Visualizing the Origins of Monumentality: The Case of Tiwanaku, Bolivia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Ancient Mesoamerican and Andean Cities: Old Debates, New Perspectives" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Archaeologists examining early urban formations in the Andean Lake Titicaca basin have recently framed them as early “proto-urban” centers. In this paper, we reflect on our current understanding of the region’s proto-urbanism by deploying visualization methodologies to synthesize the evidence for Late Formative occupation at Tiwanaku (AD 200–600). While excavations and reconstructions conducted in the 1950s and 60s concentrated on the later remains and froze the site as a timeless state capital, a number of under-analyzed archives are helping us to “unflatten” the emergent urban center into various periods of development. In addition, scholars have recently used increasingly precise radiocarbon dates to tease apart what made such social and political formations unique, from their seasonality, trade interactions, visuality of material culture, and extended kin networks. Our work at Tiwanaku and other sites in the region, such as Khonkho Wankane, is shifting our visions of the ancient altiplano, demanding new ways of seeing these early centers. We discuss some of the results from this ongoing effort.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Ancient Mesoamerican and Andean Cities: Old Debates, New Perspectives   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 41668.0