Ritual Practices and the Negotiation of Wari-Tiwanaku Relations at Cerro Baúl

Summary

The presence of both Wari and Tiwanaku colonies in the Moquegua Valley (southern Peru) offers a unique opportunity to study the colonial strategies of these empires and their interactions during the first millennium AD. Here, we more specifically explore the role of ritual practices in mediating relations between the Wari and Tiwanaku empires. We focus on a Titicaca basin inspired platform and court complex located outside of the main Wari administrative sector of the site of Cerro Baúl, denominated Temple of Arundane. This sector, most likely devoted to religious activities, appears to be the only purely Tiwanaku context within the site. We argue that the presence of this Tiwanaku ritual complex within such an important Wari colony contributed to establishing social ties among Wari and Tiwanaku representatives and may have helped negotiate relations among various socio-political groups in this frontier area. Wari colonial strategies therefore appear to have included the incorporation of elite diversity through the coexistence of various ritual practices in particular places in the landscape.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Colonial Encounters in the Prehispanic Andes

Keywords

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