Day 81 - Tiwanaku

Sunday, 2 November 2014

Today I had a tour to Tiwanaku (also spelled as Tihuanaco), an ancient site which is now in ruins. The Tiwanaku culture developed as a result of 2 primitive cultures, the Chiripas who worshipped the llamas, and the Wankiri who worshipped the puma. There are some doubts as to when the Tiwanaku culture first developed, but the popular theory is that they came about some time around 300 BC, and the height of their population was from 400 to 1100. And then they died out, and there are many theories as to why this happened, but the most popular theory is that there was a severe drought and this agricultural based society just could not survive.

The Tiwanaku civilisation is one of the oldest civilisations in South America, and one of the most advanced of its times in terms of architecture and construction. Unfortunately there is no written records about the activities of the Tiwanaku people, making it still a mystery for archaeologists to figure out how these people built this city with limited technology at that time. Even the name Tiwanaku or Tihuanaco is not the original name of this civilisation, this name was given by the Incas when they discovered this site. According to a story, a soldier who discovered this site ran to tell the Inca King of his discovery, and because he was panting from running, the King told him, "Tiwana Wanaku" which in Quechua means "Sit down, rabbit (or guanaco)" and the civilisation was thereafter named Tiwanaku. 

The first site we went to was the ruins of the Temple of the Sun. There are 2 museums here; one for ceramics used by the Tiwanaku people, and another for the monoliths found on the site. The ceramics museum displayed all sorts of ceramics throughout the Tiwanaku civilisation, so we could see the progress from less detailed pots and pans to more intricate designs as the society advanced. According to the guide, the plain ones are for domestic use, and the more decorated ones are for ceremonial rites.

We also saw that the Tiwanaku people had an advanced agricultural system, by controlling water and wind. They controlled water by artificially raising planting mounds which are then 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 windy nights and provide thermal insulation against the endemic frost in the region. By controlling water and wind, the Tiwanaku people managed to thrive due to vast agricultural crops.

Next, was the museum for the monoliths. The Tiwanaku people built many monoliths, some in the form of pumas or jaguars, and some in the form of Pacha Mama, Kocha Mama, and various other important figures. The biggest that was found is that of Pacha Mama, standing at 7 metres tall, 3 metres for the stand underground and 4 metres for the statue above ground. There are inscriptions on the monoliths, but nobody has yet been able to decipher these symbols, although archaeologists believe they are astronomical charts of some sort.

Then we walked to the archaeological site where the Temple of the Sun once stood. The temple and the surrounding site used to be a city, with about 20,000 inhabitants, according to archaeologists. The Temple was in the shape of a pyramid which would have stood about 50 metres high, with an Andean cross in the middle. The architecture of the city and the temple was very advanced for the time, with blocks of rock fused together with metal, such as copper and nickel, ( I-shaped) either in solid form and hammered into place, or in liquid form poured into sockets. One mystery is how the Tiwanaku people produced heat hot enough to melt metal in those days. 

Then we came to a site which the guide explained was a burial site, known as Akapana. This may have been an ancestor burial site, or a place where humans were sacrificed, or both. Skeletons were found buried in this site, and are now in the La Paz museum.