With support from a National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant, Dr. Ryan Williams and Nicola Sharratt will complete an archaeological study on the collapse of the Tiwanaku state, one of the earliest states in the Andes. Following its emergence near the shores of Lake Titicaca, in Bolivia, around AD 600, the Tiwanaku held cultural and political sway over the south central Andes. It established colonies throughout the region. The largest of these colonies was 300km away from the state capital, in the Moquegua Valley, Peru. Around AD 1000, the state began a drawn out process of violent collapse. Inhabitants of Tiwanaku settlements destroyed symbols of state authority, burnt down temples, and fled from state administrative centers. Although considerable research has been undertaken on the emergence and expansion of the Tiwanaku state, and the causes of its violent disintegration, comparatively little work has been devoted to understanding how the collapse affected the way in which communities identified themselves and the individuals within them.
Using archaeological evidence from burials, this dissertation project addresses that issue. It examines the extent to which post-collapse communities continued to assert an identity that was rooted in their Tiwanaku ancestry. It also explores whether intra-community identities (such as gender, status, occupation and age) were maintained despite the collapse of the state. To do this, the project compares burials in Moquegua from before and after Tiwanaku state collapse.
Archaeological data from a cemetery dating to the height of state authority is compared with burials excavated by Williams and Sharratt at a cemetery that was used after political disintegration. The arid environment of the Moquegua Valley allows the analysis of wooden and textile grave inclusions that would normally perish. The excavation and analysis of skeletal remains as well as pottery, textiles, jewelry and carved wooden objects suggest that post-collapse communities largely continued to identify themselves as Tiwanaku, despite the absence of an overarching Tiwanaku state authority. However, it appears that other aspects of intra-community identity were increasingly significant after the collapse of the state. In particular, kin-groups within the community used funerary rituals and material goods to assert their particular group identity. NSF funding will support the final, important stages of this project. It will support radiocarbon dating of burials from both sites, enabling the project to determine the temporal framework of this shift in salient identity. It will also support chemical analysis of ceramic material, through which the project will establish whether crafting differences evident in pottery forms and decorative styles are evident also in unseen aspects of craft production.
State collapse has been a topic of increased archaeological interest, but most of this research has concentrated on the causes and immediate political ramifications of political disintegration. Anthropological research on social identities has focused on the relationship between identities and the expansion of a colonial power or empire. The intellectual merit of this project is that it considers the opposite situation by drawing on these two important themes (collapse and identity) and asks how identities are affected when an overarching political authority collapses.
State collapse continues to occur in the contemporary world, and recent ethnic conflicts suggest that identity and political fragmentation are intertwined in powerful, constructive and often destructive ways. Understanding how communities react to state collapse has relevance far beyond the Tiwanaku state. This project is being undertaken in close collaboration with the local archaeology museum in Moquegua, and Williams and Sharratt are involved in contributing to museum displays and producing informational leaflets for the community on the excavations and project findings.
Archaeologists have traditionally focused on the emergence and spread of states and empires. However, political systems frequently collapse. The breakdown of a political system is an extremely significant time and how people respond to collapse has implications for the future. This project used archaeological data from southern Peru to examine how small communities are affected by state collapse. It investigated how groups that live through political turmoil view themselves and others in the aftermath of collapse, how affiliations are redefined with political unrest and what aspects of identity are significant when states collapse. The case study for the project was the Tiwanaku state, one of the earliest Andean states. It collapse ca. AD 1000. We addressed our research questions by comparing burials from before and after Tiwanaku state collapse in the Moquegua Valley, southern Peru. Funerals are important moments for asserting significant affiliations between people and how we treat our dead reflects the identities we think are important. We compared funerary data from two sites; Chen Chen - a Tiwanaku town that flourished during the height of state authority and Tumilaca la Chimba - a smaller village established by refugees fleeing state centers during violent state collapse. NSF funding supported two important aspects of this project: radiocarbon dating of materials from burials and chemical analysis of ceramic samples. Radiocarbon dates indicated that Chen Chen was mostly occupied between AD 800 and 950, and Tumilaca la Chimba largely between AD 950 and 1150. There is some temporal overlap in the occupations at the two sites. This demonstrates that people were establishing new villages before the state centers were completely destroyed. These people responded to political change and by abandoning state towns, they ultimately contributed to the collapse of their state. The radiocarbon dating resulted in a second important finding. At both sites, the dead were buried in spatially discrete cemeteries that reflected the organization of the community into different social groups, like clans. At Chen Chen, during the state period, the dead in all the different cemeteries were buried in very similar ways - in the same kinds of tombs and with the same kinds of offerings. At Tumilaca la Chimba, after state collapse, the different cemeteries were characterized by distinct funerary practices. The radiocarbon dates confirmed that the cemeteries at Tumilaca la Chimba were all in use at the same time. Therefore, the differences between them were social, and not temporal. During the state period, similarities across the cemeteries reflect unity, as all groups asserted their common identity rooted in the state. With state collapse, communities were increasingly fractured and divided, and intra-community groups used funerals to distant themselves from one another. NSF funding also supported the chemical analysis of ceramic sherds from the two sites. By comparing the chemical composition of ceramic sherds with the chemical composition of clays from the Moquegua Valley, we found that with state collapse regional economic and trade networks broke down. During the state period, the inhabitants of Moquegua had access to imported ceramic vessels because the analyzed material from Chen Chen included pottery made from non-local clays. However, all of the ceramics analyzed from Tumilaca la Chimba were made of local clays, indicating that, during the collapse phase, people no longer obtained distant goods. The chemical analysis also indicated that there is more chemical variation in the collapse phase pottery, suggesting that ceramic production may not have been as tightly controlled as during the state occupation and that after collapse, intra-community groups made their own pottery. Intellectual Merits Existing archaeological literature on state collapse focuses on why states collapse and the political and economic outcomes of collapse. By examining identities in the context of political fragmentation, this project moves forward theoretically. Our incorporation of chemical analyses, rarely used large studies of cemeteries, complimented traditional approaches to burials by applying emerging scientific techniques to the data. Finally, in its focus on collapse phase communities, this project has significantly enhanced understandings of a little studied phase in Peruvian prehistory. Broader Impacts This project explores issues relevant to social contexts geographically and temporally distant from southern Peru. Political collapse and state fragmentation are processes that continue to occur in the contemporary world. The project findings demonstrate that collapse is an immensely disruptive process for everyone. It has repercussions for all members of society and people actively respond to and contribute to political change. We have engaged in outreach activities throughout the project. We undertook the research in close collaboration with a regional museum in Peru. While working on the project, we presented findings to the local community, produced informational leaflets and aided in exhibit development. In the USA, the Co-PI has given talks to high-school science classes discussing the role of chemical analytical techniques in archaeology.
