ABSTRACT
About the time pottery first appears in the Andean region (c. 1800 bce), simultaneously in coastal and highland areas but spreading erratically over several centuries, putative state institutions were emerging from chiefdoms constituted over large settlements of multi-kinship groups. As in Mesoamerica, and most other early cultures, Andean religion developed from animism, venerating natural phenomena in venerable places (huacas), to the deification of nature's forces emanating from earth and sky, particularly those proffering or retaining water. Highland platforms supported exclusive ritual enclosures with cermonial hearths, as at La Galgarda in the Santa River uplands where the chambers were later used for interment and ultimately surmounted by a U-shaped complex. The site on the Bolivian shore of Lake Titicaca, 3842 metres above sea level, first occupied c. 1500 BCE, is divided into rectangular zones perhaps by streets: cardinal axes have been detected. The heirs of both Chimu and Tiahuanaco, cultural, political and economic, the Incas built on their prosperity and experience.
