Hints of mysterious religion discovered in world’s highest lake
Gold artifacts, precious shells and evidence of animal sacrifice in Lake Titicaca point to a belief system that helped organize the ancient Tiwanaku state, researchers claim.
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BY ERIN BLAKEMORE
PUBLISHED APRIL 1, 2019
About 1,200 years ago, a reef in the middle of Lake Titicaca in what is now Bolivia became the repository of a people’s most valued possessions. In 2013, a sparkling cache of those objects was unearthed by underwater archaeologists. Six years later, researchers think they now know what the objects represent—evidence of a religion that helped the Tiwanaku state become a dominant force in the region.
Results of the excavation were revealed in a paper published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Gold objects, metal ornaments, semiprecious stones, and incense burners recovered at the site suggest the reef—located near the Island of the Sun, home to multiple Tiwanaku sacred sites—was once used as a ritual site for the ancient state.
Anthropologists are still piecing together details of the religion that helped make the Tiwanaku state, which existed between about 500 A.D. and 1,000 A.D. and extended to Chile and Peru at its height, so powerful. The Tiwanaku people didn’t leave behind significant traces of military might, and the state is thought to have amassed influence from religion and trade. And though archaeologists have discovered plenty of archaeological evidence of Tiwanaku religious beliefs, they’re still piecing together the meanings of the religion and how it may have contributed to the state’s expansion.
Artifacts found from the site, known as Khoa reef, include two gold medallions that represent Tiwanaku’s ray-faced deity and metal plaques that portray a mythical puma-llama hybrid. Divers also recovered the remains of real animals, including the bones of at least three young sacrificed llamas.
More:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2019/04/evidence-ancient-religion-discovered-lake-titicaca/
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