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Akapana
Akapana (Akkapana) is an artificial platform mound (sometimes referred to as a pyramid) at the pre-Columbian archaeological site of Tiwanaku in Bolivia, located in the department of La Paz. It is composed of seven levels of platforms contained by carved sandstone walls. The Akapana is a "half Andean Cross"-shaped structure that is 257 m wide, 197 m broad at its maximum, and 16.5 m tall. At its center appears to have been a sunken court. This was nearly destroyed by a deep looters excavation that extends from the center of this structure to its eastern side. Material from the looter's excavation was dumped off the eastern side of the Akapana. A staircase is present on its western side. Possible residential complexes might have occupied both the northeast and southeast corners of this structure. Originally, the Akapana was thought to have been developed from a modified hill. Twenty-first-century studies have shown that it is an entirely man-made earthen mound, faced with a mixture ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tiwanaku
Tiwanaku ( or ) is a Pre-Columbian archaeological site in western Bolivia, near Lake Titicaca, about 70 kilometers from La Paz, and it is one of the largest sites in South America. Surface remains currently cover around 4 square kilometers and include decorated ceramics, monumental structures, and megalithic blocks. It has been conservatively estimated that the site was inhabited by 10,000 to 20,000 people in AD 800. The site was first recorded in written history in 1549 by Spanish conquistador Pedro Cieza de León while searching for the southern Inca capital of Qullasuyu. Jesuit chronicler of Peru Bernabé Cobo reported that Tiwanaku's name once was ''taypiqala'', which is Aymara meaning "stone in the center", alluding to the belief that it lay at the center of the world. The name by which Tiwanaku was known to its inhabitants may have been lost as they had no written language. Heggarty and Beresford-Jones suggest that the Puquina language is most likely to have been the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tiwanaku Polity
The Tiwanaku polity ( or ) was a Pre-Columbian polity in western Bolivia based in the southern Lake Titicaca Basin. Tiwanaku was one of the most significant Andean civilizations. Its influence extended into present-day Peru and Chile and lasted from around 600 to 1000. Its capital was the monumental city of Tiwanaku, located at the center of the polity's core area in the southern Lake Titicaca Basin. This area has clear evidence for large-scale agricultural production on raised fields that probably supported the urban population of the capital. Researchers debate whether these fields were administered by a bureaucratic state (top-down) or through a federation of communities with local autonomy (bottom-up; see review of debate in Janusek 2004:57-73). Tiwanaku was once thought to be an expansive military empire, based mostly on comparisons to the later Inca Empire. However, recent research suggests that labelling Tiwanaku as an empire or even a state may be misleading. Tiwanaku is mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pumapunku
Pumapunku or Puma Punku (Aymara language, Aymara and Quechua language, Quechua 'Gate of the Puma') is a 6th-century T-shaped and strategically aligned Artificiality, man-made terraced platform mound with a Sunken courtyard, sunken court and monumental structure on top, near Tiwanaku, La Paz, Bolivia. It is part of the Pumapunku complex, at the Tiwanaku Site, an ancient archeological complex in the Andes of western Bolivia that has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Pumapunku complex is a collection of plazas and ramps centered on the Pumapunku platform mound. Long ago the monumental complex on top of the Puma Punku platform mound deteriorated or was destroyed, and now only ruins remain of this feature. Construction of Puma Punku is believed to have begun after AD 536. Pumapunku was the most important construction in Tiwanaku, other than Akapana, which is believed to be "Pumapunku's twin". Among the place names in Tiwanaku, only the names "Akapana" and "Pumapunk ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chakana
The chakana or Andean cross (also "stepped cross", "step motif", or "stepped motif") is a stepped cross motif used by the Inca and pre-incan Andean societies. The most commonly used variation of this symbol today is made up of an equal-armed cross indicating the cardinal points of the compass and a superimposed square. Chakana means 'bridge', and means 'to cross over' in Quechuan languages, Quechua. The Andean cross motif appears in pre-contact artifacts such as textiles and ceramics from such cultures as the Chavín culture, Chavín, Wari, Chancay culture, Chancay, and Tiwanaku Empire, Tiwanaku, but with no particular emphasis and no key or guide to a means of interpretation. The anthropologist Alan Kolata calls the Andean cross "one of the most ubiquitous, if least understood elements in Tiwanaku iconography". The Andean cross symbol has a long cultural tradition spanning 4,000 years up to the Inca Empire. Andean cross with central eye motif Ancient Tiwanaku Qirus sometimes bea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kalasasaya
The Kalasasaya (also: Kalassasaya; ''kala'' for ''stone''; ''saya'' or ''sayasta'' for ''standing up'') or Stopped Stones is a major archaeological structure that is part of Tiwanaku, an ancient archeological complex in the Andes of western Bolivia that is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Kalasasaya is a low platform mound with a large courtyard, which is surrounded by high stone walls. The Kalasasaya is about 120 by 130 meters in dimension and aligned to the cardinal directions. Like the other platform mounds within Tiwanaku, it has a central sunken court. This sunken court can be reached by a monumental staircase through an opening in its eastern wall. The walls are composed of sandstone pillars that alternated with sections of smaller blocks of Ashlar masonry. This wall has been reconstructed in modern times. From 1957-1960 excavations took place at the site where all 4 walls were reconstructed along with the entrance gate. The Ponce Monolith is found within the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andesite
Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predominantly of sodium-rich plagioclase plus pyroxene or hornblende. Andesite is the extrusive equivalent of plutonic diorite. Characteristic of subduction zones, andesite represents the dominant rock type in island arcs. The average composition of the continental crust is andesitic. Along with basalts, andesites are a component of the Geology of Mars, Martian crust. The name ''andesite'' is derived from the Andes mountain range, where this rock type is found in abundance. It was first applied by Christian Leopold von Buch in 1826. Description Andesite is an aphanitic (fine-grained) to porphyritic (coarse-grained) igneous rock that is intermediate in its content of silica and low in alkali metals. It has less than 20% quartz and 10% feldspa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Platform Mound
A platform mound is any earthwork or mound intended to support a structure or activity. It typically refers to a flat-topped mound, whose sides may be pyramidal. In Eastern North America The indigenous peoples of North America built substructure mounds for well over a thousand years, starting in the Archaic period and continuing through the Woodland period. Many different archaeological cultures ( Poverty Point culture, Troyville culture, Coles Creek culture, Plaquemine culture and Mississippian culture) of North Americas Eastern Woodlands are specifically well known for using platform mounds as a central aspect of their overarching religious practices and beliefs. These platform mounds are usually four-sided truncated pyramids, steeply sided, with steps built of wooden logs ascending one side of the earthworks. When Europeans first arrived in North America, the peoples of the Mississippian culture were still using and building platform mounds. Documented uses for Mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pre-Columbian Era
In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European colonization of the Americas, European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage in 1492. This era encompasses the history of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous cultures prior to significant European influence, which in some cases did not occur until decades or even centuries after Columbus's arrival. During the pre-Columbian era, many civilizations developed permanent settlements, cities, agricultural practices, civic and monumental architecture, major Earthworks (archaeology), earthworks, and Complex society, complex societal hierarchies. Some of these civilizations had declined by the time of the establishment of the first permanent European colonies, around the late 16th to early 17th centuries, and are know ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bolivia
Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, warm valleys, high-altitude Andean plateaus, and snow-capped peaks, encompassing a wide range of climates and biomes across its regions and cities. It includes part of the Pantanal, the largest tropical wetland in the world, along its eastern border. It is bordered by Brazil to the Bolivia-Brazil border, north and east, Paraguay to the southeast, Argentina to the Argentina-Bolivia border, south, Chile to the Bolivia–Chile border, southwest, and Peru to the west. The seat of government is La Paz, which contains the executive, legislative, and electoral branches of government, while the constitutional capital is Sucre, the seat of the judiciary. The largest city and principal industrial center is Santa Cruz de la Sierra, located on the Geog ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
La Paz Department (Bolivia)
The La Paz Department of Bolivia comprises with a 2024 census population of 3,022,566 inhabitants. It is situated at the western border of Bolivia, sharing Lake Titicaca with the neighboring Peru. It contains the Cordillera Real mountain range, which reaches altitudes of . Northeast of the Cordillera Real are the '' Yungas'', the steep eastern slopes of the Andes Mountains that make the transition to the Amazon River basin to the northeast. The capital of the department is the city of La Paz and is the administrative city and seat of government/national capital of Bolivia. Provinces The Department of La Paz is divided into 20 provinces (''provincias'') which are further subdivided into 85 municipalities (''municipios'') and - on the fourth level - into cantons. The provinces with their capitals are: Government The chief executive office of Bolivia's departments (since May 2010) is the Governor; before then, the office was called the Prefect, and until 2006 the prefec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Looting
Looting is the act of stealing, or the taking of goods by force, typically in the midst of a military, political, or other social crisis, such as war, natural disasters (where law and civil enforcement are temporarily ineffective), or rioting. The proceeds of all these activities can be described as booty, loot, plunder, spoils, or pillage. Looting by a victorious army during war has been a common practice throughout recorded history. In the wake of the Napoleonic Wars and particularly after World War II, norms against wartime plunder became widely accepted. In modern armed conflicts, looting is prohibited by international law, and constitutes a war crime.Rule 52. Pillage is prohibited. ''Customary IHL Database'', International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)/Cambridge University Press. |
Mound
A mound is a wikt:heaped, heaped pile of soil, earth, gravel, sand, rock (geology), rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded area of topography, topographically higher elevation on any surface. Artificial mounds have been created for a variety of reasons throughout history, including habitation (see Tell (archaeology), Tell and Terp), ceremonial (platform mound), burial (tumulus), and commemorative purposes (e.g. Kościuszko Mound). Archaeology North American archaeology In the archaeology of the United States and Canada, a mound is a deliberately constructed elevated earthen structure or earthworks (engineering), earthwork, intended for a range of potential uses. In European and Asian archaeology, the word "tumulus" may be used as a synonym for an artificial hill, particularly if the hill is related to particular burial customs. While the term "mound" may ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
