southern Ilave pampato the pampa just south of Pomata (Figure 7.1).The preferred site types for the Tiwanaku periodwere the low, terraced hill and the hillside do-mestic terraces, respectively. Of the eight ter-raced hill sites identified, at least three of themhave cut stone blocks and evidence of semisub-terranean sunken courts at the top of the hill.


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Hyslop (1976:84–85) refers to these constructionsas “Kalasasayas” after the famous construction atthe site of Tiwanaku itself. Such constructions aretypical at other major Tiwanaku sites in the re-gion as exhaustively discussed by Hastorf in thisvolume, in Chapter 5. The sites with sunkencourts are most certainly the principal ceremo-nial-elite centers of the Upper Formative Late Sil-lumocco and Tiwanaku period occupations inthe Juli-Pomata area.

The Tiwanaku settlement pattern in the Juli-Pomata area is characterized by a lakeside settle-ment focus and the absence of fortified settle-ments. The most common type of Tiwanaku siteis the domestic hillside terrace. These sites arefound in the lower sections of hills adjacent to

the pampas, the raised fields, and the lake. Do-mestic terrace sites lack any evidence of ceremo-nial architecture and are almost certainlynonelite domestic residences. They are indistin-guishable from agricultural terraces today andcan only be found by pedestrian survey.

Six Tiwanaku sites are classified as artificialmounds. Three of these are quite substantial insize: Tumatumani, Huaquina, and Huarahua-rani. Tumatumani, in fact, is composed of twolarge mounds, one of which is characterized by apyramid-like structure with artificial terraces,

while the second one was built in an extendedU-shape (Stanish and Steadman 1994). Tumatu-mani may represent the southernmost U-shapedstructures in the Andes (Stanish 2001a). The sitesof Huaquina and Huarahuarani representsmaller mounds on the periphery of the Moyo-pampa zone. Huaquina is approximately 100 x175 m in dimension and rises several metersabove the pampa. The mound is obviously artifi-cial, but without excavation it is impossible todetermine the nature of its architecture. The un-named site number 444 is located in the north of

our survey area. It is approximately 100 x 100 mat the base and rises several meters above thepampa. Three smaller artificial mounds also hadTiwanaku occupations: Kalatirawi, Ankoake,and an unnamed site (number 284). Two of thethree sites, Kalatirawi and Ankoake, are locatedin the Moyopampa near the Salado River in thenorthern part of the survey area (see de la Vega,Chapter 8, this volume). This area is a majorraised-field zone. Site 284 is located in the El

Molino sector. All three of these smaller moundsare low, small, and have post-Tiwanaku intru-sive tombs.

Small Tiwanaku mounds are rare in the area,and both Ankoake and site number 284 did nothave earlier occupations. Only Kalatirawi, thesite on the periphery of the Moyopampa raised-field area, had an earlier occupation. It is there-fore most likely that the small mounded Tiwan-aku sites represent a late Tiwanaku occupationin the region.

Two other sites are characterized by a flat to-pography with a dispersed settlement. Flat landanywhere in the study area is found only in afew areas such as the lakeside pampas, a thinstrip along the lake itself, and in some flat areas

in the puna. The site of Hanco Vilque and un-named site number 349 are found in the punaand on the lakeshore, respectively. HancoVilque, along with unnamed site number 411,represents sites typical of the high puna thatmost likely had pastoral functions. One atypicalsite is unnamed site number 500, a rock shelterwith Upper Formative, Tiwanaku, and post-Ti-wanaku occupations.

Another atypical site is Altarani-Bebedero,located at the base of the uplifted geological for-mation known as Bebedero. Altarani-Bebedero

was first discovered by Hyslop (1976:352;1977a:161). The site has a large, squarish plat-form at the southern base of the uplifted strata.Hyslop’s description matches our survey obser-vations except that we have included the entireBebedero rock outcrop with the platform and acarved niche as one site. The carving is an in-verted trapezoidal or T-shaped niche inside of an upside-down square U-shape carved in oneof the uplifted natural walls. The carving standsabout 7 m high and about 14 m wide. Hyslopnoted that the “doorway has a T-shape reminis-

cent of a Tiwanaku sculptural motif” (Hyslop1977a:161–162), although he felt that it was morelikely a chulpa facade built in the Altiplano orLate Intermediate period. We feel that the carv-ing is most likely Inca in date, but this remainsto be tested with further stylistic analysis of other similar motifs in the region (compare toArkush, Chapter 14, this volume).

Test excavations at three sites in the regionindicate that Tiwanaku consistently occupied


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and substantially modified previous Upper For-mative period sites such as Tumatumani. Theearlier terraces were rebuilt into larger ones withthe same architectural pattern (Stanish andSteadman 1994). Testing at the site of Palermoalso indicated that Tiwanaku substantially modi-fied this site as well. Clear Upper Formative pe-riod levels were separated from Tiwanaku levels

by a burning event, which may have been associ-ated with the arrival of Tiwanaku in the area(Stanish et al. 1992). The site was constructed intoan Akapana/Kalasasaya/semisubterranean tem-ple complex typical of core Tiwanaku sites aswell as external ones (Goldstein 1993b), indicat-ing a strong Tiwanaku interest in establishingsite layouts similar to those of the homeland.

Testing at the site of Sillumocco-Huaquina indi-cates a similar pattern (see de la Vega, Chapter 8,this volume). Here, again, Tiwanaku modified aprevious Upper Formative period occupation atthe site. In this case, the entire top terrace of a ter-raced hill was added during the Tiwanaku pe-riod.

It is significant that there is no evidence of Tiwanaku settlement in its earlier or pre-Tiwan-aku IV phases. The lack of Qeya and earlier sitesin the region is significant. The occupation of theregion occurred only after Tiwanaku had coa-

lesced into a powerful polity in its core territoryin the Pacajes region. The Tiwanaku state ex-panded into the Lupaqa region at a time whenthe area was controlled by complex Upper For-mative polities.

The Ccapia RegionThe Ccapia Reconnaissance Area includes theedge of the lake around the large Ccapia Moun-tain that dominates the southern Titicaca Basin(Figure 7.1). The Desaguadero Reconnaissancearea was restricted to the Peruvian side of the

river, from the town of Desaguadero to a dis-tance several kilometers south. We discovered anumber of important Tiwanaku sites in both of these areas. The results from this reconnaissanceare consistent with those from the Intensive Sur-vey Area. That is, we found the full range of sitesand site types in the Ccapia and Desaguaderoareas, as we did in the Juli-Pomata area.

A number of major Tiwanaku sites are lo-cated along the lake edge along the Checca-

Checca-Yunguyu highway. The sites of AceroPhatjata, Imicate, and Qeñuani (Fortina Vinto),plus the site complex of Tintinpujopata-Tica-maya, Chatumapata, Morocollo, Pukara Cha-tuma, and Kcusill-Chacca in the ChatumaPampa represent major Tiwanaku occupationsalong this productive lakeshore area (Figure 7.1).The site of Llaquepa Mancja, located inlandaway from the lake on the southern edge of theChatuma Pampa, is a major site as well. Many of these sites are between 4 and 6 ha in size andhave some evidence of corporate architecture.

Along the southern edge of the lake on theroad is a large beach and pasture area called theMisavi Pampa. We surveyed a section of the

beach about 100–200 m from the lake. This area

exhibits a settlement pattern distinct from any inthe Juli-Pomata Intensive Survey Area. The en-tire area surveyed, approximately 3 km2, has atleast a light concentration of pottery with occa-sional heavier concentrations of artifacts in re-stricted areas. In other words, the entire beachconstitutes a habitation area with some concen-trations of now-destroyed structures. Pre-His-panic diagnostics included substantial but smallconcentrations of Tiwanaku sherds all along thelake edge. There is also a substantial Tiwanakuoccupation along the edge of the small lake

(Huiñamarka) on the Peruvian side. In particu-lar, the sites of Amaizama China, Kanamarca,Yanapata, and Caninsaya represent major Tiwan-aku sites along this side of the lake. All of thesesites are larger than 3 ha in area.

Desaguadero River Reconnaissance AreaWe discovered several major Tiwanaku sites inthe Desaguadero River area on the Peruvianside. The Tiwanaku sites of Callanga and Lin-quinchira were discovered and reported by Hys-lop (1976:290). Linquinchira is at least 2 ha in

size, and probably much larger. The site of LaCasilla is located at the crest of the road that sep-arates the Desaguadero area pampa from theChallaquenta area, which is a pasture zone to-day. An important aspect of La Casilla is thatthere is abundant raw copper ore on the sur-face. The residents of the site were therefore al-most certainly exploiting the copper source nearthe site of Chicane less than 1 km away. Thesettlement location of this site could therefore


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CHARLES STANISH, K IRK L AWRENCE FRYE, ET AL.112

represent a compromise between access to theraised-field area near the river, access to the cop-per source, and a suitable location for habitationon the hillside.

The reconnaissance of the Desaguadero Riverindicates a substantial Tiwanaku presence in as-sociation with the extensive raised-field areas onthe river bottoms. Furthermore, Posnansky(1938) reported the site of Simillake in the De-saguadero River, a site with stelae and a probablesunken court and/or Kalasasaya construction.The area across the river on the Bolivian side hasnot been surveyed, but there is a strong probabil-ity of substantial Tiwanaku settlement there aswell, given the substantial agricultural terracingand raised-field construction in the area.

The North: Arapa-Huancané-PutinaThe northern Titicaca Basin region was surveyedfrom 1999 through 2003, and we are still compil-ing these data. We discovered over 1200 newsites, including several dozen major Formativeand Tiwanaku period ones. The pattern from thenorthern lake area is unequivocal: Tiwanakusites abound along the lake edge and along themodern Taraco-Huancané road, but are virtuallynonexistent up-valley from the lake. There are noTiwanaku sites north of Huatasane, a town about

midway between Huancané and Putina (see Fig-ure 4.3 for a map of this area). There are likewisevery few sites between that town and Huancané.The same pattern holds for the Arapa area.

INTERPRETATIONS

Our understanding of the nature of the Tiwan-aku presence in the Titicaca Basin outside of theTiwanaku heartland continues to change as weacquire new data. Our research demonstratesthat the Tiwanaku presence along the western

lake edge was substantial. Wherever we havedone reconnaissance and survey south of the Il-ave River, we find large Tiwanaku sites. In areaswhere we carry out systematic, 100% full-re-gional coverage survey south of the Ilave River,we find very dense clusters of Tiwanaku sites.Settlements are heavily concentrated along thelake edge and rivers, and dramatically decreasein density into the puna. We have isolated morethan 100 sites in the western Titicaca region,

from Juliaca to the Desaguadero River region.Dozens of other Tiwanaku sites have been lo-cated in the Puno Bay area (Schultze 2000) andin the northern Huancané-Arapa zone.

The survey and reconnaissance data there-fore strongly suggest that the Tiwanaku statemaintained political control of the southwesternregion during its expansive periods circa AD500–1000 as a typical expansive state—that is,the entire territory and people were incorpo-rated into the political orbit of the Tiwanaku pol-ity. There is no Tiwanaku-controlled settlementprior to this time, although the existence of anoccasional trade ware suggests contact betweenthe Upper Formative cultures of the region withthe pre-Tiwanaku IV Pacajes-area cultures.

North of the Ilave and probably Escoma Rivers,in contrast, Tiwanaku selectively controlled en-claves and areas near raised fields, roads, andthe lake edge. These data confirm the model pro-posed in Stanish (2002, 2003) that Tiwanaku ex-pansion was selective north of its core territory,and was based upon an economic and politicallogic that we as yet do not completely under-stand. Certain empirical patterns, however,point to factors that were important in that logic.

First, the settlement data indicate that the Ti-wanaku population maintained a mixed econ-

omy of intensive and extensive agriculture,pastoralism, lake resource exploitation, and re-gional exchange in all areas that they controlled.Intensive agriculture is represented by the raisedfields (Ortloff 1996; Kolata et al. 1996). Thesefields date at least to the Tiwanaku period, as ev-idenced by the location of major Tiwanaku sitesadjacent to aqueducts, canals, and the fieldsthemselves (Stanish 1994a, 2001c, 2002). Exten-sive agriculture is represented by terraced agri-culture, typical of the area today. A number of Tiwanaku sites are found away from the raised-

field areas and are geographically associatedwith agricultural terraces. In short, both raised-field and non-raised-field areas were used by Ti-wanaku sites occupants.

The lakeside focus is indicative of the exploi-tation of the lake resources, although this propo-sition needs to be refined with excavation data.A few Tiwanaku sites are also found in the highpuna area above 4000 m above sea level, a settle-ment pattern that suggests a control of camelid


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CHAPTER 7: TIWANAKU EXPANSION INTO THE W ESTERN TITICACA B ASIN, PERU 113

grazing lands. The number of Tiwanaku sites inthe puna is small, however, compared to thenumber of sites from the later Altiplano and LateHorizon periods (Stanish 1994a).

Furthermore, the coexistence of a locallymanufactured Tiwanaku imitation pottery alongwith imported polychromes indicates the exist-ence of a trade network of as yet unknown inten-sity or characteristics. It is not known whetherthe locally produced ceramic type is chronologi-cally later, as in Moquegua (Bermann et al. 1989;Stanish 1991:9–10), or simply represents a localimitation of the genuine Tiwanaku ceremonialpottery. The existence of the nonlocal finewaresis suggestive of a complex exchange relationship

between a centralized state and local popula-

tions. Likewise, the difference in site types mayrepresent a resident Tiwanaku administrativeelite among a local support population. In thisinstance, it is fairly obvious that the largemounds and terraced hill sites represent elitecenters, given the existence of semisubterraneanconstructions. We can hypothesize that the othersite types represent the local population, a prop-osition that remains to be tested in the future.

It is instructive to compare these survey andreconnaissance data with those from the Tiwanakuvalley collected by Albarracin-Jordan and

Mathews (1990). In the first instance, there is a sub-stantial pre-Tiwanaku IV settlement in the Tiwan-aku Valley. This is to be expected in the ancestralhomeland of the Tiwanaku state. At Tiwanaku,there is an unbroken evolution of Tiwanaku settle-ment from the earliest Upper Formative period(Tiwanaku I or Kalasasaya) to the dramatic expan-sion of Tiwanaku in its later phases.

In the Juli-Pomata region, the Upper Forma-tive-Tiwanaku period transition is very differ-ent. Here, Tiwanaku replaced two alreadycomplex polities that had formed in the Upper

Formative period—Late Sillumocco and LateCkackachipata (Stanish et al. 1997). Curiously,the settlement patterns of both the Upper For-mative and the Tiwanaku periods are very simi-lar. Also like the earlier Upper Formativepattern, sites are clearly associated with raised-field areas, canals, and aqueducts. It is signifi-cant that all major Upper Formative elite/cere-monial sites continued to be occupied in theTiwanaku period. As mentioned above, excava-

tions at three of these elite/ceremonial sites inthe Juli area (Tumatumani, Palermo, and Sillu-mocco-Huaquina) indicate that they were archi-tecturally enhanced in the Tiwanaku period.Similar patterns of a very strong Tiwanaku occu-pation built over earlier ones is evident in theDesaguadero and Ccapia areas. There is a sub-stantial Tiwanaku presence in the region, andthe intensity of occupation is quite strong.

The number of sites in the Tiwanaku Valleyis an order of magnitude larger than those in the

Juli-Pomata area. In a total survey of approxi-mately 400 km2, Albarracin-Jordan and Mathewsdiscovered 100 Tiwanaku IV sites and 339 Tiwan-aku V sites (Albarracin-Jordan and Mathews1990:7, 89, 130). The methodologies of the Tiwan-

aku Valley Project and the Lupaqa Project weresimilar. Likewise, the definition of a site is com-parable in both projects. Therefore, the differencein settlement density between the Pacajes andLupaqa areas is empirically valid. Clearly, thecore territory of Tiwanaku has a radically differ-ent and more intensely occupied history than didthe Lupaqa zone.

In contrast to the strong Tiwanaku presencein the southwestern and southern Titicaca areaoutside of the core territory, the Tiwanaku occu-pation in the Chucuito area is far less intense.

The Chucuito-Cota survey did not discover apattern of Tiwanaku sites overlaying earlier Up-per Formative ones. In fact, the intensity of Ti-wanaku occupation in the region, in spite of thefact that the area near the lake was agriculturallyrich, was considerably lower than that in the ar-eas south of the Ilave River. Likewise, Tiwanakusettlement in the northern basin was muchlighter than it was in the south or west.

The intensity of Tiwanaku in any area curi-ously does not seem to be strictly a function of distance. The Puno Bay area, unlike that in Chu-

cuito, appears to have been heavily occupied bythe Tiwanaku state. Sites were located all alongthe bay area from south of modern Puno to thesouthern edge of the Huatta Pampa. This areaalso had a number of raised-field areas and in-tensive terrace agriculture. In short, the Punoarea was a major Tiwanaku enclave. The factorsresponsible for these different patterns in adja-cent zones remain as central problems for futureresearch.


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SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

The nature of the Tiwanaku political economyduring its Tiwanaku IV and Tiwanaku V (Ex-pansive) phases remains a subject of consider-

able debate. On one side, some have suggestedthat Tiwanaku was not an expansive polity. Pro-ponents of this view suggest that such interpre-tations derive from contemporary politicalideologies associated with Bolivian nationalism(Stanish 2002). This critique represents a type of deconstructionist attack that we find unsatisfy-ing. Instead of offering an alternative, empiri-cally based model to explain the archaeologicalrecord, it merely attempts to associate a theorywith an existing and completely unrelated hege-monic ideology.

For this class of model, the Tiwanaku phe-nomenon represents the voluntary or noncoer-cive spread of an art style and its concomitantideology among the various peoples of the southcentral Andes. The integration of the Tiwanakupolity, according to these models, was achievedthrough nonmilitaristic, noncoercive means inte-grated at an ayllu or even family level. There ex-ist no historical or ethnographic analogies forsuch models, and they fail to explain the pro-found and substantial changes in art, architec-

ture, settlement patterning, and economyconcomitant with the appearance of Tiwanakumaterials in any particular region. They fail toexplain why virtually all local art traditionswere replaced by Tiwanaku styles, and in fact,they utterly ignore the empirical fact that thechanges in the archaeological record in the pre-Tiwanaku/Tiwanaku transition are actuallymore profound than that for the pre-Inca/Incatransition in the same region.

On the other side, scholars such as PonceSanginés (1981) and Kolata (1993) have argued

for what we can call the “miniature Inca model”of Tiwanaku statecraft: that the Tiwanaku politywas built on the same militaristic and expan-sionist principles as the Inca, but on a smallerscale. These scholars argue that Tiwanaku was aconquest state, employing coercive material andideological power to bring groups within the Ti-wanaku orbit.

Between these two polar extremes of Tiwan-aku polity economy exist a series of alternativemodels that vary according to the degree of eco-nomic and political hierarchy in the Tiwanakucore, and the degree to which coercive meanswere or were not used to bring together differentethnic groups and polities into a Tiwanakusphere of influence. Most importantly, the modelproposed by Albarracin-Jordan (1996b) arguesfor a segmentary organization of the Tiwanakustate. In this model, the Tiwanaku polity was

built on Andean sociological organizations of ayllu and marka.

Our research reported on here helps to rede-fine the nature of Tiwanaku expansion and geo-political control. Tiwanaku was not a small

version of the Inca state. It was a first-generationstate with very different, and less complex polit-ical and economic institutions. Tiwanaku controlwas highly selective in nature, expanding alongroads and creating enclaves or colonies outsideof its core territory. Our data do support themodels of a centralized political organization,suggesting that Tiwanaku coerced populationsalong the western edge of lake Titicaca south of the Ilave into their polity. In this sense, Tiwan-aku is best conceived of as a expansive politywith a restricted core south of the Ilave and Es-

coma areas, and a selective control of roads andenclaves outside of this zone. In short, our cur-rent data are quite compelling that Tiwanakuwas indeed an expansive polity of some com-plexity, similar to Wari and Moche, but one thatdid not create the same kind of administrativeorganizations as the later Andean empires.

A CKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors thank members of the ProgramaCollasuyu, our friends in the town of Juli, Fresia

Sardón, Percy Calisaya, and Rolando Paredes.We gratefully acknowledge the support of theNational Science Foundation, the Cotsen Insti-tute of Archaeology at UCLA, the Wenner-GrenFoundation for Anthropological Research, the

John Heinz III Foundation, the Field Museum of Natural History, and the Dean of Social Sciences,UCLA.

tiwanaku expansion into the western titicaca basin, peru

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