Archaeological research on the architecture and sculpture of Tiwanaku society in the south-central Andes follows two separate paths: one emphasizes iconographic interpretation, whereas the other studies lithic materials’ origin and spatial relations. This separation, stemming from dualistic modern thought, is an obstacle to a comprehensive understanding of lithic sculptures and their role in Tiwanaku society. This article focuses on the Ponce and Bennett monoliths, the two largest and most complex sculptures of the Tiwanaku ceremonial center. It presents the results of an iconographic analysis identifying minimal design components ordered in a three-level nested hierarchy and their distribution over the spatial structures of both sculptures. This analysis incorporates existing information about lithic materials and quarries, the monoliths’ locations, and spatial relationships. All those data are interpreted in the light of Aymara and Quechua ontologies about the relationships between mountains, stones, and images. Characterizing aspects of the Tiwanaku site and its role in lithic production, this article extends the limits of Tiwanaku society to include nonhuman agents and suggests that we overcome anthropocentric biases.

This study uses isotope and microbotanical data from the analysis of teeth and dental calculus to investigate camelid diet and foddering practices at Quilcapampa (AD 835–900). By providing taxonomically specific evidence of foods consumed, botanical data from dental calculus complement the more general impressions of photosynthetic pathways obtained through isotopic analysis. Results suggest that the camelid diet incorporated maize (Zea mays), algarrobo (Prosopis sp.), potato chuño (Solanum sp.), and other resources. The life-history profile of one camelid (Individual 3) reveals dietary change from mainly C3 plants to more C4 plant contributions as the animal aged. This pattern is supported by carbonate isotope results indicating that this individual spent its youth in the mid-valley ecozone before becoming more mobile later in life. As this life-history example shows, isotopic and microbotanical analyses are complementary approaches, clarifying a pattern of seasonal transhumance that linked the lives of humans and animals along the Middle Horizon (AD 600–1000) caravan networks that crisscrossed the central Andes.

Sealings recovered from the Omo M10 temple, a provincial center of the Andean Tiwanaku state (AD 500–1100), and from the Muru Ut Pata neighborhood of the Tiwanaku capital, as well as a signet ring from the Akapana East complex of Tiwanaku's highland capital, shed light on the hitherto undocumented use of seals and sealings in Central Andean complex society. The identification of Tiwanaku sealings related to the signet ring seal has implications for understanding the transmission of identity, authority, and authenticity over time and distance in early Andean states.

A recent survey in the Ingenio Valley provides new insight into the nature of the Middle Horizon on the south coast of Peru. A reconsideration of the Tres Palos I and II sites could provide a new perspective on Wari expansion into the region.

The collapse of the Tiwanaku state around AD 1000 resulted in dramatic changes in the areas of its former colonies such as the Moquegua Valley, which featured the largest Tiwanaku communities outside the Altiplano. The inhabitants of these former colonies were forced to relocate to the areas north of Moquegua, including the Tambo River estuary (Arequipa Department, Province of Islay). This relocation has been confirmed at La Pampilla 1, where a large graveyard featuring funerary contexts of the postcollapse communities of Tiwanaku-Timulaca was found, with a calibrated 14C date between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries AD. In this article we discuss the results of excavations and analyses conducted at the La Pampilla 1 graveyard, the first systematically researched Tiwanaku site in the Tambo Valley: these findings confirm the existence of a relatively large, terminal-phase Tiwanaku population, represented by Tumilaca funerary contexts.