Tiwanaku's Legacy: A Chronological Reassessment of the Terminal Middle Horizon in the Moquegua Valley, Peru

Abstract

As in other examples of state collapse, political disintegration of the Tiwanaku state circa AD 1000 was accompanied by considerable cultural continuity. In the Moquegua Valley, Peru, the location of the largest Tiwanaku communities outside the altiplano, settlements and practices associated with this postcollapse cultural continuity are termed Tumilaca. Previous research indicated that Tumilaca was short-lived, with all vestiges of Tiwanaku gone from Moquegua's archaeological record by the thirteenth century when the valley was subsequently characterized by Estuquiña-style materials. This article discusses radiocarbon dates from Tumilaca la Chimba, a village established as the political authority of the Tiwanaku state waned. The 21 absolute dates from Tumilaca domestic, public, and funerary contexts span at least 350 years, from the late tenth to the mid-fourteenth centuries AD. They suggest that (1) Tiwanaku-affiliated communities endured well into the later Late Intermediate Period (AD 1200–1470); (2) ongoing debates about the emergence of Estuquiña communities must consider the role of terminal Tiwanaku populations; and (3) analyses of postcollapse continuity can be enhanced by considering peripheral locales and the particularities of continuity.

Water Engineering at Precolumbian AD 600–1100 Tiwanaku’s Urban Center (Bolivia)

“…As to the demise of Tiwanaku colonies located in the Moquegua Valley, collapse dates are consistent with, or follow somewhat, the final collapse dates of Tiwanaku urban complexes. As detailed by Sharatt et al [57], evidence of Moquegua colonies persisted into Ilo-Tumilaca-Cabuza coastal phases and highland Tumilaca Phases l past~1000 AD, indicating in many cases the extension of some of the Tiwanaku city traditions and stylistic practices in textile and ceramic designs. As the slow development of altiplano drought initiates in the 10th century AD, the rainfall runoff-based canal agriculture of Moquegua Valley colonies invariably responded to rainfall runoff decrease in vulnerable valley rivers challenging the continuity of their irrigation agricultural field systems.…”

“…The presence of scattered qocha farming pits excavated to groundwater phreatic levels located distant from the city center indicated population fragmentation in order to conduct localized survival farming. New information pertinent to the last days of Tiwanaku city life [57,59] is available from the use of multiple stable isotope methods involving analysis of skeletal remains dating from the~1100 AD time period which corresponds to city abandonment dates at the contemporary site of Wari. Noted are dietary changes from previous norms experienced by city population as drought intensified: these changes include absence of fish from the diet and no reported instances of child remains incorporating nutrients from fish or marine sources.…”

The Tiwanaku Tradition within the Tambo Valley, Southern Coast of Peru: Interpretation of Burial Contexts from La Pampilla 1

“…Materials in the Omo style are related to the earlier migration, beginning at around AD 700, whereas the Chen Chen style became evident in the valley around AD 850, coexisting with the earlier style until the collapse of the Tiwanaku state (Goldstein 2005; Owen and Goldstein 2001:171, 174). A genetic connection between the populations represented by the Omo and Chen Chen styles with the inhabitants of the Tiwanaku mainland has been confirmed by a non-metric analysis of osteological material from cemeteries and by isotope analysis (Knudson et al 2004; Sharratt 2019).

Figure 1.The southern Andes.

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“…It is associated with materials in the Tumilaca style and the elements that accompany them. It is generally accepted that the terminal Middle Horizon lasted until the thirteenth century AD (Owen 2005; Sims 2006), although recent research suggests instead that it lasted until the mid-fourteenth century (Sharratt 2019:530).…”

Bioarchaeology of social transition: A diachronic study of pathological conditions at Tumilaca la Chimba, Peru

“…Due to the considerable demonstrated continuity with Tiwanaku practices and styles, Tumilaca sites are temporally referred to in Moquegua as terminal Middle Horizon (Sharratt, forthcoming). Chronologically (950–1250 CE), they correspond with centuries defined as the earlier LIP elsewhere in Andean South America (Kurin, ).…”