Amazing stuff!
"Long before the Inka (commonly known as Inca in English) rose to power, a mysterious civilization bloomed on the edge of Lake Titicaca. Known as Tiwanaku, it began as a humble farming village in the Bolivian highlands and, by around 500 BCE, grew into a sprawling city-state that influenced much of the Andean world. ...
Long before the Inka ruled the Andes, the Tiwanaku civilization carved out one of the region’s earliest and most influential societies. ...
Now, a team of researchers has uncovered a remarkable temple site 215 km (134 miles) from Tiwanaku’s core. This newly found structure, with its sunken courtyard and massive stone layout, mirrors Tiwanaku’s famous ceremonial platforms. ...
Tiwanaku, one of the Andes’ earliest urban societies, flourished with pyramids, sunken temples, and towering monoliths. But around 1000 BCE, it mysteriously collapsed. By the time the Inka arrived centuries later, Tiwanaku was already a shadow of its former glory. ...
Archaeologists uncovered a large ancient temple named Palaspata, spanning the size of a city block approximately 125 meters long by 145 meters wide (410 x 475 ft) with 15 enclosures around a central sunken courtyard. Its design appears aligned with the solar equinox, suggesting a ritual function. ..."
"An ancient society near the southern shores of Lake Titicaca in modern-day Bolivia was once one of the continent’s most powerful civilizations. Known as Tiwanaku, the ancient society is widely considered by archaeologists to be one of the earliest examples of civilization in the Andes and a precursor of the Inca empire, but it mysteriously disappeared about a thousand years ago. ..."
From the abstract:
"The nature and extent of the Tiwanaku state expansion in the Andes during the second half of the first millennium AD continues to be debated.
Here, the authors report on the recent discovery of an archaeological complex 215km south-east of Tiwanaku, where a large, modular building with an integrated, sunken courtyard strongly resembles a Tiwanaku terraced platform temple and demonstrates substantial state investment. Constructed, the authors argue, to directly control inter-regional traffic and trade between the highlands and the eastern valleys of Cochabamba, the complex represents a gateway node that effectively materialised the power and influence of the Tiwanaku state."
Ancient temple ruins discovered in Andes shed light on lost society (original news release)
Gateway to the east: the Palaspata temple and the south-eastern expansion of the Tiwanaku state (open access)
This is digital reconstruction of the temple revealing a complex about the size of a city block. Called Palaspata after the native name for the area, the site was strategically perched at the crossroads of several ancient trade routes.
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