Tiwanaku in Arequipa

Summary

Although Tiwanaku expansion outside the Titicaca Basin has been documented

extensively in southern Peru, specifically in Moquegua, the influence and/or presence of

this highland state in the Arequipa region is not well known. In this paper, we

evaluate work in Arequipa over the past 15 years regarding Tiwanaku in light of our

work in the Vitor valley about 40 km from the city of Arequipa as part of the

Vitor Archaeological Project. In Arequipa, we have identified relatively small

Tiwanaku settlements characterized by a local ceramic tradition, which contrasts to

the more direct and extensive contact seen in Moquegua. Furthermore, in the

Vitor valley we have detected Tiwanakufragments in Millo, an extensive

administrative Wari node dated to 850AD.Although it would be tempting to suggest the co-existence of both Wari andTiwanaku affiliated groups in Vitor, we propose that imported Tiwanaku ceramics reflect an horizontal axis linking the Millo complex to Moquegua, and not

necessarily to Tiwanaku groups that inhabited in Arequipa after the collapse of

Tiwanaku in the Titicaca basin.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Regional Perspectives on the Tiwanaku Collapse: "Post-expansive" chronology, cultural transformation and ethnogenesis in the south central Andes

Keywords

Spatial Coverage