2005 Tinker Summer Research Report Andrew P. Roddick Anthropology “Pottery Analysis of the Late Formative (200 BC-400 AD), Lake Titicaca, Bolivia”

“Watering a house”. University of Washington student Marcia Petterson sprays a possible domestic site at the site of Kala Uyuni ( Coacollu, Bolivia) in order to clarify subtle soil changes.

In June of 2005, with funding from the Center for Latin American Studies, I traveled to Bolivia to continue my doctoral work with the Taraco Archaeological Project, on the Taraco Peninsula in highland Bolivia. This project, directed by Dr. Christine Hastorf (UC Berkeley) and Dr. Mathew Bandy (University of Oklahoma) and consisting of both North American archaeologists and Bolivian archaeology students, has been continuing since 1992. The goals of this project are to study the sociopolitical, religious and economic backdrop of the Formative Period (1000 BC-400 AD), a time preceding the Tiwanaku state in the South-Central Andes. The Taraco Peninsula, which juts into the smaller portion of Lake Titicaca (called Lake Wiňamarka) is a particular attractive local during this period. The shores of Lake Titicaca were intensely occupied due to the rich lacustrine resources, and “lake effects”, which greatly facilitated early agriculture at 4000 meters above sea level. For the past three summers the project has been focusing specifically on the Late Formative Period (200 BC – 400 AD), testing three models of state formation in the Andes: One model suggests that large-scale agricultural systems controlled by an elite class allowed for monumental construction and large-scale ceremonialism. Another model suggests that it was the control of long distance trade that allowed for the appearance and rise of an elite-class at Tiwanaku. The third and final model stresses the social and religious processes in the region. The project has been working in three communities on the tip of the Taraco Peninsula: Santa Rosa, San José and Coacollu. The 2005 season represented the final year of a National Science Foundation grant, and thus was particularly important in addressing our various research objectives.

Our project encountered the political and economic realities of modern day Bolivia in early June of this year. On June 6 th, due to mounting pressure from a number of social groups and oppositional political parties, the president Carlos Mesa stepped down from his position. This was due to increasing protests across the country of the governments handling of natural gas resources among other factors. These social issues materialized in the form of road blockades in the countryside and boisterous protests in the streets of the capital of La Paz. Thankfully any real violence was avoided, and after some anxious days in Bolivia the head of the Supreme Court, Eduardo Rodriquez, took the temporary position as the president of the country. Although the concerns over the issues remain – and few of the problems have in fact been resolved – we were able to conduct fieldwork on the Taraco Peninsula. We worked with an increased awareness of the globalized sociopolitical context of our archaeological research.

“Red on Chestnut”. A typical fancy bowl of the Late Formative Period (200 BC-400 AD) on the Taraco Peninsula . This bowl is associated primarily with “ceremonial” or public architecture, and was most likely used to serve communal beverages.

This year the project was based in two communities: San José and Coacollu. In San José, we were interested in excavating a structure we first encountered in the 2004 season at the site of Sonaji. This structure was found in a small excavation area – a 2x2 meter unit – and thus we had very little idea of the actual nature of the structure, except that it was almost 2-meters down and appeared to be Late Formative in nature. Thus we opened up a much larger area to discover more about the structure. In the process of excavating this structure the archaeologists encountered a high density of later Tiwanaku (400 AD-1000 AD) material, and many pits. Kathryn Killackey’s CLAS report will discuss this in greater detail.

At the site of Kala Uyuni, in the community of Coacollu, further excavations were conducted. In my 2003 CLAS report I discussed two Middle Formative sunken temples found on the hilltop of Kala Uyuni. This season we excavated more of the Late Formative component of the site, below the Kala Uyuni hill. In contrast to the Sonaji excavations, this work was much shallower, and in general much less complicated. For the first month of the summer I excavated a Late Formative structure, encountered only 30-cms below surface (see figure 1). It appears that this structure is domestic in nature. This was an extremely exciting find, as public or “ceremonial” architecture is often the only architecture found during the Formative Period. This is due both to the durability of materials used in constructing these buildings, and, most likely, the use of mud brick (adobe) architecture in most domestic houses. The structure encountered in the 2005 season is hypothesized to be domestic due to 1) the size of the building, 2) the building materials used and 3) the artifacts encountered inside. Adjacent to this structure is a larger public building encountered in the 2003 season. The ceramics associated with all of these buildings are clearly Late Formative in nature.

“Tasty negotiations”. A feast of potatoes served at a meeting to decide the fate of the Coacollu community museum. The museum is being built in a beautiful local overlooking the site of Kala Uyuni.

The second half of my field season consisted of running the in-field laboratory and conducting ceramic analysis. This work was aided by Nicole Anthony, a UC Berkeley undergraduate and a National Science Foundation REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) fellowship winner. In the laboratory we worked to catalogue all the ceramics as they entered the lab and to do one of three levels intensity of analysis on many of the sherds. As most of the excavated materials may not leave the country, we must attempt to sample the excavated materials with specific research questions in mind. However, the most important and immediate question has to do with chronology, thus we conducted a very quick and peripheral chronological analysis on all excavated material. Since production techniques changed (sometimes subtly) over time, we can date the ceramics by looking at the form of the vessels, the firing of the pottery as well as the mineral composition of the sherds. This can be a rather mundane and slow process, especially as we find few complete vessels. With a few exceptions (figure 2), the pottery is highly fragmented after 2000-years of natural and cultural processes. Nevertheless, the ceramic analysis can have an enormous impact on how the archaeologists in the field excavate – what they chose to dig, and how they actively interpret their results in the field.

A final part of our project is community development, through the construction local museums. The reasoning behind building such museums is both pragmatic as well as a fundamentally ethical. Since we can only export soils and faunal remains, and other artifacts in smaller numbers, the project requires a storehouse for the cultural materials. For the past three years we have been storing our artifacts in community structures. However, this is not always practical, as the buildings are needed for other activities and are not the most appropriate places for many of the materials. A museum is fitting for the archaeological needs. The community is also interested in benefiting from our scientific research on their cultural heritage, and many aspire to benefit from tourists visiting the World Heritage Site of Tiwanaku, a mere 20 miles away. Currently there is talk of paving the road out to the communities of Coacollu and San Jose, and of a possible tourist circuit. Thus the communities are interested in building a community museum. Although our project had funds for one such museum (to be shared between communities), there was some political debate over who would receive the funds (see figure 2). In the end, it was decided that two such museums would be built, one in each community, with the project partially funding each structure. These buildings are currently under construction.

“Carrying On”. Dancers at the 6 de Augusto (Independence Day) celebration in San Jose . I plan to return to live in this community in the new year to continue my dissertation research in the altiplano, or high plains, of Bolivia.

The 2005 season of the Taraco Archaeological Project can be assessed as a success, due in no small part to the Center for Latin American Studies Tinker Grant. I am currently in my fourth year in the doctoral program at UC Berkeley, and am currently preparing grant applications to return to Bolivia sometime in the winter or spring of 2006. I will return to the Taraco Peninsula with three particular goals: 1) Spend further quality time with the pottery excavated by the TAP team over the past 3 years. We have barely scraped the surface of analysis that must be done on this material. I hope to examine the shifts in production we see during the Late Formative Period, as well as investigate the larger sociopolitical setting within which these ceramics were produced. 2) Conduct a survey of the region to find local clay sources. Using a range of geochemical techniques, and optical petrography, I hope to better understand the variability within the region. 3) Excavate more structures at the site of Kala Uyuni. I suspect there are other structures near those excavated in 2003 and 2005. Excavations in this area will bolster my data set, as well as highlight variations across different types of architectural space. Finally, while not an explicit goal of my project, I will oversee the construction and moving of artifacts into the newly built museums in San José and Coacollu.