The Tiwanaku Tradition within the Tambo Valley, Southern Coast of Peru: Interpretation of Burial Contexts from La Pampilla 1

The collapse of the Tiwanaku state around AD 1000 resulted in dramatic changes in the areas of its former colonies such as the Moquegua Valley, which featured the largest Tiwanaku communities outside the Altiplano. The inhabitants of these former colonies were forced to relocate to the areas north of Moquegua, including the Tambo River estuary (Arequipa Department, Province of Islay). This relocation has been confirmed at La Pampilla 1, where a large graveyard featuring funerary contexts of the postcollapse communities of Tiwanaku-Timulaca was found, with a calibrated 14C date between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries AD. In this article we discuss the results of excavations and analyses conducted at the La Pampilla 1 graveyard, the first systematically researched Tiwanaku site in the Tambo Valley: these findings confirm the existence of a relatively large, terminal-phase Tiwanaku population, represented by Tumilaca funerary contexts.

Tiwanaku's Legacy: A Chronological Reassessment of the Terminal Middle Horizon in the Moquegua Valley, Peru

As in other examples of state collapse, political disintegration of the Tiwanaku state circa AD 1000 was accompanied by considerable cultural continuity. In the Moquegua Valley, Peru, the location of the largest Tiwanaku communities outside the altiplano, settlements and practices associated with this postcollapse cultural continuity are termed Tumilaca. Previous research indicated that Tumilaca was short-lived, with all vestiges of Tiwanaku gone from Moquegua's archaeological record by the thirteenth century when the valley was subsequently characterized by Estuquiña-style materials. This article discusses radiocarbon dates from Tumilaca la Chimba, a village established as the political authority of the Tiwanaku state waned. The 21 absolute dates from Tumilaca domestic, public, and funerary contexts span at least 350 years, from the late tenth to the mid-fourteenth centuries AD. They suggest that (1) Tiwanaku-affiliated communities endured well into the later Late Intermediate Period (AD 1200–1470); (2) ongoing debates about the emergence of Estuquiña communities must consider the role of terminal Tiwanaku populations; and (3) analyses of postcollapse continuity can be enhanced by considering peripheral locales and the particularities of continuity.

CULTURAL ENCOUNTER IN THE MORTUARY LANDSCAPE OF A TIWANAKU COLONY, MOQUEGUA, PERU (AD 650–1100)

Archaeological studies of culture contact often presuppose culture change. Contact that did not result in culture change is difficult to identify archaeologically, but it merits our attention for understanding how and why change failed to materialize in the wake of cultural encounter. In this paper, I examine the occurrence of contact without change on the frontier of the south-central Andean Tiwanaku state (AD 400–1100). Tiwanaku settlers who colonized the uninhabited middle Moquegua valley in the seventh century AD shared a mortuary landscape with coastal sojourners at the site of Omo M10, even though their interactions were otherwise limited. Complex regional histories and divergent economic interests explain why contact between highland and coastal groups was confined to mortuary rituals during the initial stage of contact, following a Tiwanaku pattern in Moquegua of ritualizing culture contact. Later generations of Tiwanaku colonists may have reinitiated contact with coastal communities for access to marine resources, and accepting foreigners into their community. This case study presents a framework for identifying culture contact without culture change. It demonstrates the utility of regional histories and careful contextual analysis for hypothesizing the nature and consequences of cultural encounters that did not follow expected trajectories of change.

Graphically Modeling the Prehistory of Regional Interactions in the Moquegua Valley, Southern Peru

The Cross-Cultural Interaction Model was first developed specifically to help model the cultural interactions taking place in the Moquegua Valley of Southern Peru during the culturally dynamic early Middle Horizon. This chapter highlights the flexibility of the Cross-Cultural Interaction Model by using it to illustrate how regional interactions changed throughout the prehistoric sequence of this region. The Moquegua drainage is the easiest route from the highlands of the Southern Titicaca altiplano to the Pacific Ocean; in addition the middle Moquegua Valley is ideal for large-scale maize agriculture. As a result, regional interactions have been an integral element in this region’s cultural evolution. Starting with the Archaic Period and continuing through the Late Intermediate Period this chapter graphically explores the nature of the regional interactions that took place in each time period and how these interactions shaped the cultural landscape of the Moquegua Valley over time

Using a Graphic Model to Explore the Range of Cross-Cultural Interaction in Ancient Borderlands

In order to illuminate the complexities of culture contact in colonial settings it is not enough to simply shift one’s research onto the periphery, instead it is imperative that these peripheral areas are also viewed as interaction zones in their own right. This chapter presents a graphic model for representing a range of cross-cultural interaction designed specifically to address archaeologists’ challenges of conceptualizing several types of cross-cultural interaction in the cultural and geographic borderlands at the frontiers of the influence sphere of expansive states or colonial powers. The model’s design allows for the numerous simultaneous levels of interaction, which reflects the intricate nature of cultural contacts, and which considers indigenous perspectives in tandem with colonial aspirations. The model’s utility is illustrated through research from the early Middle Horizon (ca. A.D. 550–800) in the Moquegua Valley, Peru, a borderland between the Wari and Tiwanaku States.