0:00:06 > 0:00:08High in the Bolivian Andes
0:00:08 > 0:00:12stand the awe-inspiring ruins of a massive temple city.
0:00:14 > 0:00:18This is Tiwanaku, which means "the stone at the centre of the world".
0:00:21 > 0:00:23Over 1,000 years ago in this sacred site,
0:00:23 > 0:00:26ritual drinking and feasting
0:00:26 > 0:00:30fuelled the most powerful religion that South America had ever seen.
0:00:40 > 0:00:42I'm Jago Cooper
0:00:42 > 0:00:45and, as an archaeologist who specialises in South America,
0:00:45 > 0:00:48I've always been fascinated by the secrets and mysteries
0:00:48 > 0:00:52buried deep in these awe-inspiring and forbidding landscapes.
0:00:54 > 0:00:57The history of this continent has been dominated
0:00:57 > 0:01:00by the stories of the Inca and the Spanish conquistadors.
0:01:01 > 0:01:03'But in this series,
0:01:03 > 0:01:06'I'll be exploring an older, forgotten past...'
0:01:06 > 0:01:08Wow! We're inside the cave.
0:01:08 > 0:01:10'..travelling from the coast to the clouds
0:01:10 > 0:01:13'in search of ancient civilisations
0:01:13 > 0:01:17'as significant and impressive as anywhere else on Earth.'
0:01:23 > 0:01:26Here in Bolivia, the monolithic temple city of Tiwanaku
0:01:26 > 0:01:32stands at the breathtaking height of 13,000 feet above sea level.
0:01:32 > 0:01:36But Tiwanaku wasn't just a place, it was a people,
0:01:36 > 0:01:40who created a civilisation that lasted over 500 years.
0:01:41 > 0:01:44For centuries, it was a mystery how the Tiwanaku people
0:01:44 > 0:01:47managed to thrive in this desolate landscape.
0:01:49 > 0:01:51But now, archaeology has revealed
0:01:51 > 0:01:54evidence of astonishing community effort...
0:01:57 > 0:02:00..of a deep understanding of the environment...
0:02:00 > 0:02:02MEN CHANT
0:02:02 > 0:02:06..and, amazingly, how a crucial role in Tiwanaku's dominance
0:02:06 > 0:02:08was played by beer.
0:02:11 > 0:02:14Up here in these remote, high plains of Bolivia,
0:02:14 > 0:02:18I want to find out the truth behind the stories of the Tiwanaku people.
0:02:18 > 0:02:21How did their beliefs give them the power and ability
0:02:21 > 0:02:25to build a city of temples in this hostile and unforgiving land?
0:02:49 > 0:02:52The Altiplano, the high plain,
0:02:52 > 0:02:58forms a vast expanse 3,800 metres up in the Bolivian Andes...
0:03:00 > 0:03:02..part of the vast mountain range
0:03:02 > 0:03:06that forms a spine down western South America.
0:03:15 > 0:03:17Life's hard up here.
0:03:17 > 0:03:19The air's thin, it's difficult to breathe.
0:03:19 > 0:03:22Although daytime temperatures go over 20 degrees,
0:03:22 > 0:03:24at night, it drops well below freezing.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31The rainy season brings floods
0:03:31 > 0:03:34and, periodically, the area suffers catastrophic drought.
0:03:35 > 0:03:37To European eyes, this seems like
0:03:37 > 0:03:39the last place on Earth that humans would settle.
0:03:41 > 0:03:45Yet between around 600 and 1100 AD, a civilisation grew
0:03:45 > 0:03:48that eventually numbered a million people.
0:03:48 > 0:03:52This was the heartland of the Tiwanaku,
0:03:52 > 0:03:54and their influence stretched from here
0:03:54 > 0:03:57as far as Peru, Chile and Argentina.
0:04:02 > 0:04:04So what made life on one of the world's
0:04:04 > 0:04:09highest plateau regions possible? How did the Tiwanaku
0:04:09 > 0:04:13survive the thin air and temperature extremes up here?
0:04:13 > 0:04:17And how on earth did they travel any distance across this landscape?
0:04:19 > 0:04:20This is a country that,
0:04:20 > 0:04:23until the arrival of the Europeans in the 16th century,
0:04:23 > 0:04:25they saw no need for the use of the wheel
0:04:25 > 0:04:27and, driving around, you can see why.
0:04:27 > 0:04:29It's a really inhospitable terrain
0:04:29 > 0:04:32and it's much better to walk across it than to try and drive.
0:04:34 > 0:04:38But the Altiplano offers a different form of transport
0:04:38 > 0:04:43that people in this region began exploiting at least 6,000 years ago
0:04:43 > 0:04:47and I've come to the remote community of San Antonio Murce,
0:04:47 > 0:04:49where they still depend on it.
0:04:51 > 0:04:54There's one thing that makes this community viable,
0:04:54 > 0:04:55and it's the same thing
0:04:55 > 0:04:58that makes the communities in early Tiwanaku viable.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01And that's the animal unique to South America - the llama.
0:05:03 > 0:05:07THEY GREET EACH OTHER IN SPANISH
0:05:07 > 0:05:11'This is Marcelo Choqui. His family have lived here,
0:05:11 > 0:05:14'surviving as llama herders, for generations.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17'They are Aymara,
0:05:17 > 0:05:20'an indigenous Bolivian group descended from the Tiwanaku people
0:05:20 > 0:05:24'from whom we can learn a lot about how their ancestors lived.'
0:05:24 > 0:05:27CONVERSATION IN SPANISH CONTINUES
0:05:29 > 0:05:32'In common with many South American cultures,
0:05:32 > 0:05:36'it's the custom here to share coca leaves when you first meet.
0:05:36 > 0:05:38'But here on the Altiplano,
0:05:38 > 0:05:42'coca is also used to cope with the thin air you get at this altitude.'
0:06:12 > 0:06:14'So coca gave the Tiwanaku
0:06:14 > 0:06:17'the stamina to work at this airless height,
0:06:17 > 0:06:20'and the llama provided them with wool for the kind of clothing
0:06:20 > 0:06:23'needed to battle the temperature extremes up here.
0:06:23 > 0:06:28'Marcelo's daughter weaves it into vivid textiles.'
0:06:28 > 0:06:30The llama wool is so important for the communities here,
0:06:30 > 0:06:33not only cos it gets incredibly cold during the winters,
0:06:33 > 0:06:36but also because it was the thing they used for all their clothing.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39Here, they're using the same colours for this particular village
0:06:39 > 0:06:41that they've been using for hundreds of years.
0:06:46 > 0:06:50'But, of course, the llama wasn't just a source of wool and clothing.'
0:06:52 > 0:06:55So we're loading up the bags with some fertiliser,
0:06:55 > 0:06:58cos Marcelo's getting ready to start planting the crops for the year.
0:06:58 > 0:07:01We'll take the fertiliser, pack 'em on the llamas
0:07:01 > 0:07:03and take them up to the fields higher up in the mountains.
0:07:04 > 0:07:08They're going to use it to plant the potatoes in the fields
0:07:08 > 0:07:11and he says that's one of the only crops they can grow up here.
0:07:16 > 0:07:17'In this terrain,
0:07:17 > 0:07:21'the llama is Marcelo's four-wheel drive and his tractor.'
0:07:26 > 0:07:29The llama is uniquely built to travel huge distances
0:07:29 > 0:07:32up in these high altitudes over tough terrain.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36The problem is, at these high altitudes,
0:07:36 > 0:07:38I'm beginning to get a bit out of breath.
0:07:44 > 0:07:46'Llama herding was vital
0:07:46 > 0:07:49'for the earliest inhabitants of the Altiplano.
0:07:49 > 0:07:51'It fed and clothed them, and llama trains,
0:07:51 > 0:07:55'sometimes a mile long, would traverse the mountain passes
0:07:55 > 0:07:58'carrying goods and supplies between communities.
0:07:58 > 0:08:02'Yet, even today, I'm struck by how precarious
0:08:02 > 0:08:05'Marcelo and his family's existence seems to be.'
0:08:07 > 0:08:10It only takes one frost and he can lose half his crop
0:08:10 > 0:08:13and it gives you the sense of how harsh this environment is
0:08:13 > 0:08:15and how vulnerable they are,
0:08:15 > 0:08:18cos they're only growing enough food for themselves.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24'So a llama herd could support the subsistence lifestyle
0:08:24 > 0:08:27'that persisted until around 1000 BC.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30'But to become a dominant civilisation,
0:08:30 > 0:08:33'the Tiwanaku would've needed a far greater food supply.'
0:08:35 > 0:08:39To see how they did it, I'm heading to an area of the Altiplano
0:08:39 > 0:08:43where the Tiwanaku first began to emerge around 3,000 years ago,
0:08:43 > 0:08:45on the shores of an ancient lake.
0:08:54 > 0:08:58With a surface area of over 3,200 square miles,
0:08:58 > 0:09:02Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world.
0:09:04 > 0:09:08The region around the lake is known as the Titicaca Basin
0:09:08 > 0:09:13and archaeologists think that it was here, almost 3,000 years ago,
0:09:13 > 0:09:18that the Tiwanaku first started out as groups of subsistence farmers.
0:09:18 > 0:09:21It's more like an inland sea than a lake, really,
0:09:21 > 0:09:24and, for thousands of years, it's played two crucial roles
0:09:24 > 0:09:26for the people living along its shores.
0:09:26 > 0:09:29The first is that the lake has an ambient temperature
0:09:29 > 0:09:32which doesn't move around a lot, and that really helps create
0:09:32 > 0:09:35a microclimate of stability along these lake shores.
0:09:35 > 0:09:37And the second is that the sedimentation of the lake
0:09:37 > 0:09:40has created this really rich agricultural soil
0:09:40 > 0:09:42that you can see being used today.
0:09:42 > 0:09:44You can just see how rich they are.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47But compare this with the soils from higher up in the valley,
0:09:47 > 0:09:49you can see it just runs through the hands.
0:09:54 > 0:09:58So this is where the Tiwanaku started their subsistence life.
0:10:02 > 0:10:06But this high up, crops grown any distance from the local microclimate
0:10:06 > 0:10:10would've been vulnerable to frost or drought, limiting expansion.
0:10:12 > 0:10:14For the civilisation to grow,
0:10:14 > 0:10:19they had to find a way to cultivate land outside the lake's protection.
0:10:22 > 0:10:23And a little further inland,
0:10:23 > 0:10:26we can find the relics that explain how they did it.
0:10:29 > 0:10:33The early Tiwanaku didn't adapt to their landscape, they transformed it
0:10:33 > 0:10:36and, here at the site of Koani Pampa, you can see how.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44The Koani Pampa is a vast stretch of the Altiplano
0:10:44 > 0:10:46leading up from Lake Titicaca
0:10:46 > 0:10:51and these are the visible remains of ancient, ingenious engineering.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57These raised beds were an agricultural innovation
0:10:57 > 0:11:00that transformed the agricultural production in the region.
0:11:00 > 0:11:04They're really clever, because the water acted as a buffer to protect
0:11:04 > 0:11:08the crops in the raised beds against the harsh frosts you get here.
0:11:10 > 0:11:14Meltwater coming down from the snow and glaciers on the mountains
0:11:14 > 0:11:16irrigated the fields.
0:11:16 > 0:11:20The water in these trenches retained the heat of the daytime sun,
0:11:20 > 0:11:23creating a mini-microclimate, just like the lake,
0:11:23 > 0:11:26which protected the crops.
0:11:26 > 0:11:27But it's the investment
0:11:27 > 0:11:30in maintaining these raised beds every year that is key.
0:11:30 > 0:11:32They would straighten up these edges,
0:11:32 > 0:11:35which allows the water to be absorbed.
0:11:35 > 0:11:36They would dig out the channels
0:11:36 > 0:11:39with the nutrient-rich soil they'd put on top of the bed
0:11:39 > 0:11:41and then they'd turn it all over
0:11:41 > 0:11:45to allow a huge increase in agricultural production.
0:11:47 > 0:11:50Modern experiments have shown that using this method
0:11:50 > 0:11:55could've given the Tiwanaku 25% more crops,
0:11:55 > 0:11:59extending their growing season by two valuable weeks.
0:11:59 > 0:12:01They didn't have any draught animals or ploughs,
0:12:01 > 0:12:04so all of this would've been done with hand tools.
0:12:04 > 0:12:06The sheer amount of labour
0:12:06 > 0:12:11going into building and maintaining these raised fields is mind-boggling
0:12:11 > 0:12:13and this is just a fraction of the landscape
0:12:13 > 0:12:15that was exploited in this way.
0:12:20 > 0:12:24This kind of farming was incredibly labour intensive,
0:12:24 > 0:12:25and could only have worked
0:12:25 > 0:12:27if the small Tiwanaku communities around the lake
0:12:27 > 0:12:31managed to come together in a collective effort.
0:12:33 > 0:12:35Something must have motivated them to do this
0:12:35 > 0:12:39rather than simply look after their individual interests.
0:12:39 > 0:12:42The key to understanding what that was lies back at the lake.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53Scattered around Lake Titicaca's shores, archaeologists have
0:12:53 > 0:12:57discovered the remains of numerous Tiwanaku temples
0:12:57 > 0:12:59and these hold the key.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03Archaeological research suggests that the Tiwanaku religion
0:13:03 > 0:13:06was devoted to group worship of gods of nature
0:13:06 > 0:13:10that controlled the environment and granted good harvests.
0:13:13 > 0:13:17I've come to see one of the oldest temple sites,
0:13:17 > 0:13:21where the Tiwanaku were holding religious festivals 3,000 years ago.
0:13:25 > 0:13:27This is the sunken court of Chirpa.
0:13:27 > 0:13:29You can really get a sense of the atmosphere
0:13:29 > 0:13:31that can be created during the festivals.
0:13:31 > 0:13:33People would be standing up here, around the court,
0:13:33 > 0:13:36all looking down, focused on the festival inside.
0:13:38 > 0:13:42In an echo of the ancient practices of their Tiwanaku ancestors,
0:13:42 > 0:13:47the local Aymara still use this site to perform ritual llama sacrifices,
0:13:47 > 0:13:51offering the blood to the stones as part of their annual festivals.
0:13:51 > 0:13:55The festivals here not only served to bring together
0:13:55 > 0:13:59the Tiwanaku communities to appease the gods with ritual offerings,
0:13:59 > 0:14:02but they also bound them together socially.
0:14:03 > 0:14:08As they celebrated and prayed, they must've formed an ideology
0:14:08 > 0:14:11that suggested not just worshipping together
0:14:11 > 0:14:15but working together was the key to success.
0:14:15 > 0:14:17Coming to a site like this,
0:14:17 > 0:14:21you can really see the foundations of what Tiwanaku was all about,
0:14:21 > 0:14:23but what I want to find out is how the Tiwanaku
0:14:23 > 0:14:27went from a small site like this one at a community scale
0:14:27 > 0:14:31to the monumental architecture of Tiwanaku at the regional scale.
0:14:40 > 0:14:46A present-day Aymara festival can demonstrate how ritual gatherings
0:14:46 > 0:14:51helped Tiwanaku civilisation evolve into a more centralised state.
0:14:51 > 0:14:53MUSIC PLAYS
0:14:53 > 0:14:55I've come to experience a festival
0:14:55 > 0:14:58that attracts thousands from the surrounding valleys
0:14:58 > 0:15:00to a tiny village called Cala.
0:15:00 > 0:15:04MUSIC CONTINUES
0:15:09 > 0:15:12Cala only has a population of 250 people,
0:15:12 > 0:15:16but today, it's going to swell to 4,000 people
0:15:16 > 0:15:19ready to drink, dance and party Bolivian-style.
0:15:27 > 0:15:30I'm here in Bolivia near the start of spring,
0:15:30 > 0:15:34just when the local communities start planting crops.
0:15:36 > 0:15:41Here we see how festivals and working communities can be linked.
0:15:42 > 0:15:45Anthropologist Carlos Candora is an expert
0:15:45 > 0:15:49in the religious traditions and rituals of the Altiplano.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35From up here, you get a great view of people
0:16:35 > 0:16:39flocking into this festival. There's people arriving in buses,
0:16:39 > 0:16:41there's llama trains coming over the hills,
0:16:41 > 0:16:45there's people walking through these desert landscapes. This place
0:16:45 > 0:16:48acts like a magnet, bringing people together from all over the region.
0:16:52 > 0:16:56Nowadays, the dominant faith in Bolivia is Catholicism
0:16:56 > 0:17:00and the official focus of this festival is the church,
0:17:00 > 0:17:04where there are prayers, ritual offerings and blessings.
0:17:04 > 0:17:08But whilst the church is part of it, there's much more to it.
0:17:10 > 0:17:12Here in the solemnity of the church,
0:17:12 > 0:17:15people are making their offerings and preparing for the year.
0:17:15 > 0:17:18And outside, people are going pretty crazy and drinking a lot of beer.
0:17:25 > 0:17:28People have come together to worship, yes,
0:17:28 > 0:17:32but, as the Tiwanaku did, they're gathering en masse,
0:17:32 > 0:17:37coming together as a community to party, forming the bonds
0:17:37 > 0:17:41that will see them through the tough agricultural season to come.
0:17:41 > 0:17:45The bigger the party, the better the growing season will be.
0:17:47 > 0:17:51Over eight centuries, the Tiwanaku gatherings got bigger and bigger
0:17:51 > 0:17:54and the collective labour force grew in the process,
0:17:54 > 0:17:58getting closer and closer to mastering their harsh environment.
0:17:59 > 0:18:04And around 200 BC, they began building a temple complex to hold
0:18:04 > 0:18:08the biggest religious festivals that South America had ever seen.
0:18:22 > 0:18:27Situated ten miles from the shores of Lake Titicaca, in Aymara,
0:18:27 > 0:18:30Tiwanaku means "stone at the centre".
0:18:30 > 0:18:32And this extraordinary place
0:18:32 > 0:18:35became the focal point of the entire civilisation.
0:18:37 > 0:18:40The oldest part of it is this -
0:18:40 > 0:18:45the sunken temple lined with the carved heads of Tiwanaku ancestors.
0:18:52 > 0:18:56Tiwanaku began with the construction of this early sunken court.
0:18:56 > 0:18:59Like the many sunken courts throughout the Titicaca Basin,
0:18:59 > 0:19:04it was a community-focused ritual space, but over the next 800 years,
0:19:04 > 0:19:07Tiwanaku just grew bigger and bigger and bigger.
0:19:10 > 0:19:14Adjoining the sunken temple is the Kalasasaya,
0:19:14 > 0:19:19a raised ceremonial space measuring over 15,000 square metres
0:19:19 > 0:19:23that the Tiwanaku began building in 500 AD.
0:19:25 > 0:19:28A monolithic statue guards the entrance way
0:19:28 > 0:19:32and in one corner of it stands this - the Sun Gate -
0:19:32 > 0:19:36shaped from a single slab of stone.
0:19:36 > 0:19:39The character carved on it is known as the Staff God,
0:19:39 > 0:19:41a controller of natural forces,
0:19:41 > 0:19:45of the sun, the rain and seasonal chance.
0:19:45 > 0:19:511,500 years ago, this was the place where tens of thousands of people
0:19:51 > 0:19:54gathered to pay homage to the gods of nature.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57And, just like their modern counterparts,
0:19:57 > 0:20:00Tiwanaku communities from across the region
0:20:00 > 0:20:03came together to reaffirm their social bonds
0:20:03 > 0:20:07and mobilise themselves into massive work parties
0:20:07 > 0:20:10in readiness for the new agricultural year.
0:20:13 > 0:20:16Dominating the site is a large mound
0:20:16 > 0:20:22once encased in massive masonry blocks, long since eroded or looted.
0:20:23 > 0:20:27It's only from up here that you get a sense of the scale of the place.
0:20:27 > 0:20:29Only a fraction of this site has actually been excavated
0:20:29 > 0:20:32and archaeologists estimate that the footprint is
0:20:32 > 0:20:34well over five square kilometres.
0:20:36 > 0:20:40The question that puzzled archaeologists for decades is
0:20:40 > 0:20:43how was Tiwanaku built?
0:20:43 > 0:20:45Attempts were made in the 1960s
0:20:45 > 0:20:49to rebuild some of the temple structures, a process that revealed
0:20:49 > 0:20:53how phenomenally skilled at stoneworking the Tiwanaku were.
0:20:54 > 0:20:56And quite apart from their skill,
0:20:56 > 0:21:00how did a culture that had no horse or oxen for dragging,
0:21:00 > 0:21:03that didn't use the wheel or the pulley,
0:21:03 > 0:21:07move stones that weighed 10, 20 or even 50 tonnes,
0:21:07 > 0:21:10stones that were quarried miles away?
0:21:14 > 0:21:16To find out, I have to go back
0:21:16 > 0:21:19to where the stones came from - Lake Titicaca -
0:21:19 > 0:21:23where there is a clue to the mystery of Tiwanaku's construction.
0:21:33 > 0:21:35Many of the monolithic stones at Tiwanaku
0:21:35 > 0:21:38are of a very specific type of volcanic rock
0:21:38 > 0:21:41that archaeologists have identified as having been quarried
0:21:41 > 0:21:46on a peninsula 25 miles away across the lake.
0:21:47 > 0:21:52And on the lake shore lie dozens of seemingly abandoned stones
0:21:52 > 0:21:55that could only have come from the peninsula quarry.
0:21:58 > 0:22:02'The local Aymara call them the "piedras cansadas" -
0:22:02 > 0:22:04'the tired stones.'
0:22:04 > 0:22:06There's one over there.
0:22:06 > 0:22:09'And they seem to have been left here,
0:22:09 > 0:22:11'halfway between the quarry and Tiwanaku.'
0:22:15 > 0:22:19Talk about seeing archaeology abandoned in the landscape.
0:22:19 > 0:22:21There's a stone in the middle of a ploughed field.
0:22:21 > 0:22:23There's another one just up there
0:22:23 > 0:22:25and they're forming a line to the edge of the lake.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31This is a truly impressive piece of stone.
0:22:33 > 0:22:35It's a green andesite, which is completely different
0:22:35 > 0:22:39to the softer sandstones you get in this part of the Titicaca Basin.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42If you look at the edges, you can see how it's been worked,
0:22:42 > 0:22:45faced off into a nice rectangular block.
0:22:45 > 0:22:47You can see where the rock's been cut,
0:22:47 > 0:22:49cut marks facing it down with these vertical sides.
0:22:49 > 0:22:51There's a notch in here.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55There's some more cut marks showing a notch down there.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58And some more over here.
0:22:58 > 0:23:02Seeing how they've started to shape this stone into an initial form
0:23:02 > 0:23:04gives us an idea of what it was going to be used for,
0:23:04 > 0:23:06one of the massive stone lintels
0:23:06 > 0:23:10or part of the major structures of the big temples we get at Tiwanaku.
0:23:12 > 0:23:15So how were these colossal stones transported here
0:23:15 > 0:23:19from a quarry 25 miles across the lake?
0:23:21 > 0:23:24The obvious conclusion is that they were shipped across
0:23:24 > 0:23:26and unloaded here en route to Tiwanaku.
0:23:30 > 0:23:32But this is a virtually treeless landscape,
0:23:32 > 0:23:35so they couldn't have been brought here by boat.
0:23:35 > 0:23:37Not wooden ones, anyway.
0:23:42 > 0:23:46The lake offers a different resource that can be used for boat building.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51Totora reeds.
0:23:53 > 0:23:57'I'm meeting with Professor Alexei Vranich,
0:23:57 > 0:24:01'an archaeologist who is one of the world's leading experts on Tiwanaku.
0:24:04 > 0:24:08'He's brought me to see a traditional boat-building technique
0:24:08 > 0:24:11'using totora reeds harvested from the lake.'
0:24:11 > 0:24:13THEY GREET EACH OTHER IN SPANISH
0:24:13 > 0:24:15So he's making these two right now.
0:24:15 > 0:24:17Well, actually, this is just going to be one boat.
0:24:17 > 0:24:19- So he has the two parts of it.- Yeah.
0:24:19 > 0:24:22- And then, the heart is going to be in the middle.- Yeah.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26'It's a centuries-old skill and it's boats like these
0:24:26 > 0:24:31'that Alexei believes the Tiwanaku used to transport their stones.'
0:24:31 > 0:24:34We know that the Andean people were very practical,
0:24:34 > 0:24:37knew their environment and knew how to use the natural resources.
0:24:37 > 0:24:40And there's this long tradition of building these boats.
0:24:40 > 0:24:42Now they're small, but we read about
0:24:42 > 0:24:45and even saw old drawings of much larger boats.
0:24:45 > 0:24:48Now, this is one man making one boat.
0:24:48 > 0:24:51Imagine if the entire community, they said,
0:24:51 > 0:24:56"OK, everyone has to make one boat," and you tie together 50 boats.
0:24:56 > 0:25:00That's a huge raft that literally one person with a rope
0:25:00 > 0:25:02could drag all along the coastline.
0:25:02 > 0:25:07So, literally, they're doing industrial-sized moving of stones,
0:25:07 > 0:25:10but using pretty much a home technology.
0:25:10 > 0:25:13'The reeds themselves aren't just hollow tubes.
0:25:13 > 0:25:17'Inside is a fibrous membrane that makes them extremely strong.
0:25:19 > 0:25:21'The bindings are retightened
0:25:21 > 0:25:24'several times throughout the construction process
0:25:24 > 0:25:26'and the end result is virtually unsinkable.'
0:25:31 > 0:25:35'To give me an idea of just how sturdy the totora reed boats are,
0:25:35 > 0:25:37'I get to test-drive one on the lake.'
0:25:44 > 0:25:45'Clearly for the Tiwanaku,
0:25:45 > 0:25:49'boats like this let them use Lake Titicaca like a superhighway,
0:25:49 > 0:25:53'a method of transporting themselves across great distances
0:25:53 > 0:25:57'with far greater ease than struggling across the mountains.'
0:26:01 > 0:26:06I'm 16½ stone and, standing on this thing, it feels solid as a rock.
0:26:06 > 0:26:08You can just imagine how these things were being used
0:26:08 > 0:26:12to transport people, families, goods around Lake Titicaca,
0:26:12 > 0:26:15connecting the Tiwanaku community together.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22But could a reed boat like this, even a much bigger one,
0:26:22 > 0:26:25really have been capable of carrying a ten-tonne stone
0:26:25 > 0:26:28of the type being used at Tiwanaku?
0:26:29 > 0:26:34In 2002, Alexei devised an experiment to prove this theory.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37He commissioned a lake-side community
0:26:37 > 0:26:41to build a 15-metre-long totora reed boat.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44He then sourced a nine-tonne block of green andesite
0:26:44 > 0:26:46at the volcanic rock quarry.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52With the help of another local community near the quarry,
0:26:52 > 0:26:56they loaded the stone onto the reed boat and then sailed it
0:26:56 > 0:27:0050 miles around the coastline of the lake to the Tiwanaku side,
0:27:00 > 0:27:03bringing it up to the township of Santa Rosa,
0:27:03 > 0:27:05where dozens of townsfolk came to meet them.
0:27:09 > 0:27:11We pulled up, it was pretty much around here,
0:27:11 > 0:27:14and once we had all the people laying around over here,
0:27:14 > 0:27:16we said, "We've got to pull this off."
0:27:17 > 0:27:21'50 people - men, women and children -
0:27:21 > 0:27:23'rolled the stone off the boat
0:27:23 > 0:27:26'and moved it 60 metres in less than an hour,
0:27:26 > 0:27:29'with no organisation from Alexei's team,
0:27:29 > 0:27:32'where it still lies today.'
0:27:32 > 0:27:36This is the stone over here that we brought over from the other side.
0:27:36 > 0:27:40- Looking pretty sizable.- It's, er, it's about nine tonnes.- Yeah?
0:27:40 > 0:27:44'This extraordinary experiment certainly gives me an insight
0:27:44 > 0:27:47'into how the stones might've been moved across the lake.
0:27:47 > 0:27:50'But how were they taken across land to Tiwanaku?'
0:27:50 > 0:27:54On the bottom, they're worn and they have little striations,
0:27:54 > 0:27:57so they were dragged, so that you grab yourselves some ropes
0:27:57 > 0:28:00and you start dragging and dragging. We thought, "How about rollers?"
0:28:00 > 0:28:02So we built the rollers, we put it there,
0:28:02 > 0:28:04we dragged the rock, smashed all the rollers.
0:28:04 > 0:28:08So we said, "That's the great part of experimental archaeology,"
0:28:08 > 0:28:10is that you know right away ideas that don't work,
0:28:10 > 0:28:12so they would've dragged this and dragged it.
0:28:14 > 0:28:18'But how were people organised and motivated into moving these stones?'
0:28:18 > 0:28:21When we were trying to move this stone, we came up here
0:28:21 > 0:28:23and, just like closed-minded Westerners,
0:28:23 > 0:28:26like, "We're going to pay you this money, you do this, you do this,"
0:28:26 > 0:28:28we couldn't get anything done at all.
0:28:28 > 0:28:30But as soon as one community knew
0:28:30 > 0:28:33that the other one was moving the stone, it became competitive.
0:28:33 > 0:28:35Once it got competitive between communities,
0:28:35 > 0:28:37things went very quickly.
0:28:37 > 0:28:42So I could imagine, at Tiwanaku, also being this friendly competition
0:28:42 > 0:28:44between different groups, going, "I'm going to build here,
0:28:44 > 0:28:47"I'm going to bring this, we're going to have a festival,"
0:28:47 > 0:28:50and then, that dynamic continuing for literally centuries.
0:28:50 > 0:28:52I love this idea of the festival about moving it,
0:28:52 > 0:28:54it takes it beyond any sense of practicality,
0:28:54 > 0:28:57and it's much more about the social relationships.
0:28:57 > 0:29:00And, for me, it means that, when that community went to Tiwanaku
0:29:00 > 0:29:03and they saw the stone that they'd taken through their community,
0:29:03 > 0:29:06- it's a statement of their involvement in the site.- Mm-hm.
0:29:06 > 0:29:10It's not a monument that someone else creates, like a palace.
0:29:10 > 0:29:13"That's so-and-so's palace." My thought would be like
0:29:13 > 0:29:17this is part of our... this is part of our identity.
0:29:21 > 0:29:24'So Alexei's experiment seems to demonstrate
0:29:24 > 0:29:27'that the collective labour that was so important for farming
0:29:27 > 0:29:31'was also used to build ever larger temples.'
0:29:33 > 0:29:36'It's a kind of virtuous circle.
0:29:36 > 0:29:39'Coming together, communities could built temples.
0:29:39 > 0:29:42'And as the social bonds increased the size of the communities,
0:29:42 > 0:29:44'they could build bigger ones.'
0:29:50 > 0:29:53Tiwanaku was clearly a massive festival site,
0:29:53 > 0:29:56but recent studies carried out by Alexei and his team
0:29:56 > 0:29:59have revealed that it also had another use.
0:30:03 > 0:30:06The grand Kalasasaya temple wasn't just an auditorium,
0:30:06 > 0:30:10but was also built to measure the movement of the sun...
0:30:11 > 0:30:14..that it worked as a giant calendar.
0:30:17 > 0:30:19The buildings, actually the entire site,
0:30:19 > 0:30:22is designed along astronomical lines.
0:30:22 > 0:30:24Sun, moon, stars.
0:30:24 > 0:30:27In this case, for the Kalasasaya, the sun is very important.
0:30:27 > 0:30:28Now if we turn this way,
0:30:28 > 0:30:31we're standing right now on the platform, where I would imagine
0:30:31 > 0:30:34one or two or three important people would stand.
0:30:34 > 0:30:37The sun would travel across,
0:30:37 > 0:30:41and right along there, that's the horizon.
0:30:41 > 0:30:43Now the pillar in the middle,
0:30:43 > 0:30:46that's where the sun's going to land for the equinox sunset.
0:30:46 > 0:30:50On each side is the solstice and in the middle are several others that we
0:30:50 > 0:30:53argue about a lot, but there's a good chance that the Tiwanaku
0:30:53 > 0:30:58had their own ritual calendar and they had to keep dates based on ideas
0:30:58 > 0:31:02of their cosmos and certain offerings being done at different times.
0:31:02 > 0:31:05So, we have this idea that not only is it a calendar of agriculture,
0:31:05 > 0:31:07it's a calendar of festivals as well.
0:31:07 > 0:31:10For sure, they had something going here, saying now it's time
0:31:10 > 0:31:13for this festival, now it's time for this offering.
0:31:13 > 0:31:17The Kalasasaya worked as an astronomical state clock
0:31:17 > 0:31:20that regulated the Tiwanaku's worship
0:31:20 > 0:31:25and agricultural operations on a regional scale.
0:31:25 > 0:31:28The Kalasasaya defined their culture of collective effort
0:31:28 > 0:31:31and the rituals carried out there were designed to be intense,
0:31:31 > 0:31:34theatrical events.
0:31:34 > 0:31:38If we were standing here, 500 AD, at one of these solstice festivals,
0:31:38 > 0:31:40what would it look like, what would we be seeing?
0:31:40 > 0:31:44We see such a pale representation of what it used to be.
0:31:44 > 0:31:47Remember that these people would have been wearing bright clothes.
0:31:47 > 0:31:51These stones would have been covered in perhaps paint -
0:31:51 > 0:31:54greens, reds, blues, really gaudy colours
0:31:54 > 0:31:56that to us, make no sense,
0:31:56 > 0:31:58but realise that a lot of these people probably would have been
0:31:58 > 0:32:00taking ritual intoxicants
0:32:00 > 0:32:03and when you take that, those colours move.
0:32:03 > 0:32:05So these statues that you see
0:32:05 > 0:32:09would actually be moving in their minds and talking to them.
0:32:12 > 0:32:16You would have had bright metals, with the sun coming off it.
0:32:16 > 0:32:17The Tiwanaku made their metal,
0:32:17 > 0:32:20so they could do different types of reflections.
0:32:20 > 0:32:25So reflections, gaudy colours, people in very bright clothing,
0:32:25 > 0:32:28and then add intoxicants to that.
0:32:34 > 0:32:36So thinking about what these people are taking...
0:32:36 > 0:32:40they're drinking, they're smoking, there's tobacco,
0:32:40 > 0:32:41there's drugs from the Amazon...
0:32:41 > 0:32:44what sort of drugs are they taking?
0:32:44 > 0:32:46They're taking a couple of hallucinogens.
0:32:46 > 0:32:48When we go take a look at some of the monoliths,
0:32:48 > 0:32:50you'll see the plants actually carved in there,
0:32:50 > 0:32:52where they have these hallucinogens,
0:32:52 > 0:32:55and it would have been ground up either as snuff,
0:32:55 > 0:32:57perhaps you could drink them.
0:32:57 > 0:32:59They also had hallucinogenic enema tubes,
0:32:59 > 0:33:03in case you're in a big hurry to get the party started.
0:33:09 > 0:33:11And what a party it must have been.
0:33:11 > 0:33:13Evidence of the celebrations
0:33:13 > 0:33:17that went on here over 1,000 years ago are regularly discovered,
0:33:17 > 0:33:21in particular, these beer-drinking vessels called keros.
0:33:21 > 0:33:23This sort of thing is typical of the site
0:33:23 > 0:33:25and gives us a real sense of the
0:33:25 > 0:33:28scale of the site, cos this excavation is about
0:33:28 > 0:33:29a kilometre from the centre.
0:33:29 > 0:33:32And the significance of beer and intoxicants
0:33:32 > 0:33:34to Tiwanaku's rituals and ceremonies
0:33:34 > 0:33:37can be found carved into its monolithic figures.
0:33:37 > 0:33:40I like this monolithic statue,
0:33:40 > 0:33:43looking out into the sacred space of the Kalasasaya.
0:33:43 > 0:33:45He's got a beer cup in one hand
0:33:45 > 0:33:49and a snuff pipe for taking intoxicant drugs in the other,
0:33:49 > 0:33:52and you can just imagine the hundreds of thousands of people
0:33:52 > 0:33:56lining this plaza to witness the theatrical, colourful rituals
0:33:56 > 0:33:58and offerings to the gods.
0:34:01 > 0:34:03Centre stage at these spectacular ceremonies
0:34:03 > 0:34:05stood an elite caste of priests.
0:34:05 > 0:34:09Wearing iconic robes and headdresses,
0:34:09 > 0:34:12they performed the rituals and read the movement of the sun.
0:34:12 > 0:34:17The priests interpreted the cosmos for the Tiwanaku people,
0:34:17 > 0:34:20telling them when and how they could appease it
0:34:20 > 0:34:22and bend it to their will.
0:34:23 > 0:34:27How much power they wielded is unknown,
0:34:27 > 0:34:31but what at first might seem like a utopian farmer state
0:34:31 > 0:34:34is beginning to reveal a darker side.
0:34:43 > 0:34:47In 2005, in a grave site sitting in direct line
0:34:47 > 0:34:49with the setting of the winter solstice sun,
0:34:49 > 0:34:52archaeologists unearthed something at Tiwanaku
0:34:52 > 0:34:54that had never been found here before.
0:34:54 > 0:34:57When was the last time you were in here?
0:34:57 > 0:34:592006.
0:34:59 > 0:35:03'This is one of the artefact storage facilities here at Tiwanaku
0:35:03 > 0:35:07'and I'm the first person not with the original excavation team
0:35:07 > 0:35:09'to explore its contents.'
0:35:09 > 0:35:13What we're looking for are these guys over here.
0:35:15 > 0:35:16Let's take a look.
0:35:16 > 0:35:20And...oh, we've got a nice skull here.
0:35:20 > 0:35:24That's a young one and the molars are coming in.
0:35:24 > 0:35:26There's the wisdom teeth.
0:35:26 > 0:35:30He's been smacked in the back of the head.
0:35:30 > 0:35:32He got smacked in the back of the head.
0:35:32 > 0:35:35'This is the first evidence of human sacrifice
0:35:35 > 0:35:37'having been practised here at Tiwanaku
0:35:37 > 0:35:40'that has ever been uncovered.'
0:35:40 > 0:35:42Human sacrifice is not something
0:35:42 > 0:35:44I've previously associated with Tiwanaku.
0:35:44 > 0:35:48Why do you think sacrifices would have been occurring at Tiwanaku?
0:35:48 > 0:35:49These sacrifices...
0:35:49 > 0:35:52this is the only one we've found so far.
0:35:52 > 0:35:5420 years from now, we might find 100 more,
0:35:54 > 0:35:57but this was on the solstice
0:35:57 > 0:36:00and the other indicators of the other artefacts here
0:36:00 > 0:36:04are associated with the start of the agricultural season,
0:36:04 > 0:36:05the start with the rainy season.
0:36:05 > 0:36:09It could have been a period of like...it's very important that we
0:36:09 > 0:36:13get some rain to grow some potatoes and to grow some other things.
0:36:13 > 0:36:16So, this year's solstice celebration
0:36:16 > 0:36:19is going to contain a couple of special guests!
0:36:20 > 0:36:22This sacrifice suggests
0:36:22 > 0:36:25that the Tiwanaku had become increasingly dependent
0:36:25 > 0:36:30on good harvests to maintain their civilisation's momentum.
0:36:30 > 0:36:33And 200 years after the Kalasasaya temple was complete,
0:36:33 > 0:36:36construction began on what was then
0:36:36 > 0:36:39the largest structure in the Andes -
0:36:39 > 0:36:41the Akapana Pyramid.
0:36:43 > 0:36:46The Akapana is a completely man-made hill,
0:36:46 > 0:36:49but 1,000 years of erosion and looting
0:36:49 > 0:36:52has reduced it to a shapeless mound.
0:36:52 > 0:36:55Recent attempts have been made to reconstruct a section
0:36:55 > 0:37:00of the stepped sides that once went all the way to its 17-metre summit.
0:37:04 > 0:37:07You can imagine that it would be quite
0:37:07 > 0:37:09an exclusive spot for a privileged elite to stand here
0:37:09 > 0:37:11overlooking the rituals and ceremonies
0:37:11 > 0:37:13taking place in the Kalasasaya.
0:37:13 > 0:37:17But if this was Ancient Egypt, it'd be a Pharaoh stood up here,
0:37:17 > 0:37:21but crucially, Tiwanaku doesn't have any Pharaohs,
0:37:21 > 0:37:23or kings.
0:37:25 > 0:37:28There is absolutely no evidence of a king at Tiwanaku,
0:37:28 > 0:37:34no monuments dedicated to a single autocratic ruler.
0:37:34 > 0:37:38Instead, archaeologists believe that the Akapana is a monument to
0:37:38 > 0:37:41the mountains, the snow from which melted each spring
0:37:41 > 0:37:45and irrigated Tiwanaku's huge agricultural systems.
0:37:47 > 0:37:51What ruled the Tiwanaku was their ideology of nature worship
0:37:51 > 0:37:53and their cult of collectivism.
0:38:05 > 0:38:08Here at their temple city, the stone at the centre,
0:38:08 > 0:38:12they had come together and mastered their harsh environment.
0:38:21 > 0:38:25To get a picture of Tiwanaku civilisation at its height,
0:38:25 > 0:38:28I've come to La Paz.
0:38:28 > 0:38:31Nestled in the mountains on the eastern edge of the Altiplano
0:38:31 > 0:38:34and sitting at 3,600 metres,
0:38:34 > 0:38:37La Paz is the world's highest capital city.
0:38:40 > 0:38:44Its museum houses a collection of Tiwanaku artefacts
0:38:44 > 0:38:47that give us a glimpse of what it would have been like
0:38:47 > 0:38:49to witness one of their festivals.
0:38:49 > 0:38:53THEY EXCHANGE GREETINGS
0:38:53 > 0:38:56I'm being shown around by archaeologist Marcos Michel,
0:38:56 > 0:38:59and one thing immediately catches my eye -
0:38:59 > 0:39:00a Tiwanaku skull.
0:39:06 > 0:39:09It is a skull that has been deliberately deformed,
0:39:09 > 0:39:11so that the back of it is elongated.
0:39:11 > 0:39:13It was a practice carried out
0:39:13 > 0:39:17to identify this person as one of the Tiwanaku.
0:39:17 > 0:39:19These sorts of things were done as a form of beauty...
0:39:29 > 0:39:32And, of course, there are the beer cups.
0:39:40 > 0:39:43Highly decorated vessels like these
0:39:43 > 0:39:47were used for ceremonial beer drinking that, as we've seen,
0:39:47 > 0:39:51were at the heart of Tiwanaku's festivals.
0:39:51 > 0:39:55But a rarer object on display here is this fantastic textile.
0:40:18 > 0:40:21The Tiwanaku left no written history,
0:40:21 > 0:40:24but that's not to say that they weren't recording stories.
0:40:26 > 0:40:27If you look at this tapestry,
0:40:27 > 0:40:31there are certain symbols which are repeated over and over again.
0:40:31 > 0:40:33And there is a narrative here,
0:40:33 > 0:40:37explaining to people who understand those symbols what's going on.
0:40:37 > 0:40:39To my mind, it's something like the Bayeux Tapestry,
0:40:39 > 0:40:42an idea that you can understand a storyline.
0:40:45 > 0:40:47But unlike the Bayeux Tapestry,
0:40:47 > 0:40:51sadly no-one yet knows how to fully interpret these symbols
0:40:51 > 0:40:53or their meaning.
0:41:02 > 0:41:05One thing we do know, though, is that by 700 AD
0:41:05 > 0:41:09the Tiwanaku began spreading far beyond the communities
0:41:09 > 0:41:11living around Lake Titicaca.
0:41:14 > 0:41:18Leading their llama trains down off the Altiplano,
0:41:18 > 0:41:20they moved into warmer climate zones
0:41:20 > 0:41:23as far afield as Chile and Peru,
0:41:23 > 0:41:26hundreds of miles away from their heartland.
0:41:31 > 0:41:34Yet surprisingly, this expansion doesn't seem to have been one
0:41:34 > 0:41:37of conquest or empire building.
0:41:39 > 0:41:42To discover how and why they came to influence
0:41:42 > 0:41:44such a vast area of South America,
0:41:44 > 0:41:47I'm going to travel to the far eastern frontier
0:41:47 > 0:41:50of Tiwanaku territory,
0:41:50 > 0:41:53250 miles away from the Titicaca Basin
0:41:53 > 0:41:55and 1,500 metres lower.
0:42:04 > 0:42:08Lying at 2,250 metres above sea level,
0:42:08 > 0:42:12this is the modern-day city of Cochabamba
0:42:12 > 0:42:15and the Tiwanaku began arriving in these valleys when it was
0:42:15 > 0:42:20nothing more than a collection of farming communities around 750 AD.
0:42:24 > 0:42:27Imagine what it would have been like to see the Tiwanaku
0:42:27 > 0:42:30coming down out of the mountains, with their colourful textiles,
0:42:30 > 0:42:34elongated heads and mile-long llama trains.
0:42:37 > 0:42:39Blessed with an eternal spring climate,
0:42:39 > 0:42:42the Cochabamba Valley is a fantastically rich
0:42:42 > 0:42:44agricultural region.
0:42:44 > 0:42:46On the Altiplano,
0:42:46 > 0:42:48the Tiwanaku struggled to grow anything other
0:42:48 > 0:42:53than high-altitude grains and potatoes in any quantity,
0:42:53 > 0:42:56but down here they could produce an abundance of one crop,
0:42:56 > 0:43:01which we've seen was vital to the functioning of their civilisation.
0:43:02 > 0:43:04The Tiwanaku came to this valley
0:43:04 > 0:43:09because of its fantastic capacity to grow this - maize.
0:43:09 > 0:43:13And they wanted maize to make beer. Lots and lots of beer.
0:43:16 > 0:43:21HE SPEAKS SPANISH
0:43:21 > 0:43:23'This is a brewery that makes Chicha,
0:43:23 > 0:43:27'a strong maize beer that's been made in this region for centuries.'
0:43:40 > 0:43:45Beer drinking was an integral part of Tiwanaku's festivals.
0:43:45 > 0:43:49As those festivals became bigger and more spectacular,
0:43:49 > 0:43:52they needed beer in ever greater quantities.
0:43:52 > 0:43:54The search for maize to make more beer
0:43:54 > 0:43:56was one of the main driving forces
0:43:56 > 0:44:00of Tiwanaku expansion into the Cochabamba Valley.
0:44:09 > 0:44:11Yeah, it's a bit hoochie, but it's quite tasty.
0:44:16 > 0:44:18'So, exactly how did this happen?'
0:44:18 > 0:44:22How did the Tiwanaku gain control of this region's resources?
0:44:25 > 0:44:2830 years ago, it was thought a Tiwanaku army
0:44:28 > 0:44:31swept down off the mountains like an imperial power,
0:44:31 > 0:44:36to take over and colonise this resource-rich, warmer climate.
0:44:36 > 0:44:39It's only now that archaeologists are beginning
0:44:39 > 0:44:42to present a completely different picture
0:44:42 > 0:44:44of how the Tiwanaku expanded.
0:44:50 > 0:44:54In 1985, a new suburban building project
0:44:54 > 0:44:56began on the outskirts of Cochabamba.
0:44:59 > 0:45:02As the diggers moved in and began churning up what was thought
0:45:02 > 0:45:06to be a small mound, they started uncovering bones.
0:45:06 > 0:45:09When the builders pulled out a human skull, everything stopped
0:45:09 > 0:45:12and the archaeologists were called in.
0:45:17 > 0:45:20This may seem like the last place you'd ever expect to find
0:45:20 > 0:45:23the remains of an ancient civilisation, but sometimes
0:45:23 > 0:45:25the most extraordinary discoveries
0:45:25 > 0:45:27turn up in the most unlikely of places.
0:45:32 > 0:45:34DOGS BARK
0:45:34 > 0:45:37This is the archaeological site of Pinami...
0:45:40 > 0:45:42..the remains of a long-forgotten settlement,
0:45:42 > 0:45:46offering a glimpse of life here 1,300 years ago.
0:45:48 > 0:45:50And I'm going to be shown around
0:45:50 > 0:45:53by lead archaeologist Dr Karen Anderson.
0:45:53 > 0:45:56- Karen, how are you doing? - Good to meet you.
0:45:56 > 0:45:59- So this is the site of Pinami? - Yes.
0:45:59 > 0:46:03So what does this site reveal about Tiwanaku expansion?
0:46:03 > 0:46:07We don't see any evidence of coercion in the way it was adopted.
0:46:07 > 0:46:11People look like they were adopting their rituals, their ideology,
0:46:11 > 0:46:13their way of life and also their food.
0:46:13 > 0:46:17I mean, they're producing more maize, they had more llamas than before,
0:46:17 > 0:46:20so they were getting tied into the Tiwanaku state.
0:46:20 > 0:46:23So the site tells us that the people who were living here
0:46:23 > 0:46:27wanted the Tiwanaku influence, they accepted that on their own terms.
0:46:27 > 0:46:28Right, right.
0:46:28 > 0:46:32This site is not, as it first appears to be,
0:46:32 > 0:46:34a series of old walls.
0:46:34 > 0:46:36In fact, it's a mound that has been built up
0:46:36 > 0:46:39over several centuries of continual occupation.
0:46:39 > 0:46:42Archaeologists have dug down into the mound
0:46:42 > 0:46:47to reveal layers of evidence, generation building upon generation.
0:46:49 > 0:46:51Well, the earliest date that we have
0:46:51 > 0:46:57which is down here is probably in the 700-750 AD range
0:46:57 > 0:47:02and the latest date, which is right before the end of Tiwanaku
0:47:02 > 0:47:04is about 1100 AD.
0:47:04 > 0:47:06So, a good 400 years of occupation,
0:47:06 > 0:47:10- or the story of Tiwanaku through 400 years.- Right.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13And it's the items excavated in that time period,
0:47:13 > 0:47:17corresponding to the Tiwanaku arrival in the Cochabamba Valley,
0:47:17 > 0:47:22that paints a picture of how they made a lasting impact.
0:47:22 > 0:47:24People weren't just building houses here,
0:47:24 > 0:47:26they were burying their dead.
0:47:28 > 0:47:31The excavated skulls show the distinct Tiwanaku style
0:47:31 > 0:47:33of cranial modification.
0:47:33 > 0:47:37The practice was being adopted by the local population.
0:47:37 > 0:47:40Cranial deformation is a really clear ethnic marker.
0:47:40 > 0:47:43Once your head is a certain way, you can't disguise it very well.
0:47:43 > 0:47:45Talk me through this process of cranial modification.
0:47:45 > 0:47:49- It's a real commitment to change the shape of your skull.- Right.
0:47:49 > 0:47:51It would start very early with babies,
0:47:51 > 0:47:53when their skulls are soft.
0:47:53 > 0:47:56This one is flattened in the front and back.
0:47:56 > 0:48:00You would have boards like this and then wrapped around.
0:48:00 > 0:48:04This one you would have it, probably, wrapped around.
0:48:04 > 0:48:08So, it tends to make a more pointy cone-head look.
0:48:08 > 0:48:12However, what they have found here in really significant quantities
0:48:12 > 0:48:17is the distinctive Tiwanaku beer-drinking keros.
0:48:17 > 0:48:22But tellingly, this wasn't imported from Tiwanaku, it was made locally.
0:48:22 > 0:48:27This one is clearly on the outside done in the Tiwanaku style,
0:48:27 > 0:48:28it has the Tiwanaku iconography.
0:48:28 > 0:48:31On the inside, this is more of a local style.
0:48:31 > 0:48:34So, it's a local vessel form with a Tiwanaku
0:48:34 > 0:48:35style on the outside,
0:48:35 > 0:48:37so we're seeing a real mixing of cultures here,
0:48:37 > 0:48:41- with Tiwanaku coming in and local people adopting it.- Right, right.
0:48:43 > 0:48:47Although archaeologists don't know what this iconography means,
0:48:47 > 0:48:49we know it's distinct to Tiwanaku.
0:48:49 > 0:48:53So, it seems that the keros played a key role in bringing
0:48:53 > 0:48:55the locals into Tiwanaku society.
0:48:56 > 0:49:00Just as smaller Tiwanaku communities were brought together
0:49:00 > 0:49:01at Lake Titicaca,
0:49:01 > 0:49:05now other communities effectively joined the party.
0:49:05 > 0:49:09The Tiwanaku empire spread, not at the head of an army,
0:49:09 > 0:49:12but through the ritualised sharing of beer.
0:49:20 > 0:49:22This is a Chicheria -
0:49:22 > 0:49:24a family pub that serves the Chicha beer
0:49:24 > 0:49:27that was so much a part of Tiwanaku identity
0:49:27 > 0:49:31and economy over 1,000 years ago.
0:49:31 > 0:49:34A real theme I'm getting from Tiwanaku society
0:49:34 > 0:49:38is this idea of sharing labour, of communal projects.
0:49:38 > 0:49:40And a part of that is building reciprocal relationships
0:49:40 > 0:49:44and Chicha seems to have played a really important role in that.
0:49:44 > 0:49:46It was a way to bring people together,
0:49:46 > 0:49:49to express reciprocity,
0:49:49 > 0:49:51to express communal understanding.
0:49:51 > 0:49:54So you're meeting with people, you're doing politics with people,
0:49:54 > 0:49:57there's consensus building with people,
0:49:57 > 0:50:01and you're also symbolising by how you serve
0:50:01 > 0:50:03and with what icons are on it,
0:50:03 > 0:50:07some of your allegiances and your ideology,
0:50:07 > 0:50:09so it's a way of sharing an allegiance
0:50:09 > 0:50:13and also promoting it at the same time.
0:50:13 > 0:50:15I see, in, like, some bizarre way,
0:50:15 > 0:50:18some parallels with English drinking tea, you know, high tea,
0:50:18 > 0:50:20and the paraphernalia associated with tea,
0:50:20 > 0:50:22but it's a wider thing about a cultural context,
0:50:22 > 0:50:25and you're saying by having this Chicha,
0:50:25 > 0:50:28- they also have this wider cultural context of shared values.- Yes.
0:50:28 > 0:50:30Yeah, and in some ways that's similar,
0:50:30 > 0:50:32because that was something the Tiwanaku brought,
0:50:32 > 0:50:36was this whole, kind of, drinking tradition and paraphernalia
0:50:36 > 0:50:38and fancy cups that just had to feel the right way
0:50:38 > 0:50:41and have the right shape and have the right icons on them,
0:50:41 > 0:50:44so it is sharing a larger shared value system
0:50:44 > 0:50:47and it was...everybody liked it,
0:50:47 > 0:50:48especially the maize Chicha,
0:50:48 > 0:50:51so it's like, "We're sharing something good."
0:50:55 > 0:50:59By 1000 AD the practices and ideology of the Tiwanaku
0:50:59 > 0:51:04had been embraced by millions across the Andes and beyond.
0:51:04 > 0:51:07Yet Tiwanaku wasn't a kingdom or an empire -
0:51:07 > 0:51:10if anything, it was like a huge extended family,
0:51:10 > 0:51:14with an enveloping cult of collectivism at its core
0:51:14 > 0:51:16and it worked.
0:51:16 > 0:51:18By drawing communities together,
0:51:18 > 0:51:22they had generated an abundance and a culture of generosity,
0:51:22 > 0:51:24embodied by the Chicha rituals.
0:51:28 > 0:51:31Their ceremonies were all dedicated to worshipping
0:51:31 > 0:51:33and making offerings to the environment
0:51:33 > 0:51:36that provided that abundance.
0:51:37 > 0:51:41Yet that environment would eventually turn on them.
0:51:59 > 0:52:01I'm going there, to Huayna Potosi,
0:52:01 > 0:52:03one of the many snow-capped mountains
0:52:03 > 0:52:06that dominate the landscape of Lake Titicaca.
0:52:06 > 0:52:10I want to climb up to 5,000 metres, over half the height of Everest,
0:52:10 > 0:52:14to find out why the environment the Tiwanaku so relied upon
0:52:14 > 0:52:16and revered turned against them.
0:52:22 > 0:52:26The Tiwanaku were utterly dependent on agricultural success
0:52:26 > 0:52:29to build and maintain their temple city
0:52:29 > 0:52:31and bind their vast territory together.
0:52:34 > 0:52:37They needed the sun and the rain to work in harmony,
0:52:37 > 0:52:40they needed the snows to melt in the spring
0:52:40 > 0:52:44and irrigate their vast field networks.
0:52:44 > 0:52:46All of their ritual ceremonies and offerings
0:52:46 > 0:52:49were focused on ensuring that happened
0:52:49 > 0:52:53and for at least 500 years, it seemed to have done exactly that.
0:53:09 > 0:53:13Tiwanaku was one of the highest ancient civilisations in the world
0:53:13 > 0:53:17and incredibly exposed to the climate variability of this region.
0:53:17 > 0:53:21Meltwaters from glaciers like this one
0:53:21 > 0:53:23fed the vast agricultural systems
0:53:23 > 0:53:28that made the construction of the monumental temple complex possible.
0:53:28 > 0:53:31But what happened when the meltwater stopped?
0:53:36 > 0:53:39'The glacier I'm walking on right now is dying.'
0:53:42 > 0:53:43Sergio, my guide, told me
0:53:43 > 0:53:47that this glacier is receding by 15 metres every year,
0:53:47 > 0:53:49due to modern climate change.
0:53:49 > 0:53:52But climate variability has been going on for millennia.
0:53:56 > 0:53:59Ice core samples taken from Andean glaciers like this one
0:53:59 > 0:54:03reveal that there was a drought from 1100 AD onwards,
0:54:03 > 0:54:06one that carried on for centuries.
0:54:10 > 0:54:13Year after year, less and less meltwater
0:54:13 > 0:54:15seeped down to Tiwanaku's fields.
0:54:15 > 0:54:18Yields dropped, instances of crop failure increased
0:54:18 > 0:54:22and no matter what offerings they made or what rituals were performed,
0:54:22 > 0:54:26the Tiwanaku's power to appease the environment had left them.
0:54:33 > 0:54:37The ceremonial centre of Tiwanaku had failed its people.
0:54:37 > 0:54:40The intensive agricultural systems that supported it,
0:54:40 > 0:54:43that fuelled this culture of generosity and feasting,
0:54:43 > 0:54:47were impossible to maintain. It became an anachronism,
0:54:47 > 0:54:51a monument to a time of plenty that was long gone.
0:55:03 > 0:55:08By 1100 AD, the great temple city of Tiwanaku had been abandoned.
0:55:08 > 0:55:12Statues of gods and ancestors had been defaced and decapitated
0:55:12 > 0:55:15and the rest was left to fall into ruin.
0:55:19 > 0:55:23But the story of the stone at the centre doesn't end there.
0:55:32 > 0:55:34The Tiwanaku people didn't simply vanish
0:55:34 > 0:55:36after the collapse of their state,
0:55:36 > 0:55:39they returned to their centuries-old existence
0:55:39 > 0:55:41of living in scattered village communities.
0:55:45 > 0:55:48Another 400 years would pass before the first Europeans
0:55:48 > 0:55:50set foot on the Altiplano
0:55:50 > 0:55:54and by then Tiwanaku was a ruin.
0:55:55 > 0:55:59When the Spanish conquistadors first laid eyes on Tiwanaku,
0:55:59 > 0:56:02they were amazed by its scale and antiquity,
0:56:02 > 0:56:05yet it didn't stop them looting the site in search of gold
0:56:05 > 0:56:10and ripping out the finely worked stones to serve their Christian god.
0:56:16 > 0:56:20VOICES CLAMOUR
0:56:21 > 0:56:24This is the church in the modern-day town of Tiwanaku.
0:56:24 > 0:56:27It was built between 1580 and 1612.
0:56:27 > 0:56:30Nearly every piece of stone in the building
0:56:30 > 0:56:33was looted from the ancient site of Tiwanaku.
0:56:33 > 0:56:35Even these two statues outside,
0:56:35 > 0:56:37which are meant to represent St Peter and St Paul,
0:56:37 > 0:56:39are Tiwanaku statues.
0:56:50 > 0:56:55Bolivia became independent from Spain in 1825
0:56:55 > 0:56:58and gradually regained control of its own destiny.
0:57:05 > 0:57:08Today, nearly 1,000 years after it was abandoned,
0:57:08 > 0:57:11the indigenous Aymara of Bolivia
0:57:11 > 0:57:14are reclaiming the ruins of Tiwanaku as their own.
0:57:14 > 0:57:16THEY CHANT
0:57:20 > 0:57:22It's dawn on the 21st September,
0:57:22 > 0:57:24the southern hemisphere's spring equinox,
0:57:24 > 0:57:26and here the local Aymara leaders
0:57:26 > 0:57:31are preparing an offering to welcome back the new agricultural year.
0:57:34 > 0:57:361,000 years ago,
0:57:36 > 0:57:41Tiwanaku's extraordinary ideology of sharing and collective labour,
0:57:41 > 0:57:44a set of beliefs that enveloped millions across the Andes,
0:57:44 > 0:57:49was embodied here by highly atmospheric rituals and ceremonies.
0:57:53 > 0:57:57They wanted to imagine what Tiwanaku was like 1,000 years ago.
0:57:57 > 0:58:00This gives us a real sense of atmosphere,
0:58:00 > 0:58:05rituals still being carried out here, in the hearts of Tiwanaku.
0:58:06 > 0:58:11The official religion of Bolivia might be the Catholicism introduced
0:58:11 > 0:58:14by the Spanish conquistadors, but the Aymara living here
0:58:14 > 0:58:17at 4,000 metres above sea level
0:58:17 > 0:58:20on their beautiful, yet forbidding, Altiplano,
0:58:20 > 0:58:24have always retained Tiwanaku's reverence for this environment.
0:58:27 > 0:58:29Tiwanaku was a place that celebrated life
0:58:29 > 0:58:32and today, it's enjoying a rebirth.
0:58:58 > 0:59:01Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd