Archaeologists Found a Lost Temple From a Civilization That Vanished 1,000 Years Ago

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The discovery of an ancient Tiwanaku temple in Bolivia is helping researchers paint a more complete picture of what the society once looked like.
The Tiwanaku civilization was considered one of the continent’s most powerful civilizations at its height.
It mysteriously collapsed around 1000 A.D., and was in ruins by the 15^th century.

Researchers discovered ancient temple ruins in modern-day Bolivia that may help us to better understand the mysterious fall of the Tiwanaku civilization—once one of the most powerful in South America.

The international team of researchers scoured the Andes and found a temple complex roughly 130 miles south of Tiwanaku’s established historical site on the top of a hill. In a study published in Antiquity, the team wrote that the temple discovery could provide new details about the civilization, which was one of the first in the Andes and a powerful precursor to the Inca empire—until, that is, it mysteriously vanished about a thousand years ago.

“Their society collapsed sometime around 1000 A.D. and was a ruin by the time the Incas conquered the Andes in the 15^th century,” Jose Capriles, Penn State associate professor of anthropology and the study’s lead author, said in a statement. “At its peak, it boasted a highly organized societal structure, leaving behind remnants of architectural monuments like pyramids, terraced temples, and monoliths, most of which are distributed in sites around Lake Titicaca and, while we know Tiwanaku’s control and influence extended much further, scholars debate how much actual control over distant places it had.”

Searching over 100 miles from what was considered the center of Tiwanaku land mades sense when looking at the history, Capriles said. During the height of the civilization, the unassuming hill location on which the complex was found connected three main trade routes: from the productive highlands to the northern, the arid western, and the agriculturally rich eastern Andean valleys. Capriles said that people moved, traded, and built monuments in places of significance all throughout the arid mountain landscape.

Once the team found an unmapped quadrangular plot of land, they started searching more diligently. “Because the features are very faint, we blended various satellite images together,” Capriles said. Using photogrammetry via unmanned aerial vehicle to create a 3D approximation, the researchers spot stone alignments that revealed an ancient temple 410 feet long by 475 feet wide (roughly the size of a city block).

According to the study, the site included a large, modular building with an integrated, sunken courtyard. “The complex represents a gateway node that effectively materialized the power and influence of the Tiwanaku state,” the authors wrote. The layout also aligns with solar equinox rituals.

On the ground, the team found numerous fragments of keru cups, which were used for drinking the traditional chicha (maize beer) during feasts and celebrations. The maize was not local, and was cultivated in the Cochabamba valleys to the east—not the high-altitude temple location. The find showcases the site’s importance as a central hub for trade.

Capriles said that the temple likely also served a religious purpose, which would have been common for the day. “Most economic and political transactions had to be mediated through divinity, because that would be a common language that would facilitate various individuals cooperating,” he said.

Ventura Guaravo—the mayor of Caracollo, where the site is located—said in a statement that the archaeological findings offer a view of local heritage that has been overlooked. The city is working with state and national authorities to ensure preservation and protection of the complex.

“With more insight into the past of this ancient site, we get a window into how people managed cooperation, and how we can materially see evidence of political and economic control,” Capriles said. “There’s still so much to discover that we don’t know about, and that could be hiding in plain sight.”

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