Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0043/00434.txt

Text File | 1991-06-24 | 32KB | 506 lines

$Unique_ID{COW00434}
$Pretitle{266}
$Title{Bolivia
Pre-Columbian Cultures of Bolivia}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Amy Oakland Rodman}
$Affiliation{Embassy of Bolivia, Washington DC}
$Subject{tiwanaku
altiplano
stone
early
discovered
ceramics
aymara
carved
ceramic
known}
$Date{1989}
$Log{}
Country:     Bolivia
Book:        The Cultural Guide of Bolivia
Author:      Amy Oakland Rodman
Affiliation: Embassy of Bolivia, Washington DC
Date:        1989

Pre-Columbian Cultures of Bolivia

     In one of Bolivia's early sites called Viscachani, an unusual quantity of
early point types have been preserved close to the surface. In 1954,
archaeologist Dick Edgar Ibarra Grasso discovered and recorded more than
12,000 individual examples. Similar lithic material has been reported in
Bolivia near Oruro, Lipez, Potosi, Villa-Villa and Cliza in Cochabamba, and
La Candelaria in Chuquisaca.

     Because preservation  of perishable artifacts is virtually impossible in
the Altiplano due to the severe climatic changes and soil conditions, we know
very little of the material remains of these early people and even less about
their spiritual life.

     To attempt any cultural reconstruction one must try to reconstruct from
the non-perishable objects that remain, especially those perishable objects
which were essential to the lifestyle. The almost indestructible projectile
points must have been lashed with fiber cords to wooden spear throwers, to
arrow shafts or long wooden spears. Extra points were held ready for use in
small bags of knotted fiber cordage or in looped nets. Hats and simple
garments may have been formed from leather pelts or of knotted, interlinked
or looped fiber textiles. Wherever preserved, the remarkable variety of early
fabric structures shows a highly developed technology, one that played a large
part in human environmental adaptation, and one that became the first major
Andean art form. Simple, non-woven textile techniques perfected during these
early periods continue to be used today in the form of basketry and netting.
In some tropical areas east of the Andes the identical structures are today
shaped into bags, hats and carrying straps. The designs produced by the
structures of these non-woven techniques were an important influence in the
iconography of later loom woven fabrics. Undoubtedly, in the Altiplano, the
major fiber source was the hair of the wild camelid herds.

     In succeeding millennia, a process of collecting native grains and tubers
was slowly developed in  the Altiplano and within inter-mountain valleys.
Early man followed a seasonal cycle of hunting and gathering around the lake
borders and traveling to the eastern valleys and the desert coast of southern
Peru and northern Chile. Evidence dating to around B.C. 4,000 attests to the
collection of quinua and perhaps the b eginning of settled agricultural life
coupled with pastoral activities. One of the most important aspects of early
life in the Altiplano was the domestication of the llama and the alpaca. Early
camelid pasturing centering around the Lake Titicaca basin, developed in
conjunction with arable farming, proved to be the successful combination the
gave rise to the great Andean civilizations.

     To understand the importance of the llama to Altiplano people one has
only to view the hundreds of carved stone llama heads remaining from sites
attributed to Wankarani villages. The mounds have been formed by continuous
occupation  of collapsed adobe constructions built within the confines of a
large adobe wall. Circular Wankarani houses with thached straw roofs were
clustered inside the walled compound. As houses became obsolete, they were
simply tumbled to the earth and others built on top. Some settlements were
quite small with about 15 house structures, while a few others contained over
780 units suggesting a population  of over 3,000 inhabitants. Although none
have been found in place, the form of the stone llama heads suggests that they
were tenoned horizontally or vertically into walls. The large ears and squared
eyes and mouth are prominent features. The llama provided protein to
supplement a diet of grains and tubers and was valued for its wool and its
capacity as a beast of burden. Llama dung was used as fertilizer in
agricultural fields and was perhaps the valued fuel in kilnfired ceramics, as
it is still used today for high altitude firing.

     In addition to stone, ceramics are also major cultural markers used by
archaeologists. Wanakarani ceramics have simple shapes without design or
applied colors. In clay, as in stone, the Wankarani people shaped heads of
Ilamas. These are the only artistic products to survive the culture.

     Perhaps the most important feature discovered in Wankarani sites is
evidence of copper smelting in the earliest occupation levels around B.C.
1200 to 800. These dates are among the earliest in the Andes associated with
metal working and are contemporaneous with other metal-using cultures of Chile
and Peru.

Chiripa

     At about the same time, around B.C. 1000, the cultural complex known as
Chiripa developed around the southern shores of Lake Titicaca. Additional
sites attributed to the Chiripa culture are found on the Copacabana peninsula
and as far south as the Moquegua Valley in southern Peru. The archaeological
remains at Chiripa offer a fundamentally different view of early settled
Altiplano life. The large mound visible today at Chiripa was formed
artificially and faced with stone, perhaps an intentional imitation of the
Andean mountain peaks visible in the landscape. In contrast to the scattered
round houses of Wankarani, Chiripa houses were carefully arranged around a
central courtyard. Their form was architecturally exact, square, with double
walls perhaps used for storage, and they were dug into the mound's surface
forming subterranean structures. Sometime between B.C. 500-100 the central
plaza was renovated. A subterranean temple became the new religious focus with
a facing of elaborately carved stone wall plaques. Stone stelae also carved
with religious motifs of snakes and human or deity representations were
erected in the central open space.

     The classic Chiripa art style is evident in the iconography carved into
one stone panel now housed in the Museo Nacional de Arqueologia in La Paz and
a similar one found near Copacabana. In both, a central face is surrounded by
scroll and arrow motifs facing the cardinal directions. Llama figures fill the
central side space and undulating snakes or cross designs fill the four
corners. Each is carefully executed in shallow relief carving. The bilateral
symmetry of the entire image and the two feet projecting above and below the
central face are evidence of the duality understood in the social and
religious life, the forces of male and female in the natural world and perhaps
even the divided leadership which would become common in the later Aymara
populations. The entire mound was undoubtedly considered a sacred precinct and
was reused later as a temple by the Tiwanaku culture and in the same capacity
by the Incas. The execution of these monumental architectural embellishments
is exquisite. It is probable that the stone carving tradition for which the
Bolivian Altiplano is famous had roots in the Chiripa and Wankarani cultures.

     Exotic artifacts traded into the Altiplano such as metals and
semi-precious stones found at many Chiripa sites suggest a connection with
areas outside of the Altiplano such as the Cochabamba valley or the desert
coast of Peru and Chile. Textiles, perhaps related to the Chiripa cultures,
have been discovered near Arica, Chile. These fabrics are known in Chile as
part of "Alto Ramirez", a culture with close ties to the Altiplano, especially
visible in the designs woven into interlocked tapestry blankets and tunic
borders. Llamas are portrayed in profile with rayed deity faces and mountain
images. Other important figures are designs of toads, perhaps water symbols,
divided into four sections. The tunics wer