Page 203 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol I - Abraham to Coal

88 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

Modern man lives isolated in his artificial environment, not because the artificial is evil as
such, but because of his lack of comprehension of the forces which make it work—of the
principles which relate his gadgets to the forces of nature, to the universal order.

differences and labor specialization appear insufficient for were important regional powers elsewhere in the Andes.
a state. Nonetheless, the harbingers of the state can be However, none of these groups rivaled Moche in size or
seen in the ability of these polities to organize large degree of political centralization. Beginning around 600,
amounts of labor for construction projects, the separation Moche unity unraveled. Cerro Blanco was abandoned,
of people into different status groups, and an increasing and massive constructions at two cities,Pampa Grande in
tendency toward labor specialization.The trends toward Lambayeque and Galindo in the Moche valley, suggests
statehood culminated in the development of the Moche that the state broke up into at least two parts.While the
culture on Peru’s north coast. reasons for Moche’s decline remain unclear, shifts in the
El Niño current at this time caused successive waves of
Moche long droughts and torrential rains.These environmental
By the end of the first century CE, the site of Cerro Blanco pressures,coupled perhaps with internal strife and conflict
gained control over the other cities along the Moche and with the expandingWari state,likely led to the breakup of
Chicama rivers. By about 400 CE, Moche-style ceramics the last remnants of the Moche state around 800.
and architecture could be found from the Lambayeque
valley in northern coastal Peru to the Nepena valley, some Tiwanaku and Wari
250 kilometers south. Known for its public architecture Near the southern shore of Lake Titicaca (on the border
and high degree of craft specialization, Cerro Blanco, a of present-day Peru and Bolivia), the site of Tiwanaku
large site in the center of the state, became the capital of became an important regional center by 350 CE.The city,
the Moche state. The site covered over 1 square kilome- oriented around a complex of mounds, sunken court-
ter and was dominated by the Huaca del Sol and the yards, megalithic stonework, and statues, appears to
Huaca de la Luna (the Temple of the Sun and the Temple have been an important pilgrimage center. By about
of the Moon), two massive platform mounds constructed 550, Tiwanaku became the capital of a state that con-
out of mud bricks. The Huaca del Sol was one of the trolled much of the area around the Titicaca basin.
largest mounds ever built in the Americas, and recent Tiwanaku architecture and artifacts are found throughout
excavations at the Huaca de la Luna have revealed beau- the region, and there is some evidence that the state
tiful polychrome murals and human sacrificial victims. increased agricultural yields by resettling farmers and
Elite complexes of grand courts, low platforms, work- streamlining the network of irrigation canals and raised
shops, and living residences clustered around the two fields that were situated around the lake. Tiwanaku had
huacas. a significant impact on the iconography of ceramics and
The opulence and pageantry of elite life is also textiles throughout northern Chile, northwestern Ar-
reflected in depictions on pottery and in the wealth of gentina, Bolivia, and Peru.This influence likely reflects the
clothing, jewelry, and other items found in the burials of persuasiveness of their religion and the length of their
three priests at the Moche provincial site of Sipán in the trade networks rather than the incorporation of this area
Lambayeque valley. Lambayeque and the other valleys into a far-flung empire. Nonetheless, there are a few sites
outside of the Moche-Chicama heartland were likely inte- in the Moquegua (Peru) and, perhaps, Cochabamba
grated into the state in different ways. Some groups were (Bolivia) valleys that were established by Tiwanaku set-
conquered and directly administered by centers that tlers in order to exploit lands at lower elevations.
likely housed Moche officials, while other groups were By about 500, the site of Wari became the capital city
nominally independent from the state but closely aligned of a state that we know by that name in the Ayacucho
with it through economic and political ties. region of central Peru.While much of Wari’s iconography
The Moche was not the only culture that flourished dur- was derived from Tiwanaku examples, the rise of the state
ing this period. The Lima, Nazca, and Pukara cultures appears to have been the culmination of local develop-