A Bayesian Re-Assessment of the Earliest Radiocarbon Dates from Tiwanaku, Bolivia

Bibliographic Data

ID9242558
AuthorsErik J Marsh
Year2012
Volume54
Issue02
Pages203-218
Publication date2012-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueRadiocarbon (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0033-8222 • E-ISSN: 1945-5755
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0033822200046932
OpenAlexW4236145267
LanguageEN
Citations received30
References cited27

The development of sociopolitical complexity at Tiwanaku around AD 500 was one of the major episodes of social change in the history of the Lake Titicaca Basin. It was the result of poorly understood processes that took place at a series of ceremonial centers in the preceding centuries. The history of Tiwanaku during this time is especially unclear, because the only radiocarbon dates are from excavations whose details were never completely published. Despite this, there is consensus that Tiwanaku was founded around 300 BC. A re-evaluation of the archaeological context of each of these dates shows many of them to be unreliable. Two Bayesian models from independent excavations agree that Tiwanaku was in fact founded centuries later, most likely around AD 110 (50-170, 1σ). This has important implications for widely used monolith and ceramic sequences, as well as understanding the rise of Tiwanaku and other archaic states

Archaeology · Chronology · Excavation · Geography · Radiocarbon dating · Structural basin · Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · History · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies · Geology · Paleontology