52 ARCHAEOLOGY • July/August 2019
rare at comparable sites. “All the land sites have been looted,”
says University of South Florida anthropologist Charles Stan-
ish, who is working with Delaere to contextualize the Khoa
Reef findings. “We find pottery broken into fragments, par-
ticularly incense burners, but all the gold and silver has been
taken. Now we can deduce from these new discoveries what
similar rituals at other sites would have looked like.” Delaere
believes that the discovery may even make it possible to piece
together the ritual’s timing. “The location of anchors we dis-
covered in relation to the lake’s seasonal winds suggests that
the ceremonies took place at the beginning of the dry season,
possibly to mark the winter solstice,” he says.
Despite the fact that numerous sites clearly associated with
Tiwanaku ritual behavior have been excavated over several
decades, relatively little is known about their religious beliefs.
They are thought to have worshipped a supernatural being,
possibly a sun god emanating solar rays, who is often shown
baring sharp teeth. Delaere suggests that the worship of this
god may have underpinned a moral code that provided the
basis for Tiwanaku leaders’ claim to divine power as they
expanded their territory.S
cholarsstillquestion just how the Tiwanaku so
quickly and effectively came to dominate the Titicaca
Basin, but environmental conditions, and the wealthritory. According to Delaere, there are numerous indications,
including their excellent condition and arrangement along
the reef’s base, that the artifacts were carefully placed in the
water as part of a religious ceremony. “We have been able to
determine that this sort of ceremony shared basic elements
across the Tiwanaku world,” says Delaere. “These included
an offering of ceramic vessels—in this case the feline incense
burners—and of sumptuous metal objects and shells, as well
as the sacrifice of juvenile llamas.”
This newly discovered material provides an opportunity to
document Tiwanaku artifacts in a state of preservation that is
Pacific OceanLake TiticacaBOLIVIAPERUIsland of the Sun0 50 100 milesResearchers disembark from a boat used to travel to the Island of the Sun, where Tiwanaku priests held lavish religious ceremonies.