For the Tiwanaku civilization (AD 500-1000), one of Native South America's earliest state societies, monumental public architecture played an important role in the social and political organization of society. Were Tiwanaku public buildings the palaces of governors or priests designated by a centralized state and religion? Or were they temples for the coming together of many diverse cults and groups within a pluralistic pre-Inca society? Unfortunately, while we have some information about highland Tiwanaku's magnificent architecture and stone carving style, relatively little is yet known about the functions of Tiwanaku temples, most of which are located in the wet altiplano region, where perishable architecture and artifacts are seldom preserved.
This project will address this problem by studying the Omo Tiwanaku temple, located in the lowland desert Tiwanaku province of Moquegua, Peru. Pilot excavations found excellent preservation of Omo's brightly painted architecture, including perishable roofing and wall materials, and a small sample of possible residential remains, and ritual paraphernalia including ceramic drinking vessels and censers, sea urchin spines, malachite beads, textiles including indigo tapestry fragments and sacrificial offering caches of llama bone, shells, starfish, and coca leaves. Area excavations of the entire structure will define detailed room access patterns and permit exposure of the floors and internal features of entire rooms, while maintaining careful control over the context of artifacts, faunal and botanical materials. All excavated fill will be carefully screened at ¼", with soil samples from all floor and features processed through progressive fine screens for botanical faunal and lithic and bead samples. This "household archaeology" methodology will permit the researchers to determine the component ritual and domestic activities of each room and feature, and the affiliation of the residents or staff active in each section of the temple.
Findings on the Omo temple's function and affiliation will be analyzed in light of recent work on public buildings in the Bolivian homeland of the Tiwanaku civilization, as well as the P.I.'s extensive prior research on the household and mortuary archaeology, settlement patterns, and iconography of the Tiwanaku province in Moquegua. Competing models of provincial temple functions will be evaluated, contrasting centralized state ritual practices vs. confederative ritual patterns, and internationalist models of practices, potentially with non-Tiwanaku and/or Wari participants also taking part. Results will inform an ongoing debate on the degree of central control in the Tiwanaku system and contribute to the comparativist conversation on state and ritual in early expansive state societies.
