TIAHUANACO--COLOSSAL REMAINS OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATION
“When the Memnonium was in all its glory,
And time had not begun to overthrow
Those palaces and piles stupendous,
Of which the very ruins are tremendous!”
The traveller’s famous soliloquy in the presence of the mummy of Thebes
comes to mind as one contemplates the giant walls and huge monoliths of
Tiahuanaco, which, so far as science has been able to discover, was in
the height of its splendor when Baalbec and Luxor were new, and before
King Solomon had built his wonderful temple.
[Illustration: A VASE FOUND AT TIAHUANACO, OF EXQUISITE
COLORS.]
Who were the architects and builders of these palaces and temples?
And whence came the colossal blocks of granite to construct them in
the midst of what is now a level plateau? One looks helplessly at the
hieroglyphics, to which no key has yet been found, and is informed
only that scientists have discovered in these picture writings the
popular worship of a great deity, Viracocha, who was the god of the
ancient builders. As represented in the carvings on the temple doorway,
Viracocha holds in each hand a sceptre,--or, is it a key, symbolic
of his possessing the innermost treasures of the secret chambers of
wisdom? Viracocha, according to the traditions that prevail among the
Aymará inhabitants of this region, was not a war god, but a wise and
beneficent deity who, rising out of waters of Lake Titicaca, created
the sun, the moon, and the stars, plants, animals, and men, and who
made his omnipotence felt throughout the world by performing deeds
of great wisdom. The two sceptres differ in form and appearance. Some
authorities believe that they symbolize the double sovereignty of
Viracocha over the religious and political destinies of the people. The
half-kneeling figures which surround him have the attitude of rulers
rendering homage to their greater chief, not in abject obeisance, but
with head erect, bending only one knee, and holding a sceptre. Perhaps
they represent the kingdoms of the earth, or political sovereignty,
inferior only to the Omnipotence that rules both heaven and earth. In
the opinion of many students, the carving on the great doorway is to
be interpreted as picturing the adoration of the god Viracocha by his
angels, an idea that would give their sceptres a religious rather than
a political significance. In any case, the hieroglyphics show nothing
suggestive of war, so notable a feature of Egyptian carvings.
It seems incredible that a people who were sufficiently advanced in
culture to build such stupendous works of architecture as those of
Tiahuanaco, and to whom the art of picture writing was known, should
have left no trace of their existence in the historical records of
antiquity. The legends of a “lost Atlantis” and a “lost Lemuria” may
yet be accounted for by the complete change which has apparently been
wrought on the American continent, at some period, through a cataclysm
which left only a few vestiges of anterior civilization in this part
of the world. Whether the destructive action originated in the Pacific
Ocean, from the same centre of disturbance as that which at some time
in geologic history upheaved the Andes in America and built the chain
of volcanoes that extends all the way from New Zealand to Kamchatka in
the Orient, or whether the change was wrought on the Atlantic side, the
proofs seem equally well established that closer communication once
existed between America and the Eastern Hemisphere. The liability of
the earth to volcanic and seismic disturbances, at least within the
records of modern times, has been more pronounced in the Pacific Ocean
than in the Atlantic; and the ancient ruins in the scattered islands of
the Pacific, their great monoliths and curious hieroglyphics, appear to
afford more evidences of such a change than anything so far discovered
in the Atlantic. According to the best scientific authorities, the
origin of these monuments may be even more remote than those of Egypt,
since nothing exists to prove their exact antiquity. Archæologists may
yet find proofs that the earliest civilization on the globe had its
chief centre in America, and that its people were the ancestors, not
the descendants, of Asiatic races.
The origin of the word Tiahuanaco is a disputed question, as is
everything else which relates to this locality. Garcilaso de la Vega
derives it from two Quichua words, _tiay, huanaco_, meaning “sit
down, huanaco,” and says it originated in an exclamation of the Inca
Maita-Ccapac to his fleet-footed messenger. It is more reasonable to
suppose that the name is Aymará, from _tia_, meaning “border”
or “bank,” and _huañaco_, meaning “dried,” equivalent to “dried
bank.” Many other interpretations are given. Archbishop Taborga, in a
scholarly study of the word, derives it neither from the Quichua nor
the Aymará, but from the language of the Mayas of Yucatan, according
to which it would mean “the country above the waters of the omnipotent
God.” One authority says an analysis of the word proves the repetition
ten times of the word “water.” According to Dr. Escobari, a learned
philologist who has made a special study of the Aymará language, the
word is composed of three words, _thia-wana-haka_, which mean “the
man of the dry coast.” Another derivation is secured by the elision
of the first syllable of _inti_, meaning “sun,” which results in
_Ti-wuan-hake_, “the city of the Children of the Sun.” A Bolivian
linguist, Dr. Emeterio Vilamil, believes the word comes from _Ti_,
which is a variation of _Tien_ of China, _Teotl_ of Mexico,
and _Theos_ of the Greeks, with the following syllables making
_Ti-wan-aca_, “this is of God.” The best authorities say the name
was suggested by some great deluge.
In the many legends and traditions attributed to the people who built
Tiahuanaco the predominating feature is the account of a great flood;
and a German astronomer who visited these interesting ruins some years
ago believes Viracocha to be a god of the deluge. He says of the
hieroglyphics which adorn the façade of the temple: “In these figures
it is necessary to distinguish two things, the allegory itself and the
other drawings, which at first sight appear to be merely symmetrical
adornments. The allegory represents the figure of a man or god, who
holds in each hand a symbol that expresses the uniting of the attribute
of lightning with the downpour of rain. From his eyes fall teardrops,
but in combination with the sign of lightning. His head is encircled
in rays, which are not rays of light, but signs of lightning and rain
being discharged simultaneously. All the adornments of his clothing
show the symbol of water; and even the head is not round, but has the
shape of a letter or character which signifies ‘water.’ In the middle
of the figure and on the head is clearly shown the drawing of a ship,
which is again seen in the centre of the hieroglyphic under the feet.
This figure does not merely speak, but cries out with a clear voice,
comprehensible to all the world, that it is not an insignificant matter
that is here treated, something of indifferent importance for history,
but that it is an effort to narrate to posterity a great fact worthy
of remembrance, a marvellous phenomenon of nature, the phenomenon of
extraordinary rains with thunder and lightning, and of a catastrophe
which occurred not only in this region but throughout the world.”
It must be confessed that it requires a great stretch of the
imagination to trace in the figure carved over the doorway of the
ancient temple in Tiahuanaco the symbols of rain and lightning referred
to, or even the drawings of ships; furthermore, the winged rulers
kneeling before their greater sovereign do not seem to bear out the
diluvial idea. But the study of this enigma affords wide latitude
for original speculation, and the last word has not yet been said.
Archæologists who have made even a few excavations find that the ground
within a radius of more than three square miles shows evidences of a
buried population; and to a depth of from five to fifteen feet buried
walls, adorned by images in relief, have been unearthed, while the
soil seems to be full of bones, human and animal, as far down as the
excavations have been made.
If it was merely a local deluge that inspired the traditions of the
ancient inhabitants, such as the flooding of the basin which lies
between the two ranges of the Andes, now known as the Altaplanicie,
the older civilization must have existed prior to that event, and the
later one after the waters had begun to recede, or else Tiahuanaco may
have been on a peninsula of the lake submerged for a time. According to
some authorities this is the explanation of the two or three distinct
periods of culture found in its ruins. Little has been done so far
toward finding out the secrets of this wonderful place. The Bolivian
government has prohibited promiscuous excavations, preferring that the
work shall be done systematically on a practical basis by experienced
archæologists. Formerly Tiahuanaco was everybody’s property, and
mammoth rocks, once hewn to build a temple to the ancient deity, were
applied to the unromantic needs of a country courthouse. It was no
unusual sight to observe a shepherd herding his flock in a corral made
of the stones of the ancient palace, and on the road to La Paz there
still stands a colossal idol, of frightful mien, which serves to mark
the distance in leagues from that spot to the city. This figure was to
have been taken to the museum, but for some reason the transportation
was interrupted. It will no doubt be placed there soon, as that
institution is being fitted up with a most valuable historical and
scientific collection.
[Illustration: MONOLITH SHOWING HIEROGLYPHICS, TIAHUANACO.]
[Illustration: RUINS OF THE DOORWAY OF THE TEMPLE,
TIAHUANACO.]
The traveller in Bolivia finds a visit to Tiahuanaco both instructive
and entertaining. The trains which run daily between La Paz and
Guaqui stop so close to the famous ruins that one of the ancient
rocks stands directly in the way as the passenger alights from the
car. It is a great square slab, apparently intended to be used in the
construction of one of the unfinished temples or palaces, or as a
sacrificial stone, but was left in this spot, as similar huge rocks
were, either abandoned because of some great calamity, or forgotten
during the sudden onslaught of an enemy who drove the workmen from the
scene, never to return. Indeed, much of the architecture of Tiahuanaco
represents unfinished temples and palaces. The most conspicuous rock
is that of the Puerta del Sol, as the great doorway of the temple is
called, meaning “door of the sun,” its hieroglyphics being especially
interesting. It measures ten feet in height, thirteen feet in width,
and nearly two feet in thickness, and its weight is about ten tons.
The carving of the design on its face is only partly finished, showing
a space where the artist had made merely the outlines of the design,
and at which he was evidently working when the place was suddenly
abandoned. Colossal blocks of stone lie scattered about, some of which
are estimated as weighing not less than a thousand tons. The rock used
for the foundations of the palace Tunca Punco, for the obelisks, and
for the largest of the columns of this great structure, is porphyry of
fine grain, of red-brown color, with small white spots, and of parallel
structure. Quartz porphyry is by no means rare in this neighborhood. It
is the opinion of the best authorities that these rocks were brought
from a hill five miles away by the same system of inclined planes as
that used by the Egyptians in transporting heavy stones for their
pyramids and temples. The process of dividing these huge masses of rock
is supposed to have been by the expansive action of water on wooden
wedges. Señor Don Arturo Posnansky, of the Geographic Society of La
Paz, who has made the Tiahuanaco stones a special study for several
years, and whose splendid photographs of this interesting place are
reproduced in this chapter, finds that many of the monoliths of Puma
Punco, the locality in which stands the carved doorway of the temple,
are made of volcanic lava. He gives an entertaining explanation of
their origin and the process of formation: “The material was probably
brought from the Cerro de Japia, an extinct volcano situated on
the Isthmus of Yunguyo, where the peninsula of Copacabana joins the
mainland, about fifty miles distant from Tiahuanaco. The founders of
the ancient city made use of the liquid lava of this volcano, which
was at that time in eruption, bringing it, by means of canals, to the
foot of the mountain, where it flowed into earthen moulds, a primitive
method employed to-day in the moulding of liquid iron. In Tiahuanaco
are found moulds which indicate that they were used for casting the
idols, their outlines having the same appearance as those which are now
used in casting iron.”
There is something intensely interesting in the aspect of these
colossal ruins, from whatever standpoint they are viewed. Speculation
as to the probable uses for which this or that block was intended has
resulted in the popular naming of each of these huge pieces. “The
Inca’s writing desk” is the name given to a cyclopean cube, which is
carved as if for the purpose of holding writing materials, and other
accessories of the writing table. There is also “the Inca’s bath,” the
table of the officiating authority in the Palace of Justice, the grand
stairway to the throne room of the great palace, and a number of other
furnishings, any of which would be worthy of adorning the colossal
ancient palaces of Egypt, from their size and the finished style of
their architecture. So wonderful is the perfection of these stones, the
apparently carefully chiselled outlines, the exquisite carvings, the
well polished surfaces, that the best sculptor of our day, making use
of the finest steel chisels and other instruments, could not improve
upon the work. It is, of course, only by popular use that the name of
the Inca has been associated with these remains, as it is known that
the Incas who first visited Collasuyo found these monumental ruins in
the same condition as they are at present.
[Illustration: ARCHED GATEWAYS OF TIAHUANACO.]
The general view of Tiahuanaco shows that one of its most conspicuous
features is an artificial hill, which is built on a base made of huge
rocks cut and squared, and which rises to a height of fifty feet,
being about six hundred and twenty feet in length and four hundred
and fifty feet in width. It is built in three terraces, superposed
concentrically. This hill, or _cerro_, stands between the colossal
sculptures of Tunca Punco on one side and the massive, carved doorway,
and neighboring idols of Puma Punco. The purpose of the _cerro_
is not known, though it is believed by some authorities to have been
built as an inclined plane to be used in hoisting the huge rocks into
place on the walls of the palace, having lost its original form in
consequence of the many changes that succeeding ages have wrought.
Others think it may be a burial place of the ancient kings.
[Illustration: PORTAL OF A CHURCH, TIAHUANACO.]
[Illustration: CYCLOPEAN STONES OF TUNCA PUNCO, TIAHUANACO.]
Over the entire area are to be seen the beginnings of various
structures, and at the base of the great carved doorway of the temple
recent excavations have been made which add another element of mystery
to this archæological problem of the West. The huge idols, of which
there are several, made in human form and measuring from ten to fifteen
feet in height in standing posture, occupy a prominent place in the
ruins. They are curious-looking figures, more primitively fashioned
than the ancient Egyptian idols, and bearing some resemblance to the
monuments of Easter Island, in the South Pacific, the shape of the
head and character of the features suggesting those crude relics of
antiquity. But the Tiahuanaco figures are better carved than the
Easter Island idols, and show many hieroglyphics on the arms and on
the cincture around the body. Curiosity makes the study of these
enigmatical signs a fascinating pastime, and any day a group may be
seen making an effort at the interpretation of this wonderful language.
It does not seem reasonable to suppose that they mean nothing more
than adornment, since primitive people of all races have attached the
greatest importance to the written sign, and rarely carved anything on
the rocks which was not intended to serve the purpose of chronology.
The preservation of records is such a marked tendency among all
human beings that the least cultured savage can tell something about
the achievements of his ancestors. What more natural than that the
hieroglyphics on these idols should have been carved there to relate
deeds of valor or of wisdom performed by the great personages in
whose honor they were set up? In front of the doorway of the church
in the plaza of Tiahuanaco two idols in sitting posture at once
attract attention, seeming to symbolize the harmony between the old
religion and the new, and testifying, with silent eloquence, to the
universal character of the Christian faith, in which all beliefs are
spiritualized and given a more lofty significance. No doubt, these
chiselled figures were originally designed to adorn the altar of the
ancient pagan temple, and perhaps they were to have had a place near
the throne of the great Viracocha. The idols standing in the square
beyond the temple doorway were probably also intended to occupy
important niches in the palace or the temple.
[Illustration: ANCIENT DOORWAY, CARVED OUT OF SOLID ROCK,
TIAHUANACO.]
The builders of Tiahuanaco have left the usual signs of their culture
in pottery, woven cloths, metal implements, and similar articles.
The visitor to Tiahuanaco to-day is pressed by a little barefooted
Indian of the Aymarás to buy a _huaca_ as a souvenir; and in the
midst of the most sentimental reverie, during which the imagination
may be travelling into realms of the past with a free rein, stimulated
by the inspiration of these colossal relics, it is not unusual to be
interrupted with: _Señora, cincuenta centavos no más para una huaca
rica y fina!_--“Only fifty cents, madam, for a _huaca_!” As
very few of these Indians speak Spanish, the bargaining is usually
done through an interpreter. But it is far more interesting to find
one’s own _huacas_. All relics, whether of pottery, metal, or
whatever character, are called _huacas_, and it is a term so
generally used that it is applied to mummies and burial mounds, as
well as to the articles manufactured by these ancient people. Some of
the _huacas_ are very curiously wrought, and indicate advanced
culture in the race by whom they were made. Exquisite vases of a very
durable pottery have been found in these ruins, showing that the art of
coloring was possessed to a remarkable extent, the process of which has
been lost. The use of copper was known, and many of the implements were
made of this metal.
[Illustration: STONE HEADS EXCAVATED AMONG THE RUINS OF
TIAHUANACO.]
But the predominating question, in the presence of the monuments,
idols, and other emblems of ancient culture at Tiahuanaco, is: Why
did these builders choose such a site for their colossal edifices?
As a fortress it could have served little purpose against invaders,
from its singularly isolated situation, unless the conditions were
then totally different from what they are now. Apparently, the
palace was not being built in the centre of any great population,
and the temple could hardly be filled with worshippers in a region
so unfavorable, on account of soil and climate, to the development
of a rich and prosperous empire. There is something indicative of
Oriental worshippers in this choice of a spot removed from the
centres of political activity for the erection of palaces and temples
for religious purposes. Was it a holy city, like Mecca or Benares?
Speculation fails to explain satisfactorily the existence of these
remarkable ruins, and it is devoutly to be hoped that science will
seriously investigate the problem. A North American lady, Mrs. Phœbe
Hearst, has earned the gratitude of all students of archæology by
devoting a share of her large fortune to this purpose, and three
expeditions have been equipped and sent out to South America through
her generosity. They were placed under the direction of Professor
Max Uhle, a noted archæologist, who is still engaged in the work
of studying and classifying the antiquities of Bolivia and Peru.
A fine collection, secured during the first expedition, adorns
the archæological department of the Museum of Art and Science in
Philadelphia. From the second expedition a valuable collection has
been made for the museum of the University of California. The third
expedition has not yet completed the work undertaken, but there is
every reason to believe that the results will prove of the greatest
importance to science. The most important museums of the world possess
collections from the ruins of Lake Titicaca and Tiahuanaco, but it
is doubtful whether any other monument of antiquity presents to the
modern world a more difficult enigma than Tiahuanaco, the Sphinx of the
Occident.
[Illustration: IDOL OF UNKNOWN ANTIQUITY, TIAHUANACO.]
[Illustration: RUINS OF AN UNFINISHED STAIRWAY, TIAHUANACO.]
[Illustration: HARVESTING COCA IN THE YUNGAS.]