The Garden of Learning

Geography

Which Andean civilization preceded the Inca at Tiwanaku?

  • The Tiwanaku culture
  • The Moche
  • The Nazca

The answer is The Tiwanaku culture. Tiwanaku, by Lake Titicaca.

Tiwanaku polity

The Tiwanaku polity was a Pre-Columbian polity in western Bolivia based in the southern Lake Titicaca Basin. Tiwanaku was one of the most significant Andean civilizations. Its influence extended into present-day Peru and Chile and lasted from around 600 to 1000. Its capital was the monumental city of Tiwanaku, located at the center of the polity's core area in the southern Lake Titicaca Basin. This area has clear evidence for large-scale agricultural production on raised fields that probably supported the urban population of the capital. Researchers debate whether these fields were administered by a bureaucratic state (top-down) or through a federation of communities with local autonomy. Tiwanaku was once thought to be an expansive military empire, based mostly on comparisons to the later Inca Empire. However, recent research suggests that labelling Tiwanaku as an empire or even a state may be misleading. Tiwanaku is missing a number of features traditionally used to define archaic states and empires: there is no defensive architecture at any Tiwanaku site or changes in weapon technology, there are no princely burials or other evidence of a ruling dynasty, no evidence of state-maintained roads or outposts, and no markets.

Wikipedia · Tiwanaku polity