The Titicaca basin sits at the northern end of the expansive altiplano high plains, straddling the highland border of modern Peru and Bolivia. The grasslands are excellent for herding and are also arable along the lakeshore, being a center of tuber production and the font of the domestic Chenopodium and the potato. The lake is full of edible fish as well as having a range of useful waterweeds and reeds along the lakeshore. Early human evidence suggests foraging, hunting, fishing, and birding were all productive subsistence strategies. When these activities began in the area is not firmly known, but there are solid dates for foragers by 4000 BC.
At around 1500 BC archaeologists can see evidence of the earliest settlements, small ceremonial centers, and the onset of territoriality. The term Formative is used to encompass these changes in lifeways from the preceding foraging era. The Formative Period [Note 1] (1500 BC-AD 475) is defined as the time when humans began marking their landscape, creating more permanent settlements, while they domesticated plants and animals. The Formative Period witnessed the creation of a series of ritually charged and intensively agricultural-herding based polities. Some consider the Formative Period a time of social stratification development, with political spheres centered at the civic-ceremonial settlements (Stanish 2003). Others see these long-lived centers as illustrating a strong sense of autonomy and sustainability (Hastorf 2003; Bandy 2004). The Formative Period in this part of the highlands spans almost 2,000 years, thus extending up to the early expansion of the Tiwanaku polity influence (see Chapter 37 in this volume). The end of the Late Formative is marked by the large-scale hegemonic shift around AD 475, when Tiwanaku’s influence is evident outside of the Titicaca basin. The 2,000-year temporal sequence of the Titicaca basin Formative Period is presented in Table 28.1, which lists dates, local, regional, and northern phase names and changes in the main environmental entity, the levels of Lake Titicaca.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Abbott, Mark, Michael Binford, Mark Brenner, and Kerry Kelts, 1997, A 3500 14C yr high-resolution record of water-level changes in Lake Titicaca, Bolivia-Peru. Quaternary Research 47: 169–180.
Albarracin-Jordan, Juan, 1996, Tiwanaku settlement system: the integration of nested hierarchies in the lower Tiwanaku Valley. Latin American Antiquity 7 (3): 183–210.
Albarracin-Jordan, Juan and James Mathews, 1990, Asentamientos Prehispánicos del Valle de Tiwanaku, Vol. 1. Producciones CIMA, La Paz.
Arnold, Dense Y. and Christine A. Hastorf, 2008, Heads of State: Icons, Power and Politics in the Ancient and Modern Andes. Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek CA.
Bandy, Matthew S., 2001, Population and History in the Ancient Titicaca Basin. Ph.D. dissertation. Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley.
Bandy, Matthew S., 2004, Fissioning, scalar stress, and social evolution in early village societies. American Anthropologist 106 (2): 322–333.
Bandy, Matthew S., Christine A. Hastorf, Lee Steadman, Katherine Moore, Melissa Goodman Elgar, William Whitehead, José Luis Paz, Amanda Cohen, Maria Bruno, Andrew Roddick, Kirk Frye, María Soledad Fernández, José Capriles Flores, Mary Leighton, 2004, Taraco Archaeological Project: Report on 2003 Excavations at Kala Uyuni. Submitted to the National Directorate of Archaeology, La Paz, Bolivia.
Bandy, Matthew S. and Christine A. Hastorf (eds.), 2007, Kala Uyuni: An Early Political Center in the Southern Lake Titicaca Basin, 2003 Excavations of the Taraco Archaeological Project, Contributions of the Archaeological Research Facility, No. 64, Archaeological Research Facility, Berkeley.
Bennett, Wendell, 1936, Excavations in Bolivia. Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. 35. American Museum of Natural History, New York.
Bermann, Marc, 1994, Lukurmata: Household Archaeology in Pre-Hispanic Bolivia. Princeton University Press, Princeton.
Binford, Michael and Alan Kolata, 1996, The natural and human setting. In Tiwanaku and its Hinterland: Archaeology and Paleoecology of an Andean Civilization, edited by Alan L. Kolata, pp. 23–56. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.
Browman, David L., 1972, Asiruni, Pukara-Pokotia and Pajano: Pre-Tiahuanaco south Andean monolithic stone styles. Manuscript in possession of the author.
Browman, David L., 1978, The temple of Chiripa (Lake Titicaca, Bolivia). In El Hombre y la Cultura Andina, III Congreso Peruano, edited by Ramiro Matos Mendieta, pp. 807–813. Editoral Lasontay, Lima.
Browman, David L., 1980, Tiwanaku expansion and altiplano economic patterns. Estudios Arqueológicos 5:107–120.
Browman, David L., 1981, New light on Andean Tiwanaku. American Scientist 69 (4): 408–419.
Browman, David L., 1984, Tiwanaku: development of interzonal trade and economic expansion in the altiplano. In Social and Economic Organization in the Prehispanic Andes, edited by David L. Browman, Richard L. Burger and Mario A. Rivera, pp. 117–142. British Archaeological Reports, International Series, No. 194. Oxford.
Browman, David L., 1995, Pa-Ajanu: Formative Titicaca regional stela tradition. Paper presented at the 60th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Minneapolis.
Bruno, Maria and William T. Whitehead, 2003, Chenopodium cultivation and Formative Period agriculture at Chiripa, Bolivia. Latin American Antiquity 14 (3): 339–355.
Casanova, E., 1942, Dos yacimientos arqueológicos en la Peninsula de Copacabana (Bolivia). Antropología, Etnografía y Arqueología 82: 333–407.
Chávez, Karen Mohr, 1988, The significance of Chiripa in Lake Titicaca basin developments. Expedition 30 (3): 17–26.
Chávez, Karen Mohr and Sergio Chávez, 1997, Remarks on “The Yayamama Project”. Symposium organized at the 62nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Nashville.
Chávez, Sergio, 2002, Identification of the camelid woman and feline man themes, motifs, and designs in Pucara style pottery. In Andean Archaeology II: Art, Landscape and Society, edited by Helaine Silverman and William H. Isbell, pp. 35–69. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.
Chávez, Sergio and Karen Mohr Chávez, 1975, A carved stela from Taraco, Puno, Peru, and the definition of an early style of stone sculpture from the altiplano of Peru and Bolivia. Ñawpa Pacha 13: 45–83.
Cipolla, Lisa M., 2005, Preceramic Period settlement patterns in the Huancané-Putina River Valley, northern Titicaca Basin, Peru. In Advances in Titicaca Basin Archaeology-I, edited by Charles Stanish, Amanda B. Cohen, and Mark S. Aldenderfer, pp. 55–63. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles.
Cohen, Amanda, 2001, Results of a settlement pattern survey in the Pucara Valley, northern Lake Titicaca basin, Peru. Paper presented at the 66th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, New Orleans.
Couture, Nicole, 2004, Monumental space, courtly style, and elite life at Tiwanaku. In Tiwanaku Riches and Ritual in the Andes, edited by Margaret Young-Sanchez, pp. 126–149. Denver Art Museum.
Dean, Emily and David Kojan, 2001, Ceremonial households and domestic temples: “fuzzy” definitions in the Andean Formative. In Past Ritual and the Everyday, edited by Christine A. Hastorf, pp. 109–135. Kroeber Anthropology Society, Department of Anthropology, University of California-Berkeley.
de la Vega, Edmundo, 2005, Excavations at Sillumocco-Huaquina. In Titicaca Basin Archaeology-1, edited by Charles Stanish, Amanda B. Cohen and Mark S. Aldenderfer, pp. 115–134. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA, Los Angeles, California.
Erickson, Clark L., 1988, An Archaeological Investigation of Raised Field Agriculture in the Lake Titicaca Basin of Peru. Ph.D dissertation. Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Erickson, Clark L., 1996, Investigación Arqueológica del Sistema Agrícola de los Camellones en la Cuenca del Lago Titicaca del Perú. PIWA, La Paz.
Flores Ochoa, Jorge, 1987, Evidence for the cultivation of qochas in the Peruvian altiplano. In Pre-Hispanic Agricultural Fields in the Andean Region: Proceedings of the 45th Congreso Internacional de Americanistas, edited by William Denevan, Kent Mathewson, and Gregory Knapp, pp. 399–402. British Archaeological Reports, International Series, No. 359. Oxford.
Frye, Kirk and Lee Steadman, 2001, Incatunuhuiri: A case for early socio-political complexity in the Titicaca Basin. Paper presented at the 66th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, New Orleans.
Graffam, Gray, 1990, Raised Fields Without Bureaucracy: An Archaeological Examination of Intensive Wetland Cultivation in the Pampa Koani Zone, Lake Titicaca, Bolivia. Ph.D. dissertation. Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto.
Hastorf, Christine A. (ed.), 1999a, Early Settlement at Chiripa Bolivia. Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility, Number 57. Archaeological Research Facility, Berkeley.
Hastorf, Christine A., 1999b, An introduction to Chiripa and the site area. In Early Settlement at Chiripa Bolivia, edited by Christine Hastorf, pp. 1–6. Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility, Number 57. Archaeological Research Facility, Berkeley.
Hastorf, Christine A., 2003, Community with the ancestors: ceremonies and social memory in the Middle Formative at Chiripa, Bolivia. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 22 (4): 305–332.
Hastorf, Christine A., 2005, The Upper (Middle and Late) Formative in the Titicaca Region. In Advances in Titicaca Basin Archaeology-I, edited by Charles Stanish, Amanda B. Cohen, and Mark S. Aldenderfer, pp. 65–94. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles.
Hastorf, Christine A., Matthew S. Bandy, Emily Dean, Melissa Goodman, David Kojan, Mario Montaño, José Luis Paz, David Steadman, Lee Steadman and William T. Whitehead, 1997, Proyecto Arqueológico Taraco: Excavaciones de 1996 en Chiripa, Bolivia, submitted to Dirección de la Secretaría Nacional de Cultura-Instituto Nacional de Arqueología, La Paz, Bolivia.
Hastorf, Christine A., Matthew S. Bandy, William T. Whitehead, Lee Steadman, Katherine Moore, José Luis Paz Soria, Andrew Roddick, Maria Bruno, Soledad Fernandez, Katheryn Killackey, Amanda Logan, Delfur Ullua, Luis Callisaya, José Capriles Flores, Emily Stovel, Ani Rooth and Xander Antonites, 2005, Taraco Archaeological Project: Report on 2004 Excavations at Kumi Kipa and Sonaje. Submitted to the National Directorate of Archaeology, La Paz Bolivia.
Helms, Mary, 1979, Ancient Panama: Chiefs in Search of Power. University of Texas Press, Austin.
Helms, Mary, 1998, Ulysses’ Sail: An Ethnographic Odyssey of Power, Knowledge, and Geographical Distance. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
Klarich, Elizabeth Ana, 2004, From the Monumental to the Mundane: Defining Early Leadership Strategies at Late Formative Pukara, Peru. Ph. D. dissertation. Department of Anthropology, University of California-Santa Barbara.
Kidder, Alfred, 1956, Digging in the Lake Titicaca Basin. University Museum Bulletin 20 (3): 16–29.
Lémuz, Carlos, 2001, Patrones de Asentamiento Arqueológico en la Peninsula de Santiago de Huatta, Bolivia. Tesis de Licenciatura en Arqueología, Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, La Paz.
Lumbreras, Luis G., 1974, Los reinos post-Tiwanaku en el área altiplánica. Revista del Museo Nacional 40: 55–85.
Mathews, James, 1995, A re-evaluation of the Formative Period in the southeast Titicaca Basin, Bolivia. Journal of the Steward Anthropological Society 23: 83–110.
Mohr, Karen, 1966, An Analysis of the Pottery of Chiripa, Bolivia: A Problem in Archaeological Classification and Inference. Master’s thesis. Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
Mujica, Elias, 1978, Nueva hipótesis sobre el desarrollo temprano del altiplano del Titicaca y de sus áreas de interracción. Arte y Arqueología 5–6: 285–308.
Mujica, Elias, 1987, Cusipata: Una fase pre-Pukara en la cuenca norte de Titicaca. Gaceta Arqueológica Andina 13: 22–28.
Niles, Susan, 1987, The temples of Amantaní. Archaeology 40 (6): 30–37.
Paz Soría, José, 1999, Excavations in the Llusco Area. In Early Settlement at Chiripa Bolivia, edited by Christine A. Hastorf, pp. 31–36. Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility, Number 57. Archaeological Research Facility, Berkeley.
Platt, Tristan, 1986, Mirrors and maize: the concept of Yanantin among the Macha of Bolivia. In Anthropological History of Andean Polities, edited by John V. Murra, Nathan Wachtel and Jacques Revel, pp. 228–259. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Ponce Sanginés, Carlos, 1970, Las Culturas Wankarani y Chiripa y Su Relación con Tiwanaku. Publicación No. 25. Academia Nacional de Ciencias de Bolivia, La Paz.
Ponce Sanginés, Carlos, 1971, La cerámica de la época I de Tiwanaku. Pumapunku 2: 7–28.
Ponce Sanginés, Carlos, 1981, Tiwanaku: Espacio, Tiempo y Cultura. Ensayo de Síntesis Arqueológica. Editorial Los Amigos del Libro, La Paz.
Ponce Sanginés, Carlos, 1990, El Templete Semisubterraneo de Tiwanaku. Editorial Juventud, La Paz.
Portugal Ortíz, Max, 1981, Expansión del estilo escultórico Pa-Ajanu. Arte y Arqueología 7: 149–159.
Portugal Ortíz, Max, 1992, Aspectos de la cultura Chiripa. Textos Antropológicos 3: 9–26.
Proulx, Donald, 1999, Nasca headhunting and the ritual use of trophy heads. In Nasca, Geheimnisvolle Seichen im Alten Peru, pp. 79–87. Museum für Volkerkunde, Vienna.
Proulx, Donald, 2001, Ritual uses of trophy heads in ancient Nasca society. In Ritual Sacrifice in Ancient Peru, edited by Elizabeth P. Benson and Anita G. Cook, pp. 119–136. University of Texas, Austin.
Rivera, Mario, 1991, Pre-Tiwanaku developments in northern Chile. Paper presented at the 56th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, New Orleans.
Rodman, Amy, 1992, Textiles and ethnicity: Tiwanaku in San Pedro de Atacama, north Chile. Latin American Antiquity 3 (4): 316–340.
Rowe, John H. 1962, Stages and periods in archaeological interpretation. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 18 (1): 40–54.
Rowe, John H. and Catherine Brandel, 1969, Pucara pottery designs. Ñawpa Pacha 7: 1–16.
Spahni, J.-C. 1971, Liex de culte precolombiens et actuels de departement de Puno (Perou). Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 62 (2): 217–233.
Silverman, Helaine and Donald Proulx, 2002, The Nasca. Blackwell, Oxford.
Stanish, Charles, 1994, A new view of the Upper Formative Period in the Titicaca Basin. Paper presented at the Northeast conference of Andean Archaeology and Ethnohistory, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Stanish, Charles, 1997, Nonmarket imperialism in the prehispanic Americas: the Inka occupation of the Titicaca Basin. Latin American Antiquity 8: 195–216.
Stanish, Charles, 2002, Tiwanaku political economy. In Andean Archaeology I: Variations in Socio-political Organization, edited by William H. Isbell and Helaine Silverman, pp. 169–198. Kluwer Academic, New York.
Stanish, Charles, 2003, Ancient Titicaca: The Evolution of Social Power in the Titicaca Basin of Peru and Bolivia. University of California Press, Berkeley.
Steadman, Lee H., 1995, Excavations at Camata: An Early Ceramic Chronology for the Western Lake Titicaca Basin, Peru. Ph.D. dissertation. Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley.
Steadman, Lee H., 1999, The ceramics. In Early Settlement at Chiripa Bolivia, edited by Christine A. Hastorf, pp. 61–72. Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility, Number 57. Archaeological Research Facility, Berkeley.
Steadman, Lee H. and Christine A. Hastorf, 2001, Construction for the ancestors: the creation of territory and society in the Middle Formative at Chiripa. Paper presented at the 66th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, New Orleans.
Valcarcel, Luis, 1935, Litoesculturas y cerámica de Pukara. Revista del Museo Nacional 4: 25–28.
Wheeler, Jane and Elias Mujica, 1981, Prehistoric pastoralism in the Lake Titicaca Basin, Peru. Final project report for the 1979–80 field season submitted to the National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C.
Whitehead, William T., 1999, Choquehuanca - un recinto semi-subterráneo de Chiripa Medio: excavaciones e interpretaciones, In Proyecto Arqueológico Taraco: Excavaciones de 1998 en Chiripa, Bolivia, by Christine Hastorf, Matthew S. Bandy, Rene Ayon, Emily Dean, Miriam Doutriaux, Kirk Frye, Rachel Goddard, Don Johnson, Kate Moore, José Luis Paz, Daniel Puertas, Lee Steadman, and William Whitehead. Submitted to the Dirección Nacional de Arqueoligía y Antropología de Bolivia.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hastorf, C.A. (2008). The Formative Period in the Titicaca Basin. In: Silverman, H., Isbell, W.H. (eds) The Handbook of South American Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-74907-5_28
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-74907-5_28
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-74906-8
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-74907-5
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)