Archaeological Research on the Islands of the Sun and Moon, Lake Titicaca, Bolivia: Final Results of the Proyecto Tiksi Kjarka by Brian S. Bauer, Charles Stanish, B. S. Bauer

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In 1994, almost 100 years after the first systematic archaeological research by Adolph Bandelier, Charles Stanish and Brian Bauer began work on the Islands of the Sun and Moon in southern Lake Titicaca. The Proyecto Tiksi Kjarka conducted a complete surface survey of the islands along with test excavations of important Inca, Tiwanaku, and pre-Tiwanaku sites. This book provides the final results of this work on one of the most important locations in the circum-Titicaca Basin. Proyecto Tiksi Kjarka discovered that people have inhabited the Island of the Sun since at least 4000 years ago. The work documents a continuous occupation of human settlement from this Late Archaic period up through the present. There was a substantial pre-Tiwanaku culture, contemporary with Chiripa on the mainland, known as Titinhuayani. This autonomous culture preceded the occupation of the islands by the Tiwanaku state circa AD 650. Tiwanaku established a firm political and ritual presence on the island, as described in detail by Matthew Seddon in his meticulous description of his excavations at the site of Chucaripupata on the Island of the Sun. The Inca period occupation saw both the Islands of the Sun and Moon converted into a panregional pilgrimage center as important as Pachacamac on the Peruvian coast. This book provides detailed survey and excavation data indispensable for Andeanists and other scholars interested in the development of complex political, economic, and ritual systems in prehistory.

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