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Research in the Bolivian Andes has identified a previously unknown Tiwanaku ceremonial complex.
The Tiwanaku civilisation (c.AD 500-1000) was a pre-Inca culture centred around the southern shores of Lake Titicaca, in western Bolivia, but their influence is believed to have extended far beyond that. The latest evidence for this has been discovered at a site 215km from Lake Titicaca, near the Cayuhasi River. Previous research in this area has identified signs of extended settlement activity, including pottery, lithics, animal bones, residential middens, and burials, with the most intensive occupation occurring in the Tiwanaku period, c.AD 630 to 950. However, these earlier investigations omitted a substantial temple complex located on a ridge c.50m above the area in question.
As part of a recent project, this hilltop site, known locally as Palaspata, was investigated by researchers from Penn State University and the Bolivian Ministry of Cultures using a combination of satellite imagery, aerial photography, photogrammetry, and field survey. This revealed a rectangular structure measuring c.125m by 145m, made up of 15 quadrangular enclosures arranged around a rectangular plaza, which may have contained a sunken courtyard. The main entrance to the complex faces west, in alignment with the solar equinox. Most of the walls have collapsed and many stones have been removed from the site over the years – although the perimeter walls remain clearly outlined by red sandstone slabs and white quartzite boulders – but the researchers believe that the structure may have once stood c.3m tall, and was probably roofless. The complex closely resembles typical terraced platform temples found in the ceremonial core of Tiwanaku, but few examples are known outside the Lake Titicaca basin.
Artefacts found in the area encompass various types of Tiwanaku-style pottery, including a number of kero cups, which were used for drinking a traditional maize beer known as chicha during feasts and celebrations – maize was not grown locally so must have been brought to the site from elsewhere – as well as sherds of pottery with different decorative styles and other artefacts indicative of contact with other regions.
Palaspata is located at a key intersection between three contrasting ecosystems, with the highlands around Lake Titicaca to the north; the arid Central Altiplano, ideal for llama-herding, to the west; and the agriculturally productive Andean valleys of Cochabamba to the east. The researchers therefore believe that this was not just an important ceremonial centre, but a ritual gateway where religion was used to sacralise and facilitate the movement of goods and people between different regions. They suggest that the hilltop structure is part of the same wider site as the settlement activity previously identified, representing a single multifunctional centre covering at least 75ha, which was created to control trade and traffic, and to enact the influence of the Tiwanaku state at this supraregional axis.
These findings highlight an important element of local heritage that had been overlooked until now, and provide new information about Tiwanaku control in areas beyond the shores of Lake Titicaca. The research to date has been published in Antiquity (https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2025.59), but investigations are ongoing.
Text: Amy Brunskill / Images: José Capriles et al., Antiquity/Penn State
