Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 30, 2026

Soil Lysimeter Excavation for Coupled Hydrological, Geochemical, and Microbiological Investigations
Published on: September 11, 2016
War and early state formation in the northern Titicaca Basin, Peru
Charles Stanish1, Abigail Levine
1Cotsen Institute of Archaeology and Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA. stanish@anthro.ucla.edu
Abstract:
Excavations at the site of Taraco in the northern Titicaca Basin of southern Peru indicate a 2,600-y sequence of human occupation beginning ca. 1100 B.C.E. Previous research has identified several political centers in the region in the latter part of the first millennium B.C.E. The two largest centers were Taraco, located near the northern lake edge, and Pukara, located 50 km to the northwest in the grassland pampas. Our data reveal that a high-status residential section of Taraco was burned in the first century A.D., after which economic activity in the area dramatically declined. Coincident with this massive fire at Taraco, Pukara adopted many of the characteristics of state societies and emerged as an expanding regional polity. We conclude that organized conflict, beginning approximately 500 B.C.E., is a significant factor in the evolution of the archaic state in the northern Titicaca Basin.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Water and Mineral Acquisition
Robbers Cave
The Colonization of Land
States of Water
Water freezes when the intermolecular forces are greater than the kinetic energy. Unlike most other substances, water is less dense in its solid state than in its liquid state. This is because each water molecule can form...
Tidal Forces
Precipitation Processes

