Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T22:52:20.167Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Bayesian Re-Assessment of the Earliest Radiocarbon Dates from Tiwanaku, Bolivia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Erik J Marsh
Erik J Marsh*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA. Email: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The development of sociopolitical complexity at Tiwanaku around AD 500 was one of the major episodes of social change in the history of the Lake Titicaca Basin. It was the result of poorly understood processes that took place at a series of ceremonial centers in the preceding centuries. The history of Tiwanaku during this time is especially unclear, because the only radiocarbon dates are from excavations whose details were never completely published. Despite this, there is consensus that Tiwanaku was founded around 300 BC. A re-evaluation of the archaeological context of each of these dates shows many of them to be unreliable. Two Bayesian models from independent excavations agree that Tiwanaku was in fact founded centuries later, most likely around AD 110 (50-170, 1σ). This has important implications for widely used monolith and ceramic sequences, as well as understanding the rise of Tiwanaku and other archaic states.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 54 , Issue 2 , 2012 , pp. 203 - 218
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

References

Albarracín-Jordan, JV. 2007. La Formación del Estado Prehispànico en los Andes: Origen y Desarrollo de la Sociedad Segmentaria Indígena. La Paz: Fundación Bartolomé de las Casas. 236 p.Google Scholar
Augustyniak, S. 2004. Dating the Tiwanaku state. Chungara 36(1):19–35.Google Scholar
Bandy, MS. 2001. Population and history in the ancient Titicaca Basin [PhD dissertation]. Berkeley: University of California.Google Scholar
Bennett, WC. 1934. Excavations at Tiahuanaco. Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History 34:359–494.Google Scholar
Bermann, M. 1990. Household and empire at Lukurmata, Bolivia [PhD dissertation], Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Bermann, M. 1994. Lukurmata: Household Archaeology in Prehispanic Bolivia. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2008. Deposition models for chronological records. Quaternary Science Reviews 27(1-2):42–60.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51(1):337–60.Google Scholar
Browman, DL. 1980. Tiwanaku expansion and altiplano economic patterns. Estudios Arqueológicos 5:107–20.Google Scholar
Bruno, MC. 2008. Waranq waranqa: ethnobotanical perspectives on agricultural intensification in the Lake Titicaca Basin (Taraco Peninsula, Bolivia) [PhD dissertation]. St. Louis: Washington University.Google Scholar
Burkholder, J. 1997. Tiwanaku and the anatomy of time: a new ceramic chronology from the Iwawe site, department of La Paz, Bolivia [PhD dissertation]. Binghamton: State University of New York.Google Scholar
Chávez, SJ, Mohr Chávez, KL. 1975. A carved stela from Taraco, Puno, Peru, and the definition of an early style of stone sculpture from the altiplano of Peru and Bolivia. Ñawpa Pacha 13:45–83.Google Scholar
Childe, GV. 1950. The urban revolution. Town and Planning Review 21:3–17.Google Scholar
Cordero Miranda, G. 1978. Informe Preliminar acerca de las Excavaciones en Pumapunku. Internal document 33/78. La Paz: Unidad Nacional de Arqueología.Google Scholar
Couture, NC. 2002. The construction of power: monumental space and elite residence at Tiwanaku, Bolivia [PhD dissertation]. Chicago: University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Finucane, BC, Valdez, JE, Pérez Calderon, I, Vivanco Pomacanchari, C, Valdez, LM, O'Connell, T. 2007. The end of empire: new radiocarbon dates from the Ayacucho Valley, Peru, and their implications for the collapse of the Wari state. Radiocarbon 49(2):579–92.Google Scholar
Hogg, AG, Bronk Ramsey, C, Turney, C, Palmer, J. 2009. Bayesian evaluation of the Southern Hemisphere radiocarbon offset during the Holocene. Radiocarbon 51(4):1165–76.Google Scholar
Isbell, WH, Burkholder, J, Albarracín-Jordan, JV. 2002. Iwawi y Tiwanaku. Gaceta Arquegológica Andina 26:139–70.Google Scholar
Janusek, JW. 1994. State and local power in a prehispanic Andean polity: changing patterns of urban residence in Tiwanaku and Lukurmata, Bolivia [PhD dissertation]. Chicago: University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Janusek, JW. 2003. Vessels, time, and society: toward a chronology of ceramic style in the Tiwanaku heartland. In: Kolata, AL, editor. Urban and Rural Archaeology. Tiwanaku and Its Hinterland: Archaeological and Paleoecological Investigations of an Andean Civilization, Volume 2. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, p 30–92.Google Scholar
Janusek, JW. 2004a. Tiwanaku and its precursors: recent research and emerging perspectives. Journal of Archaeological Research 12(2):121–83.Google Scholar
Janusek, JW. 2004b. Identity and Power in the Ancient Andes: Tiwanaku Cities through Time. New York: Routledge. 319 p.Google Scholar
Kidder, AV. 1967. Digging in the Titicaca Basin. In: Rowe, JH, Menzel, D, editors. Peruvian Archaeology: Selected Readings. Palo Alto: Peek, p 132–45.Google Scholar
Kigoshi, K, Endo, K. 1963. Gakushuin natural radiocarbon measurements II. Radiocarbon 5:109–17.Google Scholar
Kigoshi, K, Tomikura, Y, Endo, K. 1962. Gakushuin natural radiocarbon measurements I. Radiocarbon 4:84–94.Google Scholar
Kolata, AL. 1993. The Tiwanaku: Portrait of an Andean Civilization. Cambridge: Blackwell. 317 p.Google Scholar
Kra, R. 1986. Standardizing procedures for collecting, submitting, recording, and reporting radiocarbon samples. Radiocarbon 28(2A):765–75.Google Scholar
Lémuz Aguirre, C. 2004. Normalización de datos de asentamiento en la cuenca sur del Lago Titicaca. Report submitted to the Unidad Nacional de Arqueología, La Paz.Google Scholar
Lémuz Aguirre, C, Paz Soria, JL. 2001. Nuevas consierdaciones acerca del periodo Formativo en Kallamarka. Textos Antropológicos 13:93–110.Google Scholar
Marsh, EJ. 2012. The emergence of Tiwanaku: domestic practices and regional traditions at Khonkho Wankane and Kk'araña [PhD dissertation]. Santa Barbara: University of California.Google Scholar
Marsh, EJ. Forthcoming. The founding of Tiwanaku: evidence from Kk'araña. Ñawpa Pacha 32(2).Google Scholar
Mathews, JE. 1992. Prehispanic settlement and agriculture in the middle Tiwanaku Valley, Bolivia [PhD dissertation]. Chicago: University of Chicago.Google Scholar
McCormac, FG, Hogg, AG, Blackwell, PG, Buck, CE, Higham, TFG, Reimer, PJ. 2004. SHCal04 Southern Hemisphere calibration, 0-11.0 cal kyr BP. Radiocarbon 46(3):1087–92.Google Scholar
Michczyński, A, Eeckhout, P, Pazdur, A, Pawlyta, J. 2007. Radiocarbon dating of the Temple of the Monkey—the next step towards a comprehensive absolute chronology of Pachacamac, Peru. Radiocarbon 49(2):565–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mohr-Chávez, KL. 1987. Observations and comments on Bennett's Early Tiahuanaco material at the American Museum of Natural History [unpublished manuscript].Google Scholar
Oeschger, H, Riesen, T. 1965. Bern radiocarbon dates IV. Radiocarbon 7:1–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ohnstad, A. 2011. La escultura prehispánica de Khonkho Wankane, Jesús de Machaca, Bolivia. Nuevos Aportes 5:119–42.Google Scholar
Ponce Sanginés, C. 1970. Las Culturas de Wankarani y Chiripa y su Relación con Tiwanaku. Publication 25. La Paz: Academia Nacional de Ciencias de Bolivia.Google Scholar
Ponce Sanginés, C. 1971. La cerámica de la época I de Tiwanaku. Pumapunku 2:7–28.Google Scholar
Ponce Sanginés, C. 1976. La cerámica de la Época I de Tiwanaku. Publication No. 18. La Paz: Instituto Nacional de Arqueología.Google Scholar
Ponce Sanginés, C. 1981. Tiwanaku: Espacio, Tiempo y Cultura. La Paz: Editorial Los Amigos del Libro. 251 p.Google Scholar
Ponce Sanginés, C. 1993. La cerámica de la época I (aldeana de Tiwanaku). Pumapunku (Nueva Época) 4:48–89.Google Scholar
Ponce Sanginés, C. 1995. Tiwanaku: 200 Años de Investigaciones Arqueológicas. La Paz: Producciones CIMA. 448 p.Google Scholar
Portugal Ortiz, M. 1992. Trabajos arqueológicos de Tiwanaku (I. Parte). Textos Antropológicos 4:9–51.Google Scholar
Ralph, EK. 1959. University of Pennsylvania radiocarbon dates III. American Journal of Science Radiocarbon Supplement 1:45–58.Google Scholar
Reimer, PJ, Baillie, MGL, Bard, E, Bayliss, A, Beck, JW, Blackwell, PG, Bronk Ramsey, C, Buck, CE, Burr, GS, Edwards, RL, Friedrich, M, Grootes, PM, Guilderson, TP, Hajdas, I, Heaton, TJ, Hogg, AG, Hughen, KA, Kaiser, KF, Kromer, B, McCormac, FG, Manning, SW, Reimer, RW, Richards, DA, Southon, JR, Talamo, S, Turney, CSM, van der Plicht, J, Weyhenmeyer, CE. 2009. IntCal09 and Marine09 radiocarbon age calibration curves, 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 51(4):1111–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Renfrew, C. 1986. Introduction. In: Renfrew, C, Cherry, JF, editors. Peer Polity Interaction and Socio-political Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p 1–26.Google Scholar
Roddick, AP. 2009. Communities of pottery production and consumption on the Taraco Peninsula, Bolivia, 200 BC-300 AD [PhD dissertation]. Berkeley: University of California.Google Scholar
Rowe, JH. 1963. Urban settlements in ancient Peru. Ñawpa Pacha 1:1–27.Google Scholar
Smith, SC. 2009. Venerable geographies: spatial dynamics, religion, and political economy in the prehistoric Lake Titicaca Basin, Bolivia [PhD dissertation]. Riverside: University of California.Google Scholar
Stanish, C. 2003. Ancient Titicaca: The Evolution of Complex Societies in Southern Peru and Northern Bolivia. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Steadman, LH. 1995. Excavations at Camata: an early ceramic chronology for the western Titicaca Basin, Peru [PhD dissertation]. Berkeley: University of California.Google Scholar
Stuckcnrath, R. 1963. University of Pennsylvania radiocarbon dates VI. Radiocarbon 5:82–103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M, Pearson, GW. 1993. High precision bidecadal calibration of the radiocarbon time scale, AD 1950–500 BC and 2500-6000 BC Radiocarbon 35(1):1–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Unkel, U, Kromer, B, Reindel, M, Wacker, L, Wagner, G. 2007. A chronology of the pre-Columbian Paracas and Nasca cultures in south Peru based on AMS 14C dating. Radiocarbon 49(2):551–64.Google Scholar
Vranich, . 2006. The construction and reconstruction of ritual space at Tiwanaku, Bolivia. Journal of Field Archaeology 31(2):121–36.Google Scholar
Wendt, I, Schneekloth, H, Budde, E. 1962. Hannover radiocarbon measurements I. Radiocarbon 4:100–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar