No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
Toward the Development of the Tiahuanaco (Tiwanaku) State
... Prior research at the Chiripa mound also recovered other burning levels in the quadrangle of structures surrounding a central recessed courtyard from the final Middle Formative period (ca. 300-100 BCE) (Bandy, 1999b;Bennett, 1936;Browman, 1978aBrowman, , b, 1989Hastorf, 1999a;Kidder, 1956;Whitehead, 1999). ...
... Settlements flourished on the Taraco Peninsula during the Early and Middle Formative period and the Chiripa stepped platform mound was a central venue (Bandy, 2001(Bandy, , 2004aBeck, 2004;Hastorf, 2003). We believe the Chiripa settlement emerged as a local center during the Early to Middle Formative period with evidence of a dense residential population, sunken court, and a stepped platform mound (Bennett, 1936;Browman, 1978aBrowman, , b, 1989Chávez Mohr, 1988;Hastorf, 1999aHastorf, , b, 2003Kidder, 1956;Portugal Ortiz, 1975). Mounds denote multi-lineage gathering spots during this time throughout the Andean region and are rare in the Titicaca basin, making Chiripa stand out as a Formative period ceremonial center. ...
... We focus here on excavations from Structure 4 in the upper level of the mound at Chiripa. Several other similar structures from this level have been excavated since the 1930s with some evidence of burning noted (Fig. 2;Bennett, 1936;Browman, 1978aBrowman, , b, 1989Chávez Mohr, 1988;Hastorf, 1999a;Hastorf et al., 2008;Kidder, 1956;Portugal Ortiz, 1975). However, the burning events were never investigated nor described. ...
In this study, we assess competing interpretations of a burnt ceremonial structure from the terminal Middle Formative period (ca. 300–100 BCE) by analyzing the stepped platform mound at Chiripa, Bolivia, through a systematic reconstruction of the fire that destroyed it. We developed a model of potential fire pathways, their social contexts, and material indicators. Our approach contrasts incipient fires from accident or arson to planned fires initiated for functional or social ends. We assessed these pathways for the Chiripa mound fire through experimental, geoarchaeological, faunal, and botanical data. Experiments were aimed at deducing the temperature, duration, and oxidation conditions of the fire. The fire temperature and duration were approximated from geoarchaeological analyses of construction materials in comparison with controls, and thermal alteration of faunal bone. Fuels were reconstructed through paleoethnobotanical analysis of charred remains from discrete areas within the burnt structure. We conclude that an intentional fire burned the structures on the Chiripa mound to temperatures of 700 °C or higher under oxidizing conditions for several hours. The pattern of heat-altered materials recovered would have required a substantial supplemental fuel load. At the 3840 masl elevation of Chiripa, the effective control of a high temperature oxidizing fire demonstrates technical expertise in fire management. Our findings indicate the fire appears intentional, likely a ritual event. We believe the structures were burned to facilitate a socio-political change during a period of social transition at the end of the Middle Formative period in Bolivia.
... En la década del setenta, se llevó a cabo más investigación arqueológica de campo en Chiripa, a 15 km al norte de Tiwanaku (Browman 1978(Browman , 1981(Browman , 1984. Allí no había habido excavaciones desde que Bennett trabajó en los años 30. ...
... Browman estableció una secuencia tripartita para el desarrollo de este gran sitio Formativo. En varios artículos (Browman 1978(Browman , 1981(Browman , 1984 argumentó que durante el período de mayor influencia, aproximadamente de 500 a 1000 A.D. la civilización Tiwanaku puede ser entendida como dos entidades sociopolíticas diferentes. Estas eran una entidad norte o imperio peruano, basado claramente en la conquista militar, con control político y administrativo centrado en la ciudad de Wari, cerca de Ayacucho, y una entidad sureña o federación boliviana. ...
... Estos sitios pequeños parecen haber sido diferentes del sitio de Chiripa, que ocupa una superficie mayor, con su arquitectura ceremonial a gran escala. La presencia de materias primas exóticas en Chiripa sugiere que ese centro era parte de una red de intercambio a larga distancia (Browman 1978(Browman , 1981 en la que los sitios rurales pequeños no estaban incluidos. Entre los elementos recuperados en Chiripa cuyo origen puede ser rastreado a distancias considerables, entre 300 y 500km del sitio, y fuera de la Cuenca del Titicaca, se encuentran minerales de cobre de la región costera árida del Pacifico, obsidiana de las punas de Arequipa y Puno, sodalita de Cochabamba, y basalto del Lago Poopó (Browman 1978(Browman , 1981. ...
... Proponents of this model maintain that Tiwanaku society was intensely hierarchical, as reflected in its urban landscapes, which were believed to have been structured according to concentric gradients of social status with elites living closest to the city's ceremonial core (Kolata 1993(Kolata , 2003. Others have suggested that Tiwanaku political authority was more indirect, acting as a major hub of trade for llama caravans as well as an important ceremonial center, allowing for more autonomy among local leaders (Browman 1978;Dillehay and Nuñez 1988). More recently, much research has shed light on the ethnic heterogeneity of Tiwanaku society (Blom 1999(Blom , 2005a(Blom , 2005bJanusek 1994Janusek , 1999Janusek , 2002Janusek , 2008Knudson et al. 2004) and the importance of nonhierarchical means of social differentiation (Albarracin-Jordan 1996a, 1996bBrowman 1994). ...
... I also consider how the activities of individuals helped to undergird authority and shape state policies and strategies. This aspect of the study directly addresses the competing models of Tiwanaku political authority offered by Kolata (1986Kolata ( , 1991Kolata ( , 1993Kolata ( , 2003, Browman (1978Browman ( , 1981Browman ( , 1994, Dillehay and Nuñez (1988), Albaracin-Jordan (1996a, 1996b and others. ...
... Finally, evidence of hallucinogenic drug use appears at Lukurmata during the Late Formative II, in the form of small bone spatulas and snuff tube (Bermann 1994: 142). Such paraphernalia is considered a hallmark of Tiwanaku influence in the region (Browman 1978). ...
... Therefore, the fact that their TMRCAs are so similar suggests that they record a change that occurred almost two millennia ago in the potato crops they shared. The estimated TMRCAs for the three viruses coincide with the Tiahuanaco Empire's early formative period between 110 and 300 CE in the Lake Titicaca regions (Browman 1978;Fuentes et al. 2019Fuentes et al. , 2021a. Potato growing expanded in Bolivia and southern Peru during the Tiahuanaco Empire, which continued until approximately 1000 CE (Browman 1978;Hawkes 1978Hawkes , 1990. ...
... The estimated TMRCAs for the three viruses coincide with the Tiahuanaco Empire's early formative period between 110 and 300 CE in the Lake Titicaca regions (Browman 1978;Fuentes et al. 2019Fuentes et al. , 2021a. Potato growing expanded in Bolivia and southern Peru during the Tiahuanaco Empire, which continued until approximately 1000 CE (Browman 1978;Hawkes 1978Hawkes , 1990. In 1526 CE, the Spaniards invaded Peru, and the Columbian Exchange (Nunn and Qian 2010) commenced, which included introduction of the potato from the Andean region to Europe and later to other continents (Hawkes 1978(Hawkes , 1990. ...
Potato virus V (PVV) causes a disease of potato (Solanum tubersosum) in South and Central America, Europe and the Middle East. We report here the complete genomic sequences of 42 new PVV isolates from the potato's Andean domestication centre in Peru, and of eight historical or recent isolates from Europe. When the principal open reading frames (ORFs) of these genomic sequences together with those of nine previously published genomic sequences were analysed, only two from Peru and one from Iran were found to be recombinant. The phylogeny of the 56 non-recombinant ORF sequences showed that the PVV population has two major phylogroups, one of which forms three minor phylogroups (A1-A3) of isolates, all of which are only found in the Andean region of South America (Peru and Colombia), and the other forms two minor phylogroups, a basal one of Andean isolates (A4) that is paraphyletic to a crown cluster containing all the isolates found outside South America (World). This suggests that PVV originated in the Andean region with only one minor phylogroup spreading elsewhere in the world. In minor phylogroups A3 and A4, there were subclades on long branches containing isolates from S. phureja evolving more rapidly than the others, and these interfered with dating calculations. Although no temporal signal was directly detected among the dated non-recombinant sequences, PVV and potato virus Y (PVY) are from the same potyvirus lineage and are ecologically similar, so "sub-tree dating" was done using a single maximum-likelihood phylogeny of PVV and PVY sequences, and PVY's well-supported 157 CE "time to most common recent ancestor" was extrapolated to date that of PVV as 29 BCE. Thus the independent historical coincidences supporting the datings of the PVV and PVY phylogenies are the same; PVV arose at least 2,000 years ago in the Andes, and was taken to Europe during the Columbian Exchange, where it diversified around 1853 CE soon after the European potato late blight pandemic. PVV is likely to be more widespread than currently realised, and of biosecurity relevance for world regions that have not yet recorded its presence.
... The Tiwanaku archaeological complex (Bolivia), designated a World Heritage site in 2000 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), is a reference for South American archaeological science (Bandelier, 1892;Browman, 1978;Gallego-Revilla & Pérez-González, 2018;Kolata, 1993;Otero, 1943;Posnansky, 1945). For over a century, research has been conducted on this site and various international teams have approached its study from multidisciplinary perspectives, but to date, the information is still incomplete. ...
... There are also other visible elements that would initially indicate additional occupation phases. One of the most obvious is the presence of circular structures that, in theory, could be linked to the outer stages of the Tiwanaku culture (Bandelier, 1911;Browman, 1978Browman, , 1980Williams et al., 2006). It is noted that the western bank clay structure that we found in the western vicinity of Puma Punku may have been used as a possible seasonal river dock, linked to a wide flooding area and the fluvial structure of the Tiwanaku River. ...
This paper analyses the research carried out in the Tiwanaku World Heritage site in Bolivia, using unmanned aerial vehicles and satellite images. The combined use of images with different scales has made it possible to locate many archaeological structures unknown to date (drainage systems, walls, circular crop marks, and a possible dock). The Sentinel‐2 images, which were processed using principal components analysis and histogram equalization, show the river beds, flood‐prone areas, and several buried drainage channels surrounding the most important structures. The archaeological evidence obtained with the digital terrain model and natural color/multispectral images enables us to contrast a new dimension of land and water uses that go beyond what was known to date. In the same way, these images enable us to understand in detail the environmental characteristics, land use,
building distribution, and flood defense structures of the Tiwanaku culture throughout its history, within the context of the environmental conditions of the Bolivian altiplano. This study allowed the authors to collect new information and pose questions on the relationship of this site with water, as well as a better understanding of the extent and habitat of this historical population.
... Archaeologists have long debated the nature of Tiwanaku's relationship with San Pedro (Browman, 1980b;Berenguer and Dauelsberg, 1989;Oakland, 1992;Kolata, 1993;Torres and Conklin, 1995;Torres-Rouff, 2002). Recent research has indicated that the oases were within Tiwanaku's sphere of influence and that this relationship was peaceful in nature (e.g., Goldstein, 2005). ...
... Despite decades of study, the nature of the relationship between the Tiwanaku polity and its periphery is not well understood (Kolata, 1993), and archaeologists still debate the strategy or strategies that Tiwanaku might have used in approaching and eventually incorporating smaller communities into their networks (Kolata, 1986(Kolata, , 1991Torres and Conklin, 1995;Albarracín-Jordan, 1996;Janusek, 2007). In the San Pedro oases, the Middle Horizon is described as a period of local prosperity, peace, and cultural apogee (Berenguer et al., 1980;Browman, 1980b;Berenguer and Dauelsberg, 1989;Oakland, 1992;Kolata, 1993;Nú ñ ez, 2004;Goldstein, 2005). However, the role that Tiwanaku played in this is still largely unclear. ...
As one of the few areas apt for horticulture in Northern Chile's arid landscape, the prehistory of the Atacama oases is deeply enmeshed with that of the inter-regional networks that promoted societal development in the south central Andes. During the Middle Horizon (AD 500-1000), local populations experienced a cultural apex associated with a substantial increase in inter-regional interaction, population density, and quantity and quality of mortuary assemblages. Here, we test if this cultural peak affected dietary practices equally among the distinct local groups of this period. We examine caries prevalence and the degree of occlusal wear in four series recovered from three cemeteries. Our results show a reduction in the prevalence of caries for males among an elite subsample from Solcor 3 and the later Coyo 3 cemeteries. Dental wear tends to increase over time with the Late Middle Horizon/Late Intermediate Period cemetery of Quitor 6 showing a higher average degree of wear. When considered in concert with archaeological information, we concluded that the Middle Horizon was marked by dietary variability wherein some populations were able to obtain better access to protein sources (e.g., camelid meat). Not all members of Atacameño society benefited from this, as we note that this dietary change only affected men. Our results suggest that the benefits brought to the San Pedro oases during the Middle Horizon were not equally distributed among local groups and that social status, relationship to the Tiwanaku polity, and interment in particular cemeteries affected dietary composition.
... Dentro este período se desarrolló la fase Chiripa Tardío (Hastorf et al, 2001). Es probable que en este período estas entidades políticas hayan logrado vigencia a nivel regional a través de mecanismos de tráfico e intercambio a través del Altiplano (Browman, 1978(Browman, ,1981. ...
La cuenca sur del lago Titicaca fue una región de gran importancia cultural durante la era prehispánica. Las diversas sociedades que habitaron la zona contribuyeron al rico tapiz de la historia andina, dejando un legado duradero de características culturales y sociales que aún resuenan en la región en la actualidad. Este artículo presenta una síntesis de los principales procesos culturales y cronológicos que se desarrollaron en la región. Se revisan evidencias arqueológicas, que permiten reconstruir las dinámicas de ocupación, interacción e integración de las poblaciones que habitaron esta parte de la cuenca. Se presenta una periodización basada en criterios culturales, ambientales y políticos, que abarca desde el período Formativo hasta la conquista europea. Se destaca la importancia de la cuenca sur del lago Titicaca como un espacio de encuentro y conflicto entre diferentes tradiciones culturales, así como un escenario de transformaciones sociales, económicas y religiosas a lo largo del tiempo.
... Otra hipotesis propone que un centro geograficamente intermedi o desarrollo lo s conceptos que permitieron expandirse primero a Wari y luego a Tiwanaku (Cook 1985;Isbell 1984;Isbell y Cook 1987). Finalmente, se plantea tambien que el comercio y el intercambio pueden haber provisto mec anismos de similitud en los estilos corporativos (Browman 1978(Browman , 1984, mientras algunos in vestigadores han sostenido que la unificacion imperial no fue 10 que caracterizo al Horizonte Medio, sino que mas bien fueron el comercio y el Fig. 3. ClIadro cronologico comparatil"o qlle reslIme la historia clIltllral de la region con relaciol1 a la cuenca del altiplano (de Goldstein 1989) . intercambio los que promovieron una iconografia compartida entre las numerosas y florecientes culturas regionales al final del Periodo Intermedio Temprano (Shady 1982(Shady , 1989. ...
La expansión wari hacia el extremo sur del Perú es un fenómeno cuyo estudio ha comenzado en los últimos 20 años, con el descubrimiento de un gran complejo arquitectónico en Cerro Baúl. Las excavaciones realizadas en los últimos tres años han revelado que Cerro Baúl, más que una fortaleza, fue un centro político y religioso wari muy importante, establecido como enclave en una región donde resulta evidente una directa interacción con Tiwanaku, el estado altiplánico que colonizó el valle medio del Osmore. En base a 12 fechados radiocarbónicos, se puede deducir que esta interacción se habría mantenido por un lapso aproximado de 200 años, tiempo en el cual habrían existido momentos de tensión y otros de cooperación.EI presente trabajo analiza las relaciones que tenía la colonia wari de Cerro Baúl con su capital, ubicada en el departamento de Ayacucho. Para tal fin se han documentado las características de la arquitectura -doméstica y monumental- y se han establecido sus relaciones con formas encontradas en Ayacucho y en otros centros regionales. También se ha analizado la tecnología de riego implementada por Wari en la zona y comparado con la tecnología agrícola de Ayacucho, notando claras similitudes con ésta y fuertes contrastes con la que había antes de la ocupación wari en Moquegua. Ambas líneas de evidencia indican que los contactos entre Cerro Baúl y la capital eran intensos, lo cual se observa también en el intercambio de bienes de prestigio, notándose que fue la colonia de Moquegua la que mantuvo los lineamientos de la política del Estado Wari en su interacción con Tiwanaku.
... The first instance of the Tiwanaku culture in the Iwawi sequence can be found in stratum IV dated to 600-725 CE (Burkholder, 1997). This site has been interpreted in many ways, as a port city that connected the Tiwanaku valley (Browman, 1978(Browman, , 1984, as a platform pyramid to guard the area (Kolata, 1986), and as a second order settlement (Albarracin-Jordan, 1999). The most recent interpretation of this site, based on stratigraphic data, concludes that the site historically was used as a residential community (Zarrillo, 2012). ...
The llama (Lama glama) and the alpaca (Vicugna pacos) are important domesticated species, endemic to South America. South American camelids helped ensure the success of humans in the Andes, much like the horse in Europe. Two wild South American camelids, the guanaco and the vicuña have been proposed as the ancestors of these domestic forms. Some scientists have hypothesized that crossbreeding started after the Spanish conquest in the 1500's, since before this event, indigenous people are thought to have kept both domestic breeding lines separate. In an effort to avoid the confounding effects of crossbreeding, ancient DNA from pre-conquest South American camelids was analysed from sites in Bolivia and Ecuador. Our mitochondrial pre-conquest results for Cerro Narrío in Ecuador show that all ancient samples which do not naturally occur in this region and were likely domesticated camelids, had maternal guanaco ancestry. At the Bolivian site of Iwawi, near Lake Titicaca, matrilineal ancestry from both wild species contributed to the domestic forms. These results help disentangle the complex ancestry of the domestic South American camelids and inform future breeding strategies. Additionally confirm the occurrence of crossbreeding between camelids pre-Spanish conquest.
... Over 40 years of archaeological research on human occupation of the Wiñaymarka basin has produced a detailed radiocarbon-derived chronology of major shifts in settlement, economic practices, ceramic styles, and social and political organization. In particular, long-term, interdisciplinary projects in the Tiwanaku and Katari valleys (Albarracin-Jordan 2007;Janusek 2008;Kolata 1996;Kolata 2003;Ponce Sangines 1981), Desaguadero River valley (Smith and Janusek 2014), and Taraco Peninsula (Bandy 2001;Browman 1978Browman , 1981Hastorf 2003a;Hastorf 1999) provide data to generate a comparative framework. ...
Investigations of how past human societies managed during times of major climate change can inform our understanding of potential human responses to ongoing environmental change. In this study, we evaluate the impact of environmental variation on human communities over the last four millennia in the southern Lake Titicaca basin of the Andes, known as Lake Wiñaymarka. Refined paleoenvironmental reconstructions from new diatom-based reconstructions of lake level together with archaeological evidence of animal and plant resource use from sites on the Taraco Peninsula, Bolivia, reveal frequent climate and lake-level changes within major cultural phases. We posit that climate fluctuations alone do not explain major past social and political transformations but instead that a highly dynamic environment contributed to the development of flexible and diverse subsistence practices by the communities in the Titicaca Basin.
... Furthermore, the similarity of the estimated TMRCAs for the PVA population (166-289 CE) and the PVY population (157 CE) suggests that they infected potatoes at least as early as the beginning of Tiahuanaco era in the Lake Titicaca region, when potato cropping expanded into Bolivia and southern Peru. That era lasted from 110-300 CE (early formative period) and then from 300 CE to about 1000 CE when the Tiahuanaco empire eventually ended (Browman 1978;Hawkes 1978Hawkes , 1990. The phylogenies of both viruses show a large radiation that probably occurred after they were taken to Europe by the Spaniards who had invaded the Andean region. ...
Forty-seven potato virus A (PVA) isolates from Europe, Australia, and South America’s Andean region were subjected to high-throughput sequencing, and 46 complete genomes from Europe (n = 9), Australia (n = 2), and the Andes (n = 35) obtained. These and 17 other genomes gave alignments of 63 open reading frames 9,180 nucleotides long; 9 were recombinants. The nonrecombinants formed three tightly clustered, almost equidistant phylogroups; A comprised 14 Peruvian potato isolates; W comprised 37 from potato in Peru, Argentina, and elsewhere in the world; and T contained three from tamarillo in New Zealand. When five isolates were inoculated to a potato cultivar differential, three strain groups (= pathotypes) unrelated to phylogenetic groupings were recognized. No temporal signal was detected among the dated nonrecombinant sequences, but PVA and potato virus Y (PVY) are from related lineages and ecologically similar; therefore, “relative dating” was obtained using a single maximum-likelihood phylogeny of PVA and PVY sequences and PVY’s well-supported 157 CE “time to most common recent ancestor”. The PVA datings obtained were supported by several independent historical coincidences. The PVA and PVY populations apparently arose in the Andes approximately 18 centuries ago, and were taken to Europe during the Columbian Exchange, radiating there after the mid-19th century potato late blight pandemic. PVA’s phylogroup A population diverged more recently in the Andean region, probably after new cultivars were bred locally using newly introduced Solanum tuberosum subsp. tuberosum as a parent. Such cultivars became widely grown, and apparently generated the A × W phylogroup recombinants. Phylogroup A, and its interphylogroup recombinants, might pose a biosecurity risk.
[Formula: see text] Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY 4.0 International license .
... AD 500-1100) (Anderson 2013;Bermann 1997;Browman 1997;Goldstein 1993Goldstein , 2005Janusek 2004Janusek , 2008Kolata 1992Kolata , 1993aKolata , 1993bOakland Rodman 1992;Stanish 2003). The Tiwanaku polity was a loosely confederated segmentary state whose affiliated communities were linked through noncoercive, reciprocal relationships cemented through ritual, shared ideology, and economic interaction (Albarracín-Jordán 1996Browman 1978Browman , 1997Goldstein 2005;McAndrews, Albarracín-Jordán, and Bermann 1997;cf. Kolata 1993acf. ...
Previous archaeological and bioarchaeological research indicates colonies affiliated with the pre-Hispanic Tiwanaku state in the Moquegua Valley, Peru were organized along ethnic community lines. In this chapter, biodistance, exploratory, and social network analytical techniques are applied to phenotypic and cranial modification data from human skeletal remains from five archaeological sites to explore social organization in the Moquegua Valley Tiwanaku colonies. Results confirm that ethnic affiliation strongly influenced sociality in the Moquegua Tiwanaku-affiliated communities, yet findings indicate that family networks crossed ethnic community boundaries. Despite outward expressions of cultural difference between ethnic communities, interethnic family networks may have proved critical to the emergence of a shared, regional Moquegua Tiwanaku identity.
... Llama caravans facilitated Tiwanaku's expansion across the south-central Andes beginning in the late 7th century A.D. They disseminated Tiwanaku stylistic and economic influence across the southern Andes. Models proposed by Browman (1978:331, 1984), Lynch (1983, and Nuñez and Dillehay (1995) stress the confederate, autonomous nature of caravan structures and interactions, placing Tiwanaku as a nexus in a coordinating role within regional caravan networks. The strategic placement but ephemeral character of caravan stops leading southeast (Smith and Janusek 2014) and west (Briones 2006;Stanish et al. 2010) out of the altiplano give credence to models of self-administered caravan trade in conjunction with the corporate, multiethnic organization of the Tiwanaku state itself (Goldstein 2015;Janusek 2008). ...
Prehispanic Andean iconography communicated ideology and structures of power. On the coast, iconography depicting violence and fertility legitimized elite power. In Tiwanaku (A.D. 400–1100), such iconography is considered to have been absent. We re-examine the theme of the Sacrificer in Tiwanaku iconography that originated during the Formative period in the south-central Andes. This figure, which we term Tiwanaku Camelid Sacrificer (TCS), takes on a new appearance: a human-camelid body carrying a a trophy head or axe. The TCS imagery is often depicted on portable prestige objects, many of them found in the Tiwanaku hinterlands that relied economically and socially on caravans. We propose that the TCS represents aspects of Tiwanaku ritual and ontology, by which camelids and humans shared acts, essence, and form. The states of being (camay) and becoming (tucoy) embodied by the TCS testify to the unique positions of power camelids held over life in Tiwanaku’s agropastoralist society.
... Such timing correlates with the first domestication of the potato in the Lake Titicaca region around 7,000 years ago 537 rather than the end of the Tiahuanaco civilization in about 1000 CE(Browman 1978;Hawkes 1978; Brown and Henfling 538 2014; Rumolda and Aldenderfera 2016), and the start of the Inca civilization which ended abruptly following the Spanish 539 conquest in 1532 CE. The Inca empire eventually reached along the length of the Andes from modern day Colombia in 540 the north to modern day Chile in the South. ...
Biological characteristics of 11 Potato virus S (PVS) isolates from three cultivated potato species (Solanum spp.) growing in five Andean countries and 1 from Scotland differed in virulence depending on isolate and host species. Nine isolates infected Chenopodium quinoa systemically but two others and the Scottish isolate remained restricted to inoculated leaves; therefore, they belonged to biologically defined strains PVSA and PVSO, respectively. When nine wild potato species were inoculated, most developed symptomless systemic infection but Solanum megistacrolobum developed systemic hypersensitive resistance (SHR) with one PVSO and two PVSA isolates. Andean potato cultivars developed mostly asymptomatic primary infection but predominantly symptomatic secondary infection. In both wild and cultivated potato plants, PVSA and PVSO elicited similar foliage symptoms. Following graft inoculation, all except two PVSO isolates were detected in partially PVS-resistant cultivar Saco, while clone Snec 66/139-19 developed SHR with two isolates each of PVSA and PVSO. Myzus persicae transmitted all nine PVSA isolates but none of the three PVSO isolates. All 12 isolates were transmitted by plant-to-plant contact. In infective sap, all isolates had thermal inactivation points of 55 to 60°C. Longevities in vitro were 25 to 40 days with six PVSA isolates but less than 21 days for the three PVSO isolates. Dilution end points were 10⁻³ for two PVSO isolates but 10⁻⁴ to 10⁻⁶ with the other isolates. Complete new genome sequences were obtained from seven Andean PVS isolates; seven isolates from Africa, Australia, or Europe; and single isolates from S. muricatum and Arracacia xanthorhiza. These 17 new genomes and 23 from GenBank provided 40 unique sequences; however, 5 from Eurasia were recombinants. Phylogenetic analysis of the 35 nonrecombinants revealed three major lineages, two predominantly South American (SA) and evenly branched and one non-SA with a single long basal branch and many distal subdivisions. Using least squares dating and nucleotide sequences, the two nodes of the basal PVS trifurcation were dated at 1079 and 1055 Common Era (CE), the three midphylogeny nodes of the SA lineages at 1352, 1487, and 1537 CE, and the basal node to the non-SA lineage at 1837 CE. The Potato rough dwarf virus/Potato virus P (PVS/PRDV/PVP) cluster was sister to PVS and diverged 5,000 to 7,000 years ago. The non-SA PVS lineage contained 18 of 19 isolates from S. tuberosum subsp. tuberosum but the two SA lineages contained 6 from S. tuberosum subsp. andigena, 4 from S. phureja, 3 from S. tuberosum subsp. tuberosum, and 1 each from S. muricatum, S. curtilobum, and A. xanthorrhiza. This suggests that a potato-infecting proto-PVS/PRDV/PVP emerged in South America at least 5,000 years ago, became endemic, and diverged into a range of local Solanum spp. and other species, and one early lineage spread worldwide in potato. Preventing establishment of the SA lineages is advised for all countries still without them.
... Herd age profiles suggest that they were used as meat sources and were important sources of wool and likely dung. (Browman, 1978;Moore et al., 2007). ...
The Titicaca Basin of Peru and Bolivia has been occupied by humans for millennia and was home to one of the first major state societies in the Andes. Many foundations of state power, however, developed much earlier, during the Late Preceramic/Terminal Archaic Period (3000 – 1500 BC), when people initially began herding, marking territories, and creating new metallurgy technology. We present a skeletal analysis of 14 individuals dating between 3000 and 1500 BC from Muruqullu, an archaeological site on the Copacabana Peninsula of Bolivia. These are the first Preceramic burials documented for the peninsula and contribute to the relatively small sample of Preceramic bodies from the Andean highlands more broadly. From this sample, we suggest that highland foragers and early herders suffered little nutritional stress and had limited violent interactions, perhaps related to a relatively mobile lifestyle and utilization of lake resources. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
... The first instance of the Tiwanaku culture in the Iwawi sequence can be found in stratum IV dated to 600-725 CE (Burkholder, 1997). This site has been interpreted in many ways, as a port city that connected the Tiwanaku valley (Browman, 1978(Browman, , 1984, as a platform pyramid to guard the area (Kolata, 1986), and as a second order settlement (Albarracin-Jordan, 1999). The most recent interpretation of this site, based on stratigraphic data, concludes that the site historically was used as a residential community (Zarrillo, 2012). ...
... Otra hipotesis propone que un centro geograficamente intermedi o desarrollo lo s conceptos que permitieron expandirse primero a Wari y luego a Tiwanaku (Cook 1985;Isbell 1984;Isbell y Cook 1987). Finalmente, se plantea tambien que el comercio y el intercambio pueden haber provisto mec anismos de similitud en los estilos corporativos (Browman 1978(Browman , 1984, mientras algunos in vestigadores han sostenido que la unificacion imperial no fue 10 que caracterizo al Horizonte Medio, sino que mas bien fueron el comercio y el Fig. 3. ClIadro cronologico comparatil"o qlle reslIme la historia clIltllral de la region con relaciol1 a la cuenca del altiplano (de Goldstein 1989) . intercambio los que promovieron una iconografia compartida entre las numerosas y florecientes culturas regionales al final del Periodo Intermedio Temprano (Shady 1982(Shady , 1989. ...
... New centres replaced their Middle Formative predecessors and were often located further away from Lake Titicaca and nearby rivers. These centres exercised a wider political influence and their development was driven in part by the increasing importance of llama caravans, which circulated animals, people, objects and ideas regionally and inter-regionally (Browman 1978;Núñez Atencio & Dillehay 1995[1979; Bandy 2005). How did the social importance of the dead change during this time of increased mobility and population fluctuation? ...
Disposal of the dead in early societies frequently involved multiple stages of ritual and processing. At Khonkho Wankane in the Andes quicklime was used to reduce corpses to bones in a special circular structure at the centre of the site. The quicklime was obtained from solid white blocks of calcium oxide and was then mixed with water and applied to disarticulated body parts. A few plaster-covered bones were recovered from the structure but most had been removed from the site, possibly by itinerant llama caravans. Thus, Khonkho Wankane was a ritual centre to which the dead were brought for processing and then removed for final burial elsewhere.
... Any differences in patterns of activity between core and colony would be more indicative of differences in activities, such as raisedfield farming in the highlands and canal/riverine irrigation farming in the colony, but should not be statistically significant. producers -family groups working at production (Browman 1978(Browman , 1981Janusek 1999;2004a;Rivera 1994Rivera , 2003. Thus, the many sites within the city of Tiwanaku would reflect significantly different levels of labor and activity that have less to do with their being elites or working for elites, and more to do with embedded family guilds or barrios that grew up as the city evolved. ...
This dissertation focused on understanding labor during the development of Tiwanaku AD 500-1100, one of the earliest Andean states. Prior archaeological research Kolata 1991, 1993a, b; Stanish 1994, 2003 argued that Tiwanaku labor was centralized under a corvée mit'a system. Labor was controlled and distributed by elites living within the city of Tiwanaku under a hierarchical political organization Kolata 2003a. Other research e.g. Albarracín-Jordán 2003; Erickson 2006 argued that local and decentralized control of labor, with workforce cooperation and collaboration under a heterarchical political system, was an important factor to the state's emergence, formation, and expansion. The author interpreted bioarchaeological research on Tiwanaku skeletal remains in order to answer questions about the Tiwanaku workforce, possible agriculture or craft-based activities performed, workload levels, gendered division of labor, as well as the political structure of the state.
... The Taraco Peninsula of Bolivia is a jut of land that extends into the smaller body of water, called Lake Wiñaymarka (Fig. 1). Bolivian archaeologists have long recognized the region as a locus of early settlement, beginning around 1500 BC (Bennett, 1936;Browman, 1978;Janusek, 1994;Kidder, 1956;Mohr, 1966;Mohr Chavéz, 1988;Ponce Sanginés, 1970;Wallace, 1957). While early research on the peninsula focused on the mound at the proposed political center of Chiripa, little work was completed off of the mound or in the prehistory of the greater Taraco Peninsula. ...
In this paper, we examine the development of a Middle Formative (800–200 BC) village and a Late Formative (200 BC–AD 475) political center at the site of Kala Uyuni on the Taraco Peninsula, Bolivia. Traditional political economy models rely on the spatial distribution of archaeological sites documented through site survey to define and explain the appearance of political centers. Recent scholarship on ‘depositional histories’ offers a framework for interpreting the dynamic and contingent political histories of such places using rich, stratigraphically excavated data. Our approach sheds new light on the diversity of practices and internally complex political processes that contributed to the transformation of Kala Uyuni from village to political center. We argue that serious attention to such ‘depositional histories’ has the potential to transform larger archaeological narratives in the region, and contribute to a more subtle understanding of the development of political landscapes.
... The inclusion of local objects, local mortuary ceramics, and weaponry through the Middle Horizon suggests the maintenance of Atacameño traditions. Snuffing was an important ritual element in both the Tiwanaku and Atacameño cultures and may have been integral to Tiwanaku expansion and the prestige of local elites (Browman 1978;Kolata 1992). Similarly, local elites in San Pedro may have benefited from an association with Tiwanaku partly manifested through snuffing paraphernalia. ...
ABSTRACT Using a contextualized bioarchaeological framework, in this article, I examine the complex relationship between the Tiwanaku polity of the Bolivian altiplano (C.E. 550–1000) and the inhabitants of the San Pedro de Atacama oases of northern Chile, in Tiwanaku's far periphery. I focus on how influences from Tiwanaku might have affected the presentation of Atacameño group identity in the mortuary context. I compare skeletal and mortuary data from 300 individuals buried during the peak of Tiwanaku influence in the Atacama to assess mortuary context, trauma, and body modifications. Results suggest a complex response to Tiwanaku influence. Data from the grave and mortuary assemblage reveal traditional Atacameño tombs with occasional foreign objects. Evidence of increased traumatic injury suggests that this relationship was not without some conflict. Finally, the maintenance of bodily expressions of local identity indicates a society that used their bodies to mark Atacameño identity.
Este artículo presenta un análisis, con dos fechados radiocarbónicos, de la cerámica de la época Tiwanaku IV de Nazacara, una localidad situada a unos 45 kilómetros al sur de Tiwanaku. Al parecer, los primeros indicios de la cultura Tiwanaku aparecieron en Nazacara aproximadamente a partir de 400 d.C. No obstante, esta primera subfase no presenta cambios relevantes en el patrón de la alfarería tradicional. El cambio más significativo empezó alrededor de los años 550/600 d.C., cuando la cerámica pintada y las formas de la alfarería ceremonial y pública aumentan radicalmente y presentan rasgos casi puros del estilo Tiwanaku IV. Según el autor, esta segunda subfase probablemente significa la incorporación de Nazacara en el dominio del poder de la elite de Tiwanaku.
Se intenta formular una respuesta al problema de por qué surgió Tiwanaku. Entre 300 y 500 d.C., el sitio de Tiwanaku asumió un papel dominante dentro del paisaje social de la cuenca del Titicaca. La presente nota considera tres posibles explicaciones para el evento: 1) conquista, 2) intercambio interzonal, y 3) agricultura en campos elevados. Estas posibilidades se consideran en relación a datos de asentamientos arqueológicos que el autor ha recolectado de manera reciente.
In this first approximation, I discuss the current state of music archaeological knowledge about bamboo-made flutes on the pre-Hispanic Altiplano around Lake Titicaca, triangulating the very scarce archaeological evidence with ethnohistorical and botanical literature and my fieldwork among contemporary highland flute makers from Walata Grande (Omasuyos province, La Paz department). Departing from ethnographic experiences with these specialised flute makers, I delve deeper into the archaeology of musical bamboos on the pre-Hispanic Altiplano around Lake Titicaca. When have bamboos been more widely used in highland flute making on the pre-Hispanic Altiplano? Which musical transformations were generated? Which types of bamboos have been used in pre-Hispanic times? And where and how were these sourced? Moving the attention from finished flutes to bamboos allows me to articulate a “fresh perspective” (McClure, 1966) on the music archaeology of the Andean Altiplano, particularly of the pre-Hispanic Andean cultures of Tiwanaku (AD 100–1000) and ancient Aymaras (CE 1000–1470). Among other arguments, I suggest that the emergence of the now widespread “participatory tradition” (Turino, 2008) of Aymara Andean wind music had a decisive material factor: the expansion of musical bamboo use in highland flute making following the Middle Horizon (AD 600–1000) period.
Archaeologists working in the Late Formative Lake Titicaca Basin have identified several “transit communities”—villages that benefited from long-distance exchange. Some scholars suggest that such places played a key role in the development of the Middle Horizon city of Tiwanaku. In this article, we explore the movement of plant goods into transit communities during both the Late Formative (300 BC–AD 500) and Middle Horizon (AD 600–1100) periods. After presenting the current understanding of transit communities, we summarize previous work on both local plants, including tubers and quinoa, and the presence of maize. We then report on a recent microbotanical study of ceramics recovered from excavations at Late Formative Challapata (in the eastern basin) and a burial from the Middle Horizon occupation at Chiripa (in the southern basin). For the first time we identify lowland tubers in the Lake Titicaca Basin, including yuca, sweet potato, and arrowroot. These findings reveal the critical importance of microbotanical analyses for tracing regional connections and foodways in emergent Middle Horizon worlds, as well as the need for more complex interpretive models for things/plants-in-motion.
Potato virus X (PVX) occurs worldwide and causes an important potato disease. Complete PVX genomes were obtained from 326 new isolates from Peru, which is within the potato crop′s main domestication center, 10 from historical PVX isolates from the Andes (Bolivia, Peru) or Europe (UK), and three from Africa (Burundi). Concatenated open reading frames (ORFs) from these genomes plus 49 published genomic sequences were analyzed. Only 18 of them were recombinants, 17 of them Peruvian. A phylogeny of the non-recombinant sequences found two major (I, II) and five minor (I-1, I-2, II-1, II-2, II-3) phylogroups, which included 12 statistically supported clusters. Analysis of 488 coat protein (CP) gene sequences, including 128 published previously, gave a completely congruent phylogeny. Among the minor phylogroups, I-2 and II-3 only contained Andean isolates, I-1 and II-2 were of both Andean and other isolates, but all of the three II-1 isolates were European. I-1, I-2, II-1 and II-2 all contained biologically typed isolates. Population genetic and dating analyses indicated that PVX emerged after potato’s domestication 9000 years ago and was transported to Europe after the 15th century. Major clusters A–D probably resulted from expansions that occurred soon after the potato late-blight pandemic of the mid-19th century. Genetic comparisons of the PVX populations of different Peruvian Departments found similarities between those linked by local transport of seed potato tubers for summer rain-watered highland crops, and those linked to winter-irrigated crops in nearby coastal Departments. Comparisons also showed that, although the Andean PVX population was diverse and evolving neutrally, its spread to Europe and then elsewhere involved population expansion. PVX forms a basal Potexvirus genus lineage but its immediate progenitor is unknown. Establishing whether PVX′s entirely Andean phylogroups I-2 and II-3 and its Andean recombinants threaten potato production elsewhere requires future biological studies.
This thesis examines the construction of ethnic identity, autonomy and indigenous citizenship in plurinational Bolivia. In 2009, the Kallawayas, an Andean indigenous nation, took advantage of legislation in Bolivia’s new constitution to begin a process of legally constituting themselves as autonomous from the state. The objective of Indigenous Autonomy in the constitution is to allow indigenous nations and peoples to govern themselves according to their conceptions of ‘Living Well’. Living well, for the Kallawayas is understood in terms of what it means to be runa, a person living in the ayllu (the traditional Andean community). The Kallawayas are noted as healers, and sickness and health is understood as related to the maintenance of a ritual relationship of reciprocity with others in the ayllu, both living humans and ancestors, remembered in the landscape. Joint ritual relations with the landscape play an important role in joining disparate Kallawaya ayllus with distinct traditions and languages (Aymara, Quechua and the Kallawaya language Macha Jujay are spoken) together as an ethnic group. However, Kallawaya politics has followed the trajectory of national peasant politics in recent decades of splitting into federations divided along class and ethnic lines. The joint ritual practices which traditionally connected the Kallawaya ayllus adapted to reflect this new situation of division between three sections of Kallawaya society. This has meant that the Kallawayas are attempting political autonomy as an ethnic group when they have never been more fractured. This thesis then examines the meaning of autonomy and the Good Life for a politically divided and ethnically diverse indigenous people.
Research on San Pedro's local wares (Late Formative and Middle periods) has tended to favor stylistic analysis of pottery from mortuary contexts to construct chronological sequences. Little is known about systems of production of domestic wares, or about their social implications. This study uses complementary macroscopic, petrographic, and elemental data to contribute to the understanding of the production and technological patterns of ceramics in the domestic context of Coyo Aldea (San Pedro de Atacama, Chile) through the study of polished vessels. The results show highly homogeneous pastes, contrasting with the variability of surface colors of three wares. In addition, the results indicate that all types of polished wares were locally manufactured following a shared ceramic technological style, reflected in paste homogeneity. This study contributes to a better understanding of the means of production as we provide new data on raw material uses and technological styles as part of the operational sequence of production.
Drawing upon institutional theory within the context of emerging markets, we argue that the defining characteristics and outcomes of large-scale first-order events will be replicated in smaller-scale events. This chapter discusses the major findings of this case, suggesting that a number of outcomes and legacies reported in first-order SMEs also occurred in the South American Games. The three most salient outcomes identified in the Games included the direct tangible legacies for the sporting community, the capacity of the local organizing committee to deal with organizational complexity, and the capacity building that resulted from organizing this event. The use of institutional theory seems a plausible theoretical framework for future studies aiming to understand the dynamics that follow second- and third-order events in mimicking first-order SMEs.
Why can’t a Quechua speaker wear pants? Anna M. Babel uses this question to open an analysis of language and social structure at the border of eastern and western, highland and lowland Bolivia. Through an exploration of categories such as political affiliation, ethnic identity, style of dress, and history of migration, she describes the ways that people understand themselves and others as Quechua speakers, Spanish speakers, or something in between. Between the Andes and the Amazon is ethnography in storytelling form, a rigorous yet sensitive exploration of how people understand themselves and others as members of social groups through the words and languages they use. Drawing on fifteen years of ethnographic research, Babel offers a close examination of how people produce oppositions, even as they might position themselves “in between” those categories. These oppositions form the raw material of the social system that people accept as “normal” or “the way things are.” Meaning-making happens through language use and language play, Babel explains, and the practice of using Spanish versus Quechua is a claim to an identity or a social position. Babel gives personal perspectives on what it is like to live in this community, focusing on her own experiences and those of her key consultants. Between the Andes and the Amazon opens new ways of thinking about what it means to be a speaker of an indigenous or colonial language-or a mix of both.
Understanding how work was managed and who participated in state-level societies can help elucidate daily activities as well as community development within an emerging complex society. Tiwanaku, with multiethnic neighborhoods in the Titicaca Basin, Bolivia and colonies near present-day Moquegua, Peru, provides a comparison of labor between groups. Specific skeletal evidence of activity (i.e., musculoskeletal stress markers and osteoarthritis) was evaluated to infer how habitual activity varied within this state. Labor rates show that laborers did not work at the behest of elites and results suggest instead, that people worked as reciprocal laborers in a guild-like system.
This book is a study of the ways places are created and how they attain meaning. Smith presents archaeological data from Khonkho Wankane in the southern Lake Titicaca basin of Bolivia to explore how landscapes were imagined and constructed during processes of political centralization in this region. In particular he examines landscapes of movement and the development of powerful political and religious centers during the Late Formative period (200 BC-AD 500), just before the emergence of the urban state centered at Tiwanaku (AD 500-1100). Late Formative politico-religious centers, Smith notes, were characterized by mobile populations of agropastoralists and caravan drovers. By exploring ritual practice at Late Formative settlements, Smith provides a new way of looking at political centralization, incipient urbanism, and state formation at Tiwanaku. © 2016 by the University of New Mexico Press. All rights reserved.
Recent studies have advanced our understanding of the prehistoric culture-history, socio-political dynamics, and economic systems of the Middle Horizon Tiwanaku civilization (Kolata, i.p.; Kolata and Rivera 1989; Kolata, Stanish, and Rivera 1987). During the past two decades, three major models have been developed to explain Tiwanaku’s evolution from incipient complex society to expansionist state in the southern Andean region (Figure 1). Two of these, John Murra’s “vertical archipelago” (Murra 1975, 1980) and David Browman’s “altiplano mode of production” are based on the premise that the Andean altiplano cannot support large, dense populations and complex societies. The third, Alan Kolata’s agricultural production model, holds that using an indigenous agricultural technology, the altiplano near Lake Titicaca can be exploited in such a way as to sustain large populations.
Now including numerous full colour figures, this updated and revised edition of Larsen's classic text provides a comprehensive overview of the fundamentals of bioarchaeology. Reflecting the enormous advances made in the field over the past twenty years, the author examines how this discipline has matured and evolved in fundamental ways. Jargon free and richly illustrated, the text is accompanied by copious case studies and references to underscore the central role that human remains play in the interpretation of life events and conditions of past and modern cultures. From the origins and spread of infectious disease to the consequences of decisions made by humans with regard to the kinds of foods produced, and their nutritional, health and behavioral outcomes. With local, regional, and global perspectives, this up-to-date text provides a solid foundation for all those working in the field.
Since the Formative times, maize is and has been a highly valued social commodity in the Andes, particularly in the form of a traditional beer called chicha. While chicha production is well attested in the archaeology and ethnohistory of Andean states, the emergence of
maize symbolism in earlier societies has not been systematically addressed. In this study phytolith and starch grain analyses are used to trace production, processing, and consumption of maize at sites on the Taraco Peninsula of Bolivia and thus the entrance of maize into the region. We systematically
examine the role of maize by addressing its rarity, use contexts, and preparation. The pattern of plant part representation and use suggest that maize was being consumed in the form of chicha at its earliest introduction to the Titicaca Basin (800–250 B.C.). Drinking of alcohol
in ceremonial spaces embodies the process of commensality of public ceremony and the establishment of reciprocal relationships during the Formative period. These results demonstrate that contextual analysis of microbotanical remains has great potential to answer anthropological questions surrounding
food, ritual, and identity.
Ongoing debate about the expansion of the Tiwanaku state has centred on the extent to which it exercised direct political control over a continuous territory. Positions in this debate range from those that posit a unified Tiwanaku heartland comprising much of the Lake Titicaca Basin to those that conceptualize Tiwanaku influence as more circumscribed, and perhaps limited to the city itself. We engage this debate by assessing evidence for Tiwanaku expansion into the upper Desaguadero Valley, a region often argued to have been within the core area of Tiwanaku control. We present new evidence from four sites: Khonkho Wankane, Iruhito, Cerro Chijcha and Nazacara. These data suggest that Tiwanaku political influence was selective and focused on developing relationships with riverine communities in order to gain access to caravan circuits. Rather than a core area of continuous control, these processes created a shifting political mosaic rooted in fluid politico-religious webs.
Tiwanaku was an important center of Andean civilization from AD 500 to AD 1000. Its urban inhabitants had access to exotic lithic raw materials, including obsidian. Samples from three obsidian quarries, 147 obsidian artifacts from eight different sectors in the prehistoric city of Tiwanaku, and 33 obsidian artifacts from seven other locations within the Titicaca Basin region were analyzed by neutron activation analysis and X-ray fluorescence. The new data were compared to the MURR (University of Missouri Research Reactor) database and artifacts were traced to known sources in Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina. Chemical abundance data are presented for several new obsidian source types. In addition, evidence is presented that the inhabitants of Tiwanaku used obsidian from a large number of sources, some brought from very distant regions located outside of the Tiwanaku state sphere. Most samples analyzed were traced to the Chivay source in southern Peru, but a total of 11 other sources were present as well, mostly in non-elite areas. Here we compare obsidian access by elite, eliterelated, and non-elite groups, as well as that present in two ceremonial structures, and we suggest that while the Tiwanaku elites obtained and distributed Chivay obsidian, and used for themselves materials from this source exclusively, non-elite groups obtained materials from other sources through local networks.
Archaeologists and historians have long been keenly interested in the emergence of early cities and states in the ancient Near East, particularly in the growth of early Sumerian civilization in the lowlands of Mesopotamia during the second half of the fourth millennium B.C. Most scholars have focused on the internal transformations attending this process, such as the development of new forms of spatial organization, socio-political relationships, and economic arrangements. In The Uruk World System, Guillermo Algaze concentrates instead on the unprecedented and wide-ranging process of external expansion that coincided with the rapid initial crystallization of Mesopotamian civilization. He contends that the rise of early Sumerian polities cannot be understood without also taking into account developments in surrounding peripheral areas. Algaze reviews an extensive body of archaeological evidence for cross-cultural exchange between the nascent city-states in the Mesopotamian lowlands and communities in immediately surrounding areas. He shows that at their very inception the more highly integrated lowland centers succeeded in establishing a variety of isolated, far-flung outposts in areas at the periphery of the Mesopotamian lowlands. Embedded in an alien hinterland characterized by demonstrably less complex societies, the outposts were commonly established at the apex of preexisting regional settlement hierarchies and invariably at focal nodes astride important trade routes. Algaze argues that these early colonial out-posts served as collection points for coveted peripheral resources acquired in exchange for core manufactures and that they reflect an inherently asymmetrical system of economic hegemony that extended far beyond areas under the direct political control of Sumerian polities in southern Mesopotamia. From this he concludes that economic exploitation of less developed peripheral areas was integral to the earliest development of civilization in the ancient Near East.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.