Abstract
Stone configured Tiwanaku construction and identity. A vital component of Tiwanaku’s most important monuments, it defined Tiwanaku as a place and a people. Here we summarize ongoing geoarchaeological research into the lithic production of Tiwanaku monumentality. We discuss our research on stone quarrying and monumental production in light of previous investigation on the topic. We conclude that monumental stone production was critical to Tiwanaku’s emergence as a central urban center. A shift in lithic materials, sources, and quarrying technologies propelled Tiwanaku’s rise as a primary urban center during the Andean Middle Horizon. This was a transformation from sandstone, quarried in the nearby Kimsachata Mountains, to the strategic inclusion of more durable volcanic andesite, quarried in several new more distant locations including the extinct volcano Mount Ccapia. Our research attests the telluric foundation of Tiwanaku urbanism and cosmology, which originated in Late Formative centers and interaction networks. It also attests the importance of the contrasting materiality of two classes of stone—their differing colors and durabilities, technologies of monumental production, and montane places of origin—for Tiwanaku’s emergent centrality and cosmology.
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Notes
- 1.
“Tipico proceso de desintegracion por intemperismo mecanico en un cerro proximo a Muiundani en la sierra meridional [Kimsachata] de Tiwanaku. Se supone que no existio canteras propiamente dichas de areniscas aprovechadas pos las tiwanacotas, trabajo a tajo abierto o galleria, sino se acudio a bloques separados por disclasa.”
- 2.
Posnanksy commissioned petrographic analyses that were conducted by a certain Dr. Schneiderhohn at the Petrographic Institute of the University of Berlin (Ponce and Mogrovejo Terrazas 1970: 36). He published the results of 23 petrographic analyses, two of them conducted on volcanic stone samples from Ccapia (samples Q and R). At least ten samples derived from Tiwanaku monumental constructions, and two others from Tiwanaku basalt monuments. (Posnansky 1945, II; Figs. 162–180; Ponce and Mogrovejo Terrazas 1970: 36–37). The two samples from Ccapia (Q and R) did not provide a good match for the Tiwanaku samples. Of course, this is not surprising. Mineralogical and chemical signatures vary significantly in volcanic sources due to variable local formation conditions. Posnansky made the critical mistake of second guessing his initial instinct. As it turns out, most Tiwanaku andesitic stone derived from Mount Ccapia.
- 3.
Quantitative results were calculated, using fundamental parameters, by the software provided with the instrument. Previous comparison of quantitative data derived from this instrument with data from obsidian standards and with samples measured by LA-ICP-MS is reported in Williams et al. (2012). See Grave et al. (2012) for a comparable use of pXRF quantification to characterize volcanic stone in another world region.
- 4.
We recovered several more samples from Tiquina in summer, 2011, but they have not yet been analyzed.
- 5.
This is a vertically placed flat stone located at nearly the exact center of the north wall of the Sunken Temple. Benitez (2009) argues that the oddly placed stone was critical in orienting the structure to celestial observations and calendrical calculations.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Nico and Kevin for inviting us to present a paper in the SAA panel that generated this volume. The fieldwork on which this paper is based is indebted to the help of many people. Andy Roddick (the archaeologist, not the tennis player) helped during most phases of the project. Others include Manuel Choque, our guide in the Kausani Valley, Julio Condori, Charee Peters, and Michelle Young. Project funding derived in part from a Vanderbilt University Discovery grant and a grant from the Curtiss T. and Mary G. Brennan Foundation. The Innov-X PXRF device used in this study (project EAF076) was purchased with a grant from the Field Museum’s Grainger Fund for Scientific Research.
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Janusek, J.W., Williams, P.R., Golitko, M., Aguirre, C.L. (2013). Building Taypikala: Telluric Transformations in the Lithic Production of Tiwanaku. In: Tripcevich, N., Vaughn, K. (eds) Mining and Quarrying in the Ancient Andes. Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5200-3_4
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