Elizabeth N. Arkush
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813035260
- eISBN:
- 9780813039107
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813035260.001.0001
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology
By AD 1000, the Colla controlled the high-altitude plains near Lake Titicaca in southern Peru. They fought over the region for many centuries before becoming a subject people of the Inca (who ...
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By AD 1000, the Colla controlled the high-altitude plains near Lake Titicaca in southern Peru. They fought over the region for many centuries before becoming a subject people of the Inca (who described them as the most formidable foes they had faced) circa 1450, and then of the Spanish in the sixteenth century. Like any people at war, the Colla were not engaged in active conflict all the time. But frequent warfare (perhaps over limited natural resources), along with drought and environmental changes, powerfully influenced the society's settlement choices and physical defenses, as well as their interaction with the landscape. By focusing on the pre-Inca society in this key region of the Andes, the book demonstrates how a thorough archaeological investigation of these hillfort towns reveals new ways to study the sociopolitical organization of pre-Columbian societies.Less
By AD 1000, the Colla controlled the high-altitude plains near Lake Titicaca in southern Peru. They fought over the region for many centuries before becoming a subject people of the Inca (who described them as the most formidable foes they had faced) circa 1450, and then of the Spanish in the sixteenth century. Like any people at war, the Colla were not engaged in active conflict all the time. But frequent warfare (perhaps over limited natural resources), along with drought and environmental changes, powerfully influenced the society's settlement choices and physical defenses, as well as their interaction with the landscape. By focusing on the pre-Inca society in this key region of the Andes, the book demonstrates how a thorough archaeological investigation of these hillfort towns reveals new ways to study the sociopolitical organization of pre-Columbian societies.
Charles Stanish
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520232457
- eISBN:
- 9780520928190
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520232457.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Latin American Cultural Anthropology
One of the richest and most complex civilizations in ancient America evolved around Lake Titicaca in southern Peru and northern Bolivia. This book is a comprehensive synthesis of four thousand years ...
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One of the richest and most complex civilizations in ancient America evolved around Lake Titicaca in southern Peru and northern Bolivia. This book is a comprehensive synthesis of four thousand years of prehistory for the entire Titicaca region. It is a story of the transition from hunting and gathering to early agriculture, to the formation of the Tiwanaku and Pucara civilizations, and to the double conquest of the region, first by the powerful neighboring Inca in the fifteenth century and a century later by the Spanish Crown. Based on more than fifteen years of field research in Peru and Bolivia, the book brings together a wide range of ethnographic, historical, and archaeological data, including material not previously published. It brings together intimate knowledge of the ethnography and archaeology in this region to bear on major theoretical concerns in evolutionary anthropology. The book provides a broad comparative framework for evaluating how these complex societies developed. After giving an overview of the region's archaeology and cultural history, it discusses the history of archaeological research in the Titicaca Basin, as well as its geography, ecology, and ethnography. The book then synthesizes the data from six archaeological periods in the Titicaca Basin within an evolutionary anthropological framework. Titicaca Basin prehistory has long been viewed through the lens of Inca intellectuals and the Spanish state. This book demonstrates that the ancestors of the Aymara people of the Titicaca Basin rivaled the Incas in wealth, sophistication, and cultural genius.Less
One of the richest and most complex civilizations in ancient America evolved around Lake Titicaca in southern Peru and northern Bolivia. This book is a comprehensive synthesis of four thousand years of prehistory for the entire Titicaca region. It is a story of the transition from hunting and gathering to early agriculture, to the formation of the Tiwanaku and Pucara civilizations, and to the double conquest of the region, first by the powerful neighboring Inca in the fifteenth century and a century later by the Spanish Crown. Based on more than fifteen years of field research in Peru and Bolivia, the book brings together a wide range of ethnographic, historical, and archaeological data, including material not previously published. It brings together intimate knowledge of the ethnography and archaeology in this region to bear on major theoretical concerns in evolutionary anthropology. The book provides a broad comparative framework for evaluating how these complex societies developed. After giving an overview of the region's archaeology and cultural history, it discusses the history of archaeological research in the Titicaca Basin, as well as its geography, ecology, and ethnography. The book then synthesizes the data from six archaeological periods in the Titicaca Basin within an evolutionary anthropological framework. Titicaca Basin prehistory has long been viewed through the lens of Inca intellectuals and the Spanish state. This book demonstrates that the ancestors of the Aymara people of the Titicaca Basin rivaled the Incas in wealth, sophistication, and cultural genius.
Sergio J. Chávez
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780813038087
- eISBN:
- 9780813043128
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813038087.003.0015
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology
The monumentality of ancient agricultural terraces in the Titicaca Basin can be observed especially on the Copacabana Peninsula, where most hills facing the lake are covered by stone-faced terraces. ...
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The monumentality of ancient agricultural terraces in the Titicaca Basin can be observed especially on the Copacabana Peninsula, where most hills facing the lake are covered by stone-faced terraces. Terrace construction has been attributed to the expansionist Tiahuanaco and Inca polities. However, this chapter proposes several lines of evidence pointing to a much earlier date for the beginnings of their construction, and expansion by later polities. The associated early material remains belong to the Yaya-Mama Religious Tradition, an endogenous tradition related to the first unification of diverse groups of people and the earliest public architecture in the region. Diagnostic lines of evidence include studies of remains derived from extensive surface surveys on terraced hills and some excavations on terraces, demonstrating abundant presence of Yaya-Mama materials. Further analyses were conducted on excavated botanical remains and human skeletons, the latter demonstrating widespread physical stresses. Experiments and ethnographic interviews of local informants show the extent of labor used in stone cutting, terrace building, and their continued use into the present. Consequently, the presence of utilitarian terraces seen today on a monumental scale is the result of accretion, and can certainly be placed among the largest monuments in the Americas.Less
The monumentality of ancient agricultural terraces in the Titicaca Basin can be observed especially on the Copacabana Peninsula, where most hills facing the lake are covered by stone-faced terraces. Terrace construction has been attributed to the expansionist Tiahuanaco and Inca polities. However, this chapter proposes several lines of evidence pointing to a much earlier date for the beginnings of their construction, and expansion by later polities. The associated early material remains belong to the Yaya-Mama Religious Tradition, an endogenous tradition related to the first unification of diverse groups of people and the earliest public architecture in the region. Diagnostic lines of evidence include studies of remains derived from extensive surface surveys on terraced hills and some excavations on terraces, demonstrating abundant presence of Yaya-Mama materials. Further analyses were conducted on excavated botanical remains and human skeletons, the latter demonstrating widespread physical stresses. Experiments and ethnographic interviews of local informants show the extent of labor used in stone cutting, terrace building, and their continued use into the present. Consequently, the presence of utilitarian terraces seen today on a monumental scale is the result of accretion, and can certainly be placed among the largest monuments in the Americas.
Lonnie G. Thompson and Alan L. Kolata
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780199329199
- eISBN:
- 9780190607920
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199329199.003.0008
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Non-Classical
Climate is a fundamental and independent variable of human existence. Given that 50 percent of the Earth’s surface and much of its population exist between 30oN and 30oS, paleoenvironmental research ...
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Climate is a fundamental and independent variable of human existence. Given that 50 percent of the Earth’s surface and much of its population exist between 30oN and 30oS, paleoenvironmental research in the Earth’s tropical regions is vital to our understanding of the world’s current and past climate change. Most of the solar energy that drives the climate system is absorbed in these regions. Paleoclimate records reveal that tropical processes, such as variations in the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), have affected the climate over much of the planet. Climatic variations, particularly in precipitation and temperature, play a critical role in the adaptations of agrarian cultures located in zones of environmental sensitivity, such as those of the coastal deserts, highlands, and altiplano of the Andean region. Paleoclimate records from the Quelccaya ice cap (5670 masl) in highland Peru that extend back ~1800 years show good correlation between precipitation and the rise and fall of pre-Hispanic civilizations in western Peru and Bolivia. Sediment cores extracted from Lake Titicaca provide independent evidence of this correspondence with particular reference to the history of the pre-Hispanic Tiwanaku state centered in the Andean altiplano. Here we explore, in particular, the impacts of climate change on the development and ultimate dissolution of this altiplano state.Less
Climate is a fundamental and independent variable of human existence. Given that 50 percent of the Earth’s surface and much of its population exist between 30oN and 30oS, paleoenvironmental research in the Earth’s tropical regions is vital to our understanding of the world’s current and past climate change. Most of the solar energy that drives the climate system is absorbed in these regions. Paleoclimate records reveal that tropical processes, such as variations in the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), have affected the climate over much of the planet. Climatic variations, particularly in precipitation and temperature, play a critical role in the adaptations of agrarian cultures located in zones of environmental sensitivity, such as those of the coastal deserts, highlands, and altiplano of the Andean region. Paleoclimate records from the Quelccaya ice cap (5670 masl) in highland Peru that extend back ~1800 years show good correlation between precipitation and the rise and fall of pre-Hispanic civilizations in western Peru and Bolivia. Sediment cores extracted from Lake Titicaca provide independent evidence of this correspondence with particular reference to the history of the pre-Hispanic Tiwanaku state centered in the Andean altiplano. Here we explore, in particular, the impacts of climate change on the development and ultimate dissolution of this altiplano state.
