The Middle Horizon: the mature Tiwanaku state

The focus of this study is the Formative Period, and its demographic, political and economic processes. These have been discussed in some detail in the previous three chapters. Settlement data were of course collected for the post-Formative periods, as well. These data pertaining to later time periods will be presented in Chapters 8 through 10. However, their presentation will of necessity be abbreviated relative to the treatments of the Formative Period phases. A complete review of issues relating to the Middle Horizon, Late Intermediate Period and Late Horizon lies beyond the scope of this thesis.

The last chapter concluded with the observation that at some point during the LF2 the Tiwanaku polity achieved a definitive regional preeminence, coming to dominate other polities such as the Taraco Peninsula polity. A century or two after this occurrence, the ceramic, textile architectural and sculptural styles of Tiwanaku underwent a radical transformation. The change in ceramic styles has been described by Janusek and Kolata as follows:

Ceramic patterns changed dramatically at the beginning of the Tiwanaku Period. Most notable was the adoption of red and black-slipped vessels by inhabitants of all sites in the Katari valley ... These included a wide variety of serving and ceremonial forms ... such as keros, tazones, and sahumadores. In addition, large tinaja storage vessels appeared, most made of durable orange paste, and they composed significant proportions of ceramic assemblages at all sites. The widespread distribution and use of elaborate decorated wares contrasted sharply with the Late Formative. The appearance of entirely new ceramic assemblages marked the adoption of entirely new technologies of manufacture, keyed to new daily practices and ideals ... Dramatic shifts in technology and in the widespread distribution of Tiwanaku-style vessels indicate that considerable changes in regional sociopolitical and economic patterns were afoot. ([Janusek and Kolata 2002])

Just what these regional sociopolitical and economic changes might have been remains, of course, a mystery. Kolata proposes that at this time ``Tiwanaku's growing economic and political power transformed it from a locally-dominant force into an aggressive, predatory state with a penchant for territorial expansion'' ([Kolata 1993]: 243). This may be. It would at any rate appear that a dramatic reorganization of the Tiwanaku polity took place around 500 A.D., and that this reorganization, whatever its specific motivation or character, produced the changes we see in the various types of material culture at the site and within its sphere of influence.

One of the domains of material culture which was dramatically affected was that of decorated ceramics. In the Late Formative decorated ceramics were quite rare and their distribution highly restricted. They seem to have been strictly associated with local and regional elites. In the Tiwanaku Period, by contrast, certain kinds of decorated ceramics - often displaying state-associated iconographic elements - achieved a level of ubiquity rarely witnessed in prehistoric states. These vessels - principally keros and tazones, two varieties of flaring cup - are found in mortuary and domestic contexts representing all strata of society; access to them seems to have been almost universal. This has the happy effect of making surface identification of Tiwanaku period occupations a straightforward affair, as explained in the following section. Also, though, this same ubiquity implies a more direct connection between the Tiwanaku state apparatus and the commoner population itself. In other words, the state may have been attempting to reduce the importance of regional elites, such as - say - those of the old Taraco Peninsula polity. This suggestion finds unexpected support in the settlement analysis, as I discuss later in this chapter.