Archaeology: “Tiahuanaco: Gateway to the Gods”

“Tiahuanaco: Gateway to the Gods”
by Dan Eden
.

“Ask most people who are the oldest civilization or where the oldest
civilization lived and you’ll hear answers like Mesopotamia (Iraq),
Egypt or Iran. While these cultures can be traced back to 4000 B.C., the
mysterious ruins of Tiahuanaco, in Bolivia, could be 14,000 years old!
If you think the Great Pyramid in Egypt is a technological marvel, wait
until you see what artists and engineers were doing in Tiahuanaco. This
culture thrived at the breathless, oxygen deprived elevation of 13,000
feet. They managed to somehow move stones weighing up to 200 tons and
invented modular building techniques that would even today, be cutting
edge.

The
most famous icon of the archaeological site at Tiahuanaco is the Sun
Gate. This structure has been described as a “calendar” almost as long
as the monolithic gateway has been known to exist; thus the Sun Gate has
also been called ‘the Calendar Gate’. This calendar sculpture, though
it undoubtedly depicts a “solar year,” cannot however be made to fit
into the solar year as we divide it at present. The calendar has only
290 days, divided into 12 “twelfths” of 24 days each, plus 2 intercalary
days.

Some researchers have attempted to explain this as being a ritualistic
calendar while others have claimed that, 14,000 years ago, the length of
a year was somehow different from today. Still others believe that it
may represent a year on some another planet. Extraterrestrial
connections were first suggested by Eric von Danken and have been
perpetuated by discoveries of the apparent advanced knowledge that
Tiahuanacan engineers seemed to possess – thousands of years ahead of
other cultures.

Analysis of this culture has shown that ancient Tiahuanacan scientists
knew that the earth was a globe which rotated on its axis and they
calculated exactly the times of eclipses – even those not visible at
Tiahuanaco but visible in the opposite hemisphere. Scientists have also
ascertained that the Tiahuanacans divided the circle mathematically into
264 degrees (rather than 360 as was initiated by the Babylonians); they
determined the correct ratio of pi (22/7), and they could calculate
squares (and hence, square roots).

Carved
stone block at Puma Punku. This precision-made 6 mm wide groove
contains equidistant, drilled holes. It seems impossible that these
highly precision cuts were made with use of stone or soft copper tools.
The purpose of these alterations is not known, but it has been suggested
that gold or bronze plates might have been affixed to the walls. Others
suggest the giant stone blocks were locked together with metal.
.

The modular technique allows the blocks to be mass produced on site and
assembled in a variety of configurations. This technique appears at
Tiahuanaco fully developed with no prior evidence of experimentation.
Where did the engineers of this era get their ideas or experience? Why
is this the only example of modular construction in the ancient world?
These are but some of the many questions remaining to be answered at
this remarkable site.

The fact that the culture of Tiahuanaco appeared fully developed in this
high altitude, arid and inhospitable land is a real puzzle. Almost
immediately they seem to have used advanced building techniques like
modular construction. Huge blocks were carved from single stones and
designed to fit together on the site with exact precision and artistic
style. These techniques were only developed by modern builders in the
last century. The massive blocks are extremely stable, resisting both
time and earthquakes. But how were they made, transported and
positioned, apparently by hand?

Tiahuanaco
is located on the Southern shore of Lake Titicaca. Puma Punku [Above],
Southwest of the temple structure, truly staggers the imagination. In
the past, the lake was much higher and its shores lapped Tiahuanaco.
Near the site, at a site called Puma Punku, there is a massive,
four-part, now collapsed building. One of the construction blocks from
the pier was fashioned from a stone block that weighs an estimated 440
tons (equal to nearly 200 full-size cars). Several other blocks are
between 100 and 150 tons. The quarry for these giant blocks was on the
western shore of Titicaca, some ten miles away. There is no known
technology in all the ancient world that could have transported stones
of such massive weight and size. The Andean people of 500 AD, with their
simple reed boats, could certainly not have moved them. Even today,
with all the modern advances in engineering and mathematics, we could
not fashion such a structure.

The region was believed to have been populated by about 100,000 people
at its peak. This estimate is based on the amount of pottery and other
artifacts that remain and the total land area (more than 400 acres).
Because this large population would require a significant food source,
many scientists doubted that this was possible, especially at 13,000
feet. Thin air drops the ambient temperature to below freezing at night
causing a frost that kills most plants. Recently, however, an aerial
survey of the site revealed the solution. Multiple grid and maze like
structures throughout Tiahuanaco, visible only because of the
discoloration of the underlying soil, were discovered to be an ancient
network of gardens and canals, capable of growing potatoes and other
crops.

The plan was ingenious. Canals were placed in grids that surrounded the
narrow gardens. The depth of these canals was kept to from 24 to 30
inches so that the strong daytime sunlight could easily warm the water.
In the evening, when the frigid air caused frost, the canals vented
their stored heat in the form of a fog. This kept the temperature around
the plants elevated above freezing and also helped irrigate them. It is
interesting to note that the canals were constructed in a well planned
and artistic pattern. This further indicated the intellect and aesthetic
appreciation of this culture.

How old is this site? The age of Tiahuanaco is difficult to assess and
very controversial. Polish-born Bolivian archaeologist Arturo Posnansky
has concluded that the Tiahuanaco culture began in the region at about
1600 B.C. and flourished until at least 1200 A.D. His disciple,
Professor Hans Schindler-Bellamy, believed Tiahuanaco to have reached
back 12,000 years before the present era, although a more conservative
Peruvian archaeologist. More recently, other archaeologists have pushed
back the date to an amazing 14,000 years ago.

The controversy arises because most of the datable artifacts are from
the more recent past, while the stone megaliths and other structures do
not lend themselves to dating techniques like Carbon 14. Many stone
pieces have been uncovered from more than six feet of earth. The
mountain ranges which surround the area are not high enough to permit
sufficient runoff of water or wind erosion to have covered the ruins to
such a depth. This suggests a very old date as the accumulation of
sediment is slow in this arid land.

There is also evidence that architectural structures exist at the bottom
of Lake Titicaca, suggesting that the civilization existed before the
lake was formed. Many scientists believe that the lake formed during
some great flood and find similar legends around the world of a flood
dating back thousands of years. The local legend contains reference to
this flood in their creation myth.

The religion of Tiahuanaco centered around the cult of a sky and thunder
god Viracocha. The deity was generally depicted as having staves in
both of his hands and an aureole around his head. The aureole suggests
the qualities of a sun god, represented on the bas-relief in the upper
part of the famous Sun Gate in Tiahuanaco. According to legend, the
world was created by Viracocha near Lake Titicaca. After the great
deluge or the receding of chaotic floodwaters Viracocha descended to
earth and created plants, animals and men to the empty land; he built
the city of Tiahuanaco and appointed 4 world rulers of whom Manco Capak
became the superior of the Ursa Major world, i.e. the north horizon
(Busto II 1981: 7).

The lake appears to lack a source, such as a river or stream, and there
is proof that it is slowly evaporating and its shoreline receding with
the passage of time. To date, there has been no satisfactory explanation
of how the lake was formed in the first place. This is just one of many
mysteries of the region and ranks Tiahuanaco as one of the top ten
mysterious places on Earth.”

- http://www.mondovista.com/tia.html