Tiwanaku: Ancestors of the Inca [Hardcover]

Margaret Young-Sanchez (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2004

By the shores of Lake Titicaca, the largest body of water in the South American highland, rose the city of Tiwanaku. Its megalithic structures were constructed between AD 100 and 300. By 500 Tiwanaku had become the capital of an expanding empire in the Andes that endured until approximately AD 1000, when extended drought caused water levels to fall and agriculture to fail. After European colonization many of the buildings were raided for their stone, which was used to construct churches, rail stations, and houses. Less than a day’s trip from La Paz, Bolivia, Tiwanaku remains one of the most impressive archeological sites in South America.

Despite its fame and its economic, political, and artistic importance to such later peoples as the Incas, the Tiwanaku civilization has never been the subject of a comprehensive international art exhibition and accompanying catalog—until now. Tiwanaku introduces American audiences to the striking artwork and fascinating rituals of this highland culture through approximately one hundred works of art and cultural treasures.

The range of media is unparalleled among ancient South American civilizations: large-scale stone sculptures, spectacular works in gold and silver, masterfully crafted ceramics, monumental architecture, gold and silver jewelry, and decoratively carved wood, bone, and stone objects. Of special note are the textiles, remarkably preserved by the dry climate of Tiwanaku’s outposts in Chile and Peru. These finely crafted and richly decorated objects assembled from collections around the world evoke a vivid and comprehensive picture of elite life five hundred to one thousand years before the Inca Empire.

This lavishly illustrated, full-color catalog features insightful scholarly essays introducing the general reader to the culture and historical context of the Tiwanaku.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Bolivia's Tiwanaku flourished between 200 and 1000 C.E. as a capital city that, at its height, housed 40,000, with a half-million in the surrounding area. Domestication of llamas and alpacas by nomadic herders, plus subsequent development of irrigated, raised-field agriculture, including fish raised in the canals, created a productive agricultural system. The resultant high culture, however, was lost by the sixteenth century because it lacked a writing system, and consequently knowledge of Tiwanaku comes from archaeological digs. This lavishly illustrated catalog examines the arts, with an emphasis on textiles, and culture in scholarly essays that also discuss the city's religion, layout, and architecture, as well as the contemporaneous Wari civilization in Peru. Photographs and drawings abound, including aerial views and documentation of portrait ceramics and gold discs. Despite its importance to Incan culture, Tiwanaku is too little known, a lack this surpassing volume will help correct. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"This lavishly illustrated catalog examines the arts, with an emphasis on textiles, and culture in scholarly essays that also discuss the city''s religion, layout, and architecture, as well as the contemporaneous Wari civilization in Peru. Despite its importance to Incan culture, Tiwanaku is too little known, a lack this surpassing volume will help correct."-Booklist (Booklist )

"[A]n exquisite presentation. . . . With its integral discussions of this pre-Inca civilization, which existed in the highlands of Bolivia for close to 1,000 years before disappearing 900 years ago, this book successfully brings alive the Tiwanaku civilizations." -Choice (CHOICE )

"This book is clearly written and accessible to the lay reader, and its text and photography work together to present a treatment of Tiwanaku material culture that has rarely been achieved. The essays provide sufficient bibliography for the interested reader to track down more technical discussions of craft production and iconography, as well as more theoretical overviews of Tiwanaku statecraft."-R. Alan Covey, Journal of Latin American Anthropology (R. Alan Covey Journal of Latin American Anthropology )

"This volume will be of particular importance to specialists in the field of Andean archaeology for the photographic representations and the juxtapositions of the variety of Tiwanaku portable art included in this exhibition."-Museum Anthropology (Museum Anthropology )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 257 pages
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press (December 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803249217
• ISBN-13: 978-0803249219
• Product Dimensions: 12.6 x 10.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,678,287 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the few books you'll find on the Tiwanaku - scholarly exhibition catalogue, December 27, 2005

By 

K. Maxwell "katmax1" (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tiwanaku: Ancestors of the Inca (Hardcover)

This is one of the few books to be found on the Tiwanaku people of Lake Titicaca. These are a people who pre-dated the Inca and for close to 800 years dominated the highlands in what is now Peru and Bolivia.

Today their most visible remains is the gate of the sun and semi sunken temple on the shore of Lake Titicaca. They left no written records and in the immediate area of Tiwanaku city itself their remains have been poorly excavated over the years. Aside from their ruins perhaps their most stunning legacy has been their textiles.

This book displays a number of gorgeous textiles that were produced by the Tiwanaku and Wari peoples - these textiles, most of them today in private collections, on display here for the first time in one place, are one of the main reasons to get this book.

The text surrounding the textiles, snuff trays and sculptures produced in Tiwanaku and Wari illustrated in this book is scholarly. It draws on what little we have been able to find out about these people to show us a culture that was both savage, tightly integrated with nature and a people with high artistic sensibilities. If you want to know more about pre-Columbian cultures that extend beyond the Inca this book is one you should get for your collection about a little discussed people. If you enjoy pre-Columbian textiles this book should not be missed, if only for its colour illustrations.

3.0 out of 5 stars Documentation around a museum exhibition, November 29, 2009

By 

blue jaguar (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Tiwanaku: Ancestors of the Inca (Hardcover)

This book is a collection of photographs and some background text of an exhibition of the same title. The photographs are good. The information behind them is academic and dry. So beyond getting the book for some interesting photographs you would not need to including this book in things related to either Tiwanaku or the Inca. In fact the book makes a tepid case of this link between Tiwanaku and the Inca. The Inca themselves identified with this area and claimed (as the current conquerors) the divine descendency from the Tiwanaku. But the Inca also strongly inherited their culture from the Wari, Moche, Chavin, and others.

If you are interested in Tiwanaku then 'the' prime resource is Ancient Tiwanaku (Case Studies in Early Societies).