Discussion

In short, the stability of the Taraco Peninsula settlement system in the Tiwanaku period contrasts with the total reorganization experienced by the Tiwanaku Valley and Katari Basin settlement systems at this time. The latter systems were completely revolutionized by raised field agriculture. The Taraco Peninsula system was not. It retained the basic structure that originated in the LF1, with the community boundaries and principal villages essentially unchanged from the MF. This difference would seem to suggest that the Taraco Peninsula was integrated into the Tiwanaku state and economy in very different way from the other areas of the core region. This statement is necessarily vague; I can be no more specific. Were the Taraco Peninsula communities involved in raised field production in the Tiwanaku Valley and the Pampa Koani? Or were their state labor obligations of a wholly different nature, involving dryland agriculture or non-agricultural activities? The question of the peninsula's relation to adjacent areas, and the nature of Tiwanaku state tribute extraction, clearly merits further research.