With National Science Foundation support, Dr. John Janusek and a team of colleagues will conduct two field seasons of inter-disciplinary archaeological research in the Bolivian altiplano, or high plateau (~3800 meters), of the South American Andes. A broadly-trained team of archaeologists and scientific specialists will investigate the prehistoric origins of social complexity and the rise of state society in the Desaguadero Basin, a vast region to date virtually untouched by systematic archaeological research.
The region is of particular interest because it is at the cultural and environmental frontier, or "border zone," of two relatively well-defined macro-regions: the high, forbidding altiplano to the south, and the rich Lake Titicaca Basin to the north. While the altiplano gave rise to long-lived, egalitarian communities, Lake Titicaca fostered one of the most influential imperial polities to arise in the Andes: the Tiwanaku state (AD 500-1100). While Desaguadero seems an unlikely place for endogenous complex societies, the presence of at least two monumental political centers that emerged prior to and thrived during Tiwanaku hegemony- Khonkho Wankane and Iruhito, the former with massive ceremonial complexes and stone sculptures -suggests otherwise. Primary goals are to understand the processes that gave rise to complexity in this enigmatic region, and the roles that these centers played in the rise and consolidation of the Tiwanaku state.
Combining "tried and true" archaeological techniques with a suite of specialized scientific analyses, the project will investigate some of the most perplexing problems bearing on the origins and transformations of past civilizations worldwide. The project compares residential, mortuary, and monumental sectors of the two centers as well as their surrounding hinterlands. In addition to archaeological survey and substantial excavations, the project meshes Geographical Information Systems (GIS), remote sensing, and analyses of materials including metals, stone tools, plant remains, as well as human and faunal remains and their chemical isotopes (to determine migration, diet, distribution of resources, etc.). Field techniques and analyses address the relative role of four interrelated variables in local sociopolitical development: 1) productive intensification, 2) economic production and exchange, 3) religion and ritual, and 4) social identity. The specific processes involved in the development and transformation of complex societies in the Desaguadero region will contribute to knowledge regarding processes of state coalescence and development worldwide. As a dedicated study meshing a variety of methods and specialized analyses, the project seeks to help establish an inter-disciplinary standard of investigation in the social sciences.
This project will provide much needed theoretical and substantive information that will be useful for professional researchers and students who work in the high Andes. The project will involve several Bolivian professional archaeologists. Further, the project provides valuable scientific training for graduate and undergraduate students from a variety of North American as well as Bolivian academic institutions. Through a scheduled series of workshops, it will also provide crucial training for the members (women and men) of native local communities (Aymara and Uru speakers). In that the two primary sites are considered Bolivian cultural patrimony, such collaboration and education will promote international collaboration in researching and understanding highland Bolivia's as yet poorly-understood distant past.
