The world's most artful and skillful stone architecture is found at Tiahuanaco at the southern end of Lake Titicaca in Bolivia. The precision of the stone masonry rivals that of the Incas to the point that writers from Spanish chroniclers of the sixteenth century to twentieth-century authors have claimed that Tiahuanaco not only served as a model for Inca architecture and stone masonry, but that the Incas even imported stonemasons from the Titicaca Basin to construct their buildings. Experiments aimed at replicating the astounding feats of the Tiahuanaco stonecutters--perfectly planar surfaces, perfect exterior and interior right angles, and precision to within 1 mm--throw light on the stonemasons' skill and knowledge, especially of geometry and mathematics. Detailed analyses of building stones yield insights into the architecture of Tiahuanaco, including its appearance, rules of composition, canons, and production, filling a significant gap in the understanding of Tiahuanaco's material culture.
Author(s): Jean-Pierre Protzen, Stella Nair
Series: Monograph (Book 75)
Publisher: The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press
Year: 2013
Language: English
Pages: 253
City: Los Angeles, CA, USA
Tags: Tiwanaku, Tiahuanaco, Puma Punku, Pumapunku, Akapana, Architecture, Bolivia, Putuni, Kalasasaya, andesite, sandstone, basalt, bronze, Stonework
The Monuments Compared - 82
Part II: Design and Construction
Chapter 3: Design - 89
Design Elements - 89
Stones and Stone Fragments - 95
Full-Sized Gateways and Gateway Fragments - 114
More Diagnostic Features - 132
Some Questions of Style - 133
Chapter 4: Architectural Configurations - 136
Dimensions, Proportions, and Compositions - 136
Architectural Configurations - 141
More Questions of Style - 147
Tiahuanaco Architecture: Some Unresolved Issues - 149
Chapter 5: The Art of Stonecutting - 154
First Clues - 155
An Experiment - 155
The Experiment Compared to Field Observations - 163
Variations in Stonecutting Techniques - 169
The Skill and Art of the Tiahuanaco Stonecutters - 173
Chapter 6: Construction - 175
Quarrying - 175
Transporting - 180
Stone Fitting, Laying, and Handling - 181
Construction and Details - 188
Tool Kit - 199
Conclusion - 201
Tiahuanaco Inventions - 202
Design, Technology, and Culture - 208
Epilogue - 211
Appendix 1: On the Names of Monuments - 214
Appendix 2: On Dimensions and Proportions - 217
References Cited - 223
Index - 227
About the Authors - 233
