The beginning of Tiwanaku influences in the western valleys is detectable during the Cabuza phase (AD 300-700). It consists of black-on-red ware with geometric designs, popularizing the kero shape, bowls, and jars. A variation of Cabuza is the Sobraya style, which introduced white color outlining black designs. Burial mounds are no longer in use; instead Cabuza introduced flexed bodies covered with woolen shirts in a bundle fashion.
Figure 48.4. Alto Ramirez phase textile with Pukara like designs, from site AZ'71. (Photo: Mario Rivera)
Figure 48.5. Cabuza phase four-pointed shape hat. (Photo: Mario Rivera)
Turbans are replaced by braided hair, similar to some depictions from Tiwanaku (Arriaza et al. 1986). A characteristic four-pointed woolen cap was shaped with textile techniques that include the “floating warp,” which produces polychrome designs (Figure 48.5). Another outstanding feature is woodcarving which produced keros, boxes, trays and, notably, spoons (for their typology see Espoueys 1972). Leatherwork as well as basketry is also well known. There are sandals, strings, quivers, and bags of several types. Coiled basketry is by far the most common technique, and shapes imitate those of ceramics. Gold and silver metalwork is also known; there are examples of plaques, adornments, rings and beads. Villages of this phase contain large numbers of storage rooms, suggesting intensive
Economic redistributive practices in terms of the ecological complementarity model (e. g., Murra 1972; Stanish 1992), with people located in different ecozones.
Research in the western valleys has provided two different interpretations about the nature of Tiwanaku in north Chile. The interpretations pose political integration into the Tiwanaku state against incorporation into the economic patterns of ecological complementarity that developed throughout the Tiwanaku sphere. Either actual Tiwanaku colonies were interacting with local ethnic groups, or Tiwanaku influences represent part of a continuous development from earlier groups that settled the area. This latter interpretation is supported by biological anthropologists under a micro-evolutionary model (Sutter 2000), and is bolstered by textile analyses of pre-Inca clothing styles where variability in Azapa is thought to have been the result of achieved status differences (Cassman 1997, 2000: 253-266).
Data from Azapa support the colonization hypothesis with direct Tiwanaku influence over Cabuza people. A systematic settlement pattern survey of the middle Azapa Valley found 54 sites with Azapa-Tiwanaku or Cabuza sherds. Of these, 15 sites included ceramics of both styles; 27 yielded only Cabuza, and 12 had only Azapa Tiwanaku fragments (Goldstein 1996; Goldstein and Rivera 2004).
Other biological studies show a high rate of infant mortality (Arriaza et al. 1984). Coupled with studies on pneumonia frequencies it can be concluded that Cabuza people were facing problems of adjustment typical of newcomers to a different environment (Aufderheide et al. 2002). Gene flow from the highlands was more intense during the Middle Period (ca. AD 500-900) as a consequence of the demographic pressure posed by Tiwanaku, possibly under a process of migration not controlled by the state (Rothhammer and Santoro 2001: 63). Furthermore, analyses of DNAmt samples from the Tiwanaku site in Bolivia suggest the presence of foreign groups in Azapa (Rothhammer et al. 2004: 151).
The location of Azapa Tiwanaku and Cabuza sites suggests a preference for zones best suited for irrigated cultivation different from the coastal focus of the earlier indigenous peoples. The most prominent Azapa sites that contain typical Tiwanaku components are AZ-83, a village site in Alto Ramirez; AZ-75, a cemetery site at San Lorenzo; AZ-143 in Quebrada del Diablo; and Atoca-1, where Cabuza and Tiwanaku sherds are characteristic as well as, reportedly, the only Wari-style pottery yet to have been found in Chile (Munoz 1986: 314; Munoz and Santos 1996).
In the Atacama Desert, and most notably in the salt puna region and in the San Pedro de Atacama oasis, the Quitor phase represents an equivalent to Cabuza of the Azapa Valley. Quitor (AD 400-700) had its antecedents with previous Alto Ramirez development at different sites (Tulor, Tchapuchayna), conforming the San Pedro I period (Orellana 1963; Ayala 2001). San Pedro I, also called Sequitor phase (Berenguer et al. 1986), features burial mounds, villages of circular domestic structures, irrigated agricultural fields, copper metallurgy, use of gold alloys, and the San Pedro Red Ware ceramic style.
San Pedro II developed throughout the Middle Period when Tiwanaku influences were important. Black Polished Ware ceramics are diagnostic (Figure 48.6). They have varied shapes such as bottles, dishes and bowls. These vessels account for 82% of the total funerary pottery in San Pedro (Tarrago 1976). Bottle necks display modeled human faces as decorative motifs and there are bowls with incised motifs, particularly stylized llamas.
Evidence of a strong interaction with other areas is overwhelming. Evidence extends as far as Quebrada Tarapaca (Caserones), northwestern Argentina (Calahoyo, Hualfin, Calchaqui), and coastal sites in Antofagasta and Taltal, where San Pedro II pottery is well known. These constitute additional evidence of caravan travel across the desert. During
Figure 48.6. Black polished incised bowl from San Pedro Atacama. (Photo: Mario Rivera)
San Pedro II typical Tiwanaku iconographic designs are found in about 15% of San Pedro burials (Berenguer and Dauelsberg 1989).
Tiwanaku influence in northern Chile is represented by the Maytas phase (AD 700-1100) in the western valleys, and Coyo in the San Pedro de Atacama region (sites of Coyo, Solor-3, Quitor-5, and Quitor-6). The latter exhibit the most outstanding Tiwanaku influence in the oases area (Berenguer and Dauelsberg 1989; Thomas et al. 1985). But this influence has an elite nature: there are undisputed Tiwanaku objects (golden keros, textiles, basketry, ceramic vessels, wooden objects) appearing in the burials of important local authorities. All this suggests that Tiwanaku ritual and ideology were incorporated into San Pedro’s local development. It is still a matter of speculation as to whether this elite class of deceased individuals was of local origin, and invested by Tiwanaku rulers with some symbolic artifacts, or whether the deceased were true Tiwanaku dignitaries ruling in the oases zone (Llagostera et al. 1988). No clear consensus has yet emerged as to whether Tiwanaku-influenced people in San Pedro de Atacama represent an actual migration of groups from the Titicaca area (Nunez 1963; Tarrago 1984), or if they are the result of an ideological penetration (Berenguer and Dauelsberg 1989).
At the same time there was a close relation between San Pedro II and the La Aguada culture of northwestern Argentina (see Chapter 30 in this volume). La Aguada was an important cultural development in the Argentinian Middle Period (ca. AD 650-1000), and currently there is insufficient knowledge for explaining the strong Tiwanaku influence there (Gonzalez 1998).
Amy Oakland Rodman’s study of textiles in tombs at Coyo Oriente, a burial site in San Pedro de Atacama, concluded that a small group had been differentiated that may represent an ethnic enclave of Tiwanaku colonists (Oakland Rodman 1992: 336). San Pedro’s local, yet highly elite, burial contexts probably show that Tiwanaku had different trade relations with San Pedro ayllus, promoted by competition among them to become favored and protected clients (Goldstein and Rivera 2004: 167). For instance, burials from the Larache,
Quitor and Solcor ayllus included unique Tiwanaku ceramics and gold artifacts (Le Paige 1964; Llagostera 1996; Orellana 1985; Baron 2004; Tamblay 2004).
Tiwanaku presence in the small Atacama Desert communities could be explained as local elites: chiefs who formed alliances with traders or other representatives from Tiwanaku. These alliances were possible because as Tiwanaku emerged, the ayllus of San Pedro de Atacama probably were ruled by several competing lineages (Thomas et al. 1985: 268). Therefore, each lineage sought alliances with foreign rulers in order to promote and protect its interests, resulting in an exchange of political, religious, and ideological concepts, as well as art objects that would emphasize this connection. This would explain the appearance of Tiwanaku iconography as part of the ideology of San Pedro de Atacama.
In the western valleys farther north, Tiwanaku influences continued into the so - called Expansive Tiwanaku phase. The archaeological record shows continuity from Cabuza into later developments like Maytas and Chiribaya. Vessels of these styles represent more local developments, containing few Tiwanaku attributes, mainly of shapes like keros. The Maytas (AD 700-1100) ceramic style is characterized by black and white designs on red slip (triangles, undulating lines, and concentric geometric designs). Chiribaya (far south coast of Peru) is basically the same style as Maytas, with an emphasis on white lines of successive dots along the black designs, and more concentric panels, sometimes divided into four to six or eight radiated sections, distributed as designs.
Tiwanaku expanded over much of northern Chile, particularly the western valleys, which were in direct contact with the core Titicaca basin area. Outposts in Azapa emphasize common beliefs so strongly that they seem to represent true ideological colonies (Rivera 1985, 2004). A different alternative considers Tiwanaku expansion as a planned, three-step process based on a prestige economy: first, the creation of a semiperiphery in the circum Titicaca region; second, the incorporation of the periphery, particularly the western valleys; and third, the utilization of the ultraperiphery, in the Atacama Desert and puna region, where Tiwanaku sought exotic prestige goods (Berenguer and Dauelsberg 1989).
World History
