ABSTRACT
We present evidence to suggest that Tiwanaku’s efforts at expanding its political influence beyond the Tiwanaku Valley involved developing relationships, framed in ritual terms, with crucial settlements located along the Desaguadero River. We argue that these efforts amount to an attempt to exercise control over the Desaguadero caravan circuit. Important politico-religious centers like Khonkho Wankane and Tiwanaku developed as nodes, or ‘axis-settlements’, along this important circuit. The importance of long-distance camelid caravans to the development of political complexity in the southern Lake Titicaca basin of the Bolivian Andes was coincident with the increasing importance of camelids to lifeways in the southern Lake Titicaca basin. At the close of the Late Formative, Tiwanaku began to grow in size and influence, and we explore the importance of caravans to Tiwanaku efforts at expanding its political control outside of its core, Tiwanaku valley territory.
