For the Inca and the first Spanish explorers, Tiwanaku was a magnificent and magical place with temples and gods. The Incas told the Spaniards that their ancestors came from here, implying that this blood relationship gave them the power to rule the Andes. Archaeologists have not yet determined whether this Incas statement on the heritage is really valid. Researchers say their desire to establish contact with Tiwanaku fully illustrates the importance of the Tiwanaku people.
Archaeologist Alexei Runnich of the University of Pennsylvania said: “Everyone in the Andes knows Tiwanaku.” He is now excavating a Tiwanaku temple called Puma Pongu. “This temple is a place of great religious significance and the center of pilgrimage. It attracts people to Tiwanaku.” He added.
Runnici was a young man with a square chin, and the scholar was serious. The two of us climbed about 800 meters, and then walked towards the ancient temple of Puma Pang. In the era of Tiwanaku, pilgrims might have trekked from the shore of Lake Titicaca, passing through the most sacred place in the Andes. According to the religious beliefs in the Andes, the Creator emerged from the water and then created the earth and human beings. The ruins of small temples and temples built around the lake date back to 700 BC. Researchers believe that Tiwanaku was originally one of these religious centers. In the 6th century AD, perhaps because the lake was at the center in the Andean mythology, or because the Tiwanaku regime gradually became stronger, Tiwanaku became the main pilgrimage center. These pilgrims traveled possible reed raft ride
across the blue lake green, then run like Niqi like me, walk east, across the grass on the plateau, blue and white peak travel toward the Andes. For most pilgrims, the highest peak on the journey, Mount Yiimani, guides them like a light. Runnici said: “Mount Yiimani is their most sacred mountain. They believe that many ancestors have been there and died there.”
Along the pilgrimage road, at a certain point, Mount Yiimani suddenly disappeared from people’s sight, replaced by the ancient Puma Peng Temple, which is a pyramid-shaped temple with a flat roof. The Wanaku people built it with mud and stone. Now, most of the temple is in ruins. Its huge stone slabs are placed diagonally on the ground, as if they were knocked to the ground by a wayward giant. However, during the ancient pilgrimage, there is no trace of stone carving craftsmanship. Therefore, Runnici envisioned that the temple walls were completely covered with gold foil and silver sheets and colorful textiles studded with precious stones and gold beads; the temple floor was painted with brightly colored deep red, blue and green paint.
Hallucinogenic plants, drug paraphernalia and snuff have been found at the Tiwanaku site. Recently, another archaeologist unearthed the mummy of a clergyman with hallucinogens and drugs in his pockets.
Runnici believes that the architects of Tiwanaku knew what they were doing when they chose the location of the temple to hide the mountains. “They know what kind of influence the temple has, and that is the sudden disappearance of Mount Yimani in view.” He said, “This is an optical illusion they created.”
Only when you climb the last steps to reach the temple The mountain peaks will reappear when they are on top of the platform, they are blue-white and gleaming.
”Now look around,” Run Niqi said, “Illimani in front of us, of Lake Titicaca in our back, according to residents of the Andean cosmology, this is really a meeting place of heaven and earth.”
Puma Penggu is the only temple with multiple shrines and exquisite courtyards decorated with stone statues and carvings. A moat surrounds this religious center, and a small temple building is the center of the island to form a miniature lake. University of Chicago archaeologist Allen Kratt said: “They completely changed the natural landscape and integrated it with their own religious beliefs.” Allen has been directing excavations in Tiwanaku since the late 1970s. .
The central temple called “Akapana” has seven floors, and its structure is obviously similar to that of the nearby Chimusachata Mountain. In order to make the temple more like a mountain, the Tiwanaku people drilled holes in Akapana and laid drainage pipes so that every year when the rainy season comes, rainwater will rumbling through the temple. Klat said: “This is a symbol of the circulatory system of the universe.” He thought that when the water roared through the mountain temple, the Tiwanaku might be performing fertility or other rituals.
Other ceremonies are more cold. Like the Warri people, the Tiwanaku people are also very cruel, and they celebrate victory by offering sacrifices to them. In Akapana, the dismembered remains can still be found, perhaps some are the mummies of their enemy’s ancestors, and some are soldiers captured in battle. Like the Warri, Tiwanaku’s pottery is horribly decorated. Warriors wearing puma masks are holding cut heads in their hands. Around their waists are belts made of prisoners’ heads. These heads stretch out. Tongue, rolling eyes.
In the heyday between 700 and 1000 AD, the Tiwanaku people controlled almost the entire Lake Titicaca basin and the land in southeastern Bolivia and southwestern Chile today. Like the Warri people, the Tiwanaku people, as first-class engineers and farmers, turned the open and flowing valley of the Katari River into Lake Titicaca into the granary of their capital, and irrigated 78 square kilometers with canals all over. In the valleys, corn, potatoes, quinoa and other crops are grown. Archaeologist John Genesek of Vanderbilt University, who has excavated residential areas near Tiwanaku, said: “They actually changed the course of the river so that it passed directly through the valley.” Today, ancient ascents The remains of the riverbed are still visible, and the river flows down the valley, which is caused by the Tiwanaku people’s project.
Obviously, the Tiwanaku people need a lot of corn, potatoes, and coca to feed the pilgrims who flock to them and impress them. Genasek said: “This seems to be the main motivation for their expansion.” Archaeologists still don’t know whether the Tiwanakus have forcibly moved their villages like the Wari, but they confirm that the Tiwanakus have a more open In society, the city where various ceremonies are held is not strictly controlled like the Pikilakta in Warri.
Deborah Blom said: “Tiwanaku is a very cosmopolitan city and it draws people there.” She carefully compared the two skulls found in Tiwanaku side by side. As a physical anthropologist at the University of Vermont, she is studying the population migration of the ancient empire and found that people from all over are welcome here. Two skulls illustrate this point vividly.
”People from different Tiwanaku territories have different skulls,” Blom said. “They tie a rope or board to the baby’s head to make the baby’s head a special shape.” After adulthood, they will Wear a hat that fits your unique skull shape. The skull on Blom’s hand was long and tubular, reminiscent of a volcanic mountain, maybe changed a little to make it more like it; the other skull was flat front and back with raised sides. Blom said: “The tubular head comes from people on the east side of the lake, and the flat head comes from the Moquegua people near the southern coast of Peru.” Based on genetic studies, they appear to have moved here. Blom has not found any settlers from Warri (their skulls are only flat on the back).
The Wari and Tiwanaku may not have intermarried, but there is no evidence that they are in a hostile relationship. Both countries have colonies in Moquegua, which is a warm area suitable for growing corn, but there is no sign of fighting there. “At that time, those colonies were larger and more important places.” Schreiber said, “They must be connected to each other, but we don’t know how to connect.”
Researchers are still studying the two kingdoms. history. Some people think that Wari is the first to disintegrate; others think that Tiwanaku disintegrates first. Did one conquer the other, or did a drought defeat two countries? Whatever the reason, the two empires clearly ended suddenly. In Cannes Pata, one day, the potters put down their tools and left, perhaps driven away by some unknown invaders. In Tiwanaku, the masons stopped their monumental construction project. The temple was unfinished, and several huge Andean rocks were abandoned on the banks of Lake Titicaca. They are lying on the grass now, like huge stranded whales.
However, in the South American Andes, certain things created by the Warri and Tiwanaku people have not completely disappeared, such as imperial thought. 400 years later, it was on the basis of the empire they established that the Inca revival occurred.
