Tiwanaku: Ancestors of the Inca (Hardcover)

by Margaret Young-Sanchez (Editor) "About twelve miles northwest of Tiwanaku is the vast and deep Lake Titicaca, which captures runoff from the surrounding mountains..." (more)
Key Phrases: tiwanaku style, relictual bundles, snuff trays, San Pedro, Titicaca Basin, Lake Titicaca (more...)

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
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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 )

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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 (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #640,316 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #90 in	Books > History > Ancient > Incan

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 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" (Perth, Australia) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

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.