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Tiwanaku
The empire of the Tiwanaku, also known as the Tiwanacu
or Tiahuanacu, spread out from the Bolivian Altiplano
around Lake Titicaca, until 1150 AD. Many of their ruins
are found in the modern city of Tiwanaku, situated near
the southern shore of Lake Titicaca. This imaginative
and sophisticated civilization, which dates back to 1200
BC, developed the skills to create stone buildings remarkable
for their grandeur and perfection. They built pyramids
and subterranean temples, developed a system of sound
amplification in the walls of their great buildings and
discovered how to preserve vegetables by freeze-drying.
The Incas in turn learned their own building skills from
the Tiwanaku.
Whilst the excavation of ancient Tiwanaku sites is a tribute
to archaeologists of modern Bolivia, we can only wonder
at such incredible feats of engineering. It remains a
mystery as to how such stones weighing more than 130 tons
each were moved and fitted together so perfectly that
a playing card cannot be inserted between them. Two of
the most important Tiwanaku buildings include the Akapana
Pyramid and the Kalasasaya, which are described in detail
in the Kota Mama Expedition's Report 2
The earliest stage of development of the Tiwanaku people
is referred to as the Village Stage. Their self-sufficient
economy was based on fishing and agriculture around the
shores of Lake Titicaca, growing potatoes and a tuber
called mandioca. They built houses of adobe mud with double
pitched roofs and made pottery decorated with red dye
around incisions and traced motifs. At this stage they
began to work with metals and copper in particular. Whilst
no evidence has been found of their form of worship, the
dead were buried in a ritual manner in circular holes,
accompanied by various belongings. |
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