>>11519488

(Please read from the start)

Now I’m going to take a look at the Tiwanaku culture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiwanaku_Empire

“The Tiwanaku State (Spanish: Tiahuanaco or Tiahuanacu) was a Pre-Columbian polity in western Bolivia based in the southern Lake Titicaca Basin. Tiwanaku was one of the most significant Andean civilizations. Its influence extended into present-day Peru and Chile and lasted from around 550 to 1000 AD. Its capital was the monumental city of Tiwanaku, located at the center of the state's core area in the southern Lake Titicaca Basin. This area has clear evidence for large-scale agricultural production on raised fields that probably supported the urban population of the capital. Researchers debate whether these fields were administered by a bureaucratic state (top-down) or through collaboration of a segmented state or federation with local autonomy (bottom-up; see review of debate in Janusek 2004:57-73). One obsolete theory suggests that Tiwanaku was an expansive military empire, based on comparisons to the later Inca Empire, but supporting evidence is weak.”

>> Supportive evidence is weak but they go ahead and say it is so anyway as if it was an undeniable fact.

“Tiwanaku was a multi-cultural "hospitality state" that brought people together to build large monuments, perhaps as part of large religious festivals. This may have been the central dynamic that attracted people from hundreds of kilometers away, who may have traveled there as part of llama caravans to trade, make offerings, and honor the gods. Tiwanaku grew into the Andes' most important pilgrimage destination and one of the continent's largest Pre-Columbian cities, reaching a population of 10,000 to 20,000 around AD 800.

Outside of the state's core area in the southern Lake Titicaca Basin, there were Tiwanaku colonies on the coast of Peru, where highland people imitated Tiwanaku temples and ceramics, and cemeteries in northern Chile with elaborate grave goods in the Tiwanaku style. Despite the clear connections to these enclaves, there is little evidence that the state controlled the territory or people in between, that is, its territory was not contiguous. With a few important exceptions, the state's influence outside the Lake Titicaca Basin was "soft power" that blossomed into a powerful, widespread, and enduring cultural hegemony.”

“Rise

The site of Tiwanaku was founded around 110 AD during the Late Formative Period, when there were a number of growing settlements in the southern Lake Titicaca Basin. Between 450 and 550 AD, other large settlements were abandoned, leaving Tiwanaku as the pre-eminent center in the region. Beginning around 600 AD its population grew rapidly, probably due to a massive immigration from the surrounding countryside, and large parts of the city were built or remodeled. New and larger carved monoliths were erected, temples were built, and a standardized polychrome pottery style was produced on a massive scale.

Tiwanaku's influence, most clearly documented by the presence of its decorated ceramics, expanded into the Yungas and influenced many other cultures in Peru, Bolivia, and northern Argentina and Chile. Some statues at Tiwanaku were taken from other regions, where the stones were placed in a subordinate position to the Gods of the Tiwanaku. They displayed the power that their state had over others. Archaeologists have documented Tiwanaku ceramics at a large number of sites in and beyond the Lake Titicaca Basin, attesting to the expansive influence of Tiwanaku symbols and attached messages of power.”

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>>11541683

(Please read from the start)

“The population grew rapidly between 600 and 800, becoming an important regional power in the southern Andes. William H. Isbell states that "Tiahuanaco underwent a dramatic transformation between 600 and 700 that established new monumental standards for civic architecture and greatly increased the resident population."Early estimates suggested the city covered approximately 6.5 square kilometers at with 15,000 to 30,000 inhabitants. More recent surveys estimate the site's maximum size between 3.8 and 4.2 square kilometers and a population of 10,000 to 20,000.

In the rest of the southern Lake Titicaca Basin, hundreds of smaller settlements have been found. Some of the largest and most important were Lukurmata, Qeya Kuntu, Kirawi, Waka Kala, Sonaji, Kala Uyuni, and Khonko Wankane.

Colonies and diaspora

Archaeologists such as Paul Goldstein have showed that the Tiwanaku diaspora expanded outside of the altiplano area and into the Moquegua Valley in Peru. After 750 AD, there is growing Tiwanaku presence at the Chen Chen site and the Omo site complex, where a ceremonial center was built. Excavations at Omo settlements show signs of similar architecture characteristic of Tiwanaku, such as a temple and terraced mound. Evidence of similar types of artificial cranial deformation in burials between the Omo site and the main site of Tiwanaku is also being used for this argument.”

>> Interesting, isn’t it? We have cranial deformation in this culture as well.

“Agriculture

Tiwanaku's location between the lake and dry highlands provided key resources of fish, wild birds, plants, and herding grounds for camelids, particularly llamas.[11] Tiwanaku's economy was based on exploiting the resources of the lake Titicaca, herding of llamas and alpacas and organized farming in raised field systems. Llama meat was consumed and potatoes, quinoa, beans and maize grown. Storage of food was important in the uncertain high altitude climate, so technologies for freeze-dried potatoes and sun-dried meat were developed.

The Titicaca Basin is the most productive environment in the area, with predictable and abundant rainfall. The Tiwanaku culture developed expanded farming. To the east, the Altiplano is an area of very dry arid land. The Tiwanaku developed a distinctive farming technique known as "flooded-raised field" agriculture (suka qullu). Such fields were used widely in regional agriculture, together with irrigated fields, pasture, terraced fields and artificial ponds. Water from Katari and Tiwanku rivers was used to water raised fields, that covered up to 130 square km.

Artificially raised planting mounds were separated by shallow 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 and provided thermal insulation against the endemic frost in the region. Traces of similar landscape management have been found in the Llanos de Moxos region (Amazonian flood plains of the Moxos). Over time, the canals also were used to farm edible fish. The resulting canal sludge was dredged for fertilizer.”

>> It’s not the first time we see cultures in the Andean region building artificial mounds for several purposes.

• Page 474 –

>>11541683

(Please read from the start)

“The population grew rapidly between 600 and 800, becoming an important regional power in the southern Andes. William H. Isbell states that "Tiahuanaco underwent a dramatic transformation between 600 and 700 that established new monumental standards for civic architecture and greatly increased the resident population."Early estimates suggested the city covered approximately 6.5 square kilometers at with 15,000 to 30,000 inhabitants. More recent surveys estimate the site's maximum size between 3.8 and 4.2 square kilometers and a population of 10,000 to 20,000.

In the rest of the southern Lake Titicaca Basin, hundreds of smaller settlements have been found. Some of the largest and most important were Lukurmata, Qeya Kuntu, Kirawi, Waka Kala, Sonaji, Kala Uyuni, and Khonko Wankane.

Colonies and diaspora

Archaeologists such as Paul Goldstein have showed that the Tiwanaku diaspora expanded outside of the altiplano area and into the Moquegua Valley in Peru. After 750 AD, there is growing Tiwanaku presence at the Chen Chen site and the Omo site complex, where a ceremonial center was built. Excavations at Omo settlements show signs of similar architecture characteristic of Tiwanaku, such as a temple and terraced mound. Evidence of similar types of artificial cranial deformation in burials between the Omo site and the main site of Tiwanaku is also being used for this argument.”

>> Interesting, isn’t it? We have cranial deformation in this culture as well.

“Agriculture

Tiwanaku's location between the lake and dry highlands provided key resources of fish, wild birds, plants, and herding grounds for camelids, particularly llamas. Tiwanaku's economy was based on exploiting the resources of the lake Titicaca, herding of llamas and alpacas and organized farming in raised field systems. Llama meat was consumed and potatoes, quinoa, beans and maize grown. Storage of food was important in the uncertain high altitude climate, so technologies for freeze-dried potatoes and sun-dried meat were developed.

The Titicaca Basin is the most productive environment in the area, with predictable and abundant rainfall. The Tiwanaku culture developed expanded farming. To the east, the Altiplano is an area of very dry arid land. The Tiwanaku developed a distinctive farming technique known as "flooded-raised field" agriculture (suka qullu). Such fields were used widely in regional agriculture, together with irrigated fields, pasture, terraced fields and artificial ponds. Water from Katari and Tiwanku rivers was used to water raised fields, that covered up to 130 square km.

Artificially raised planting mounds were separated by shallow 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 and provided thermal insulation against the endemic frost in the region. Traces of similar landscape management have been found in the Llanos de Moxos region (Amazonian flood plains of the Moxos). Over time, the canals also were used to farm edible fish. The resulting canal sludge was dredged for fertilizer.”

>> It’s not the first time we see cultures in the Andean region building artificial mounds for several purposes.

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