ABSTRACT
Tiwanaku incorporated or interacted intensively with many regions far outside of the Lake Titicaca Basin, including the Cochabamba region southeast of the altiplano (Anderson and Céspedes 1998; Céspedes 2000), Azapa in northern Chile (Berenguer and Dauelsberg 1989), and Moquegua in southern Peru (Goldstein 1989, 1993). Most such regions are valley zones lower in altitude and more seasonal in climate than the altiplano, and thus amenable to producing a variety of goods-ají peppers, fruits, coca, and especially maize-to complement the rather limited range of staples available in the altiplano. In such valleys, interaction is generally considered to have been most intensive from AD 700 to 1000. Most substantial archaeological research has been conducted in the Moquegua region of the Osmore drainage, a warm, relatively small valley (900-2000 meters above sea level) surrounded by arid sierra deserts almost three hundred kilometers from the Tiwanaku core.
