The actions and meanings of visible and hidden spaces at Formative Chiripa

Abstract

The material evidence for a ceremonial tradition in the Titicaca Basin region began in the Formative phase. It includes a dispersed range of places and material evidence that entail both open and enclosed spaces. This paper investigates the evidence for how newly sedentary populations on the Taraco peninsula created meaningful places in the landscape during the Early and Middle Formative periods. The early buildings at Chiripa referenced an animated and powerful landscape through both the creation of vistas that directed observation toward important geographical features and their architecture and stone carvings. Several of the excavated spaces at the settlement of Chiripa suggest scales of the possible ceremonies that could have been held as well as the movements of people in those spaces. These spaces and their sensory impacts imply shifting experiences with the heavens, the lake, and the land, bringing them together in one place. These built spaces allow us to sense both centripetal as well as centrifugal social dynamics, allowing us to think about how the landscape participated in the residents’ ontologies.

La evidencia material de una tradición ceremonial en la región de la cuenca del Titicaca comenzó a conformarse desde el comienzo de la fase Formativa. Esta evidencia abarca un rango disperso de lugares y evidencia material que incluye espacios abiertos y cerrados. Este artículo investiga la evidencia sobre la forma como nuevas poblaciones sedentarias de la península de Taraco crearon lugares significativos en el paisaje durante los periodos Formativo Temprano y Medio. Los edificios más antiguos de Chiripa aluden a un paisaje animado y poderoso a través de la creación de panorámicas dirigidas a la observación de rasgos geográficos importantes, de su arquitectura y de sus tallas en piedra. Varios de los espacios excavados en el asentamiento de Chiripa sugieren escalas de las posibles ceremonias que pudieron haber tenido lugar, así como de los movimientos de gentes en esos espacios. Estos espacios y sus impactos sensoriales implican cambiantes experiencias con el cielo, el lago y la tierra, agrupándolos en un solo espacio. Estos espacios construidos nos permiten dar cuenta de dinámicas sociales tanto centrípetas como centrífugas y nos llevan a pensar acerca de como el paisaje formó parte de las ontologías de los residentes.

Acknowledgements

Katherine Huggins, Juan de Dios Yapita and Denise Arnold helped with Aymara words, Jewell Soriano helped with the images. I especially want to thank everyone who has participated in the Taraco Archaeology Project over the years, everyone from Chiripa and La Paz and those from outside Bolivia who spent time on the project providing insights and engagements that were of great value to me.

Notes

1 In Aymara puma means wild cat (the traditional guardians of springs) and punku means opening, spring, or water source, suggesting that the mound of Puma Punku might in fact have been built over a permanent spring or artesian well that filled up the sunken court or pool at the top of that constructed mound, which also has overconstructed exit canals still visible.

Additional information

Funding

This research has been funded by the National Science Foundation; the Wenner Gren Foundation; the National Geographic Society; and the Stahl Fund, University of California, Berkeley.