Although there was agreement among researchers regarding the ritual purpose of Tiahuanaco, there are significant differences in the dating of its construction. By comparison with other Andean cultures, Bennett roughly dated the construction of the city to the end of the 1st millennium AD. e. However, Arthur Poznanski held completely different views; he argued that the Tiahuanaco monuments were (as suggested by Cieza de Leon in 1549) the oldest buildings in Peru. However, he did not stop there and went even further, as evidenced by at least the title of his main work, Tiahuanaco: The Cradle of the American Man, published in 1945.
Poznanski's theory relied on astronomical dates. He believed that the temple on the platform, known as Kalasasaya (in the northwest corner of which the Gate of the Sun is located), was originally oriented to the points of the solar solstice and equinox, although this is no longer the case. The slow precession of the earth's axis over millennia gradually disrupts the accuracy of any astronomical orientation. Since this process occurs at the same speed, Poznansky was able to calculate the time when Kalasasaya was in exact correspondence with the turning points of the movement of the sun in the sky: the last such period dates back to the 15th millennium BC. e. A group of prominent German astronomers in 1920 checked Poznanski's calculations and confirmed their accuracy.
This meant that Tiahuanaco was actually built during the last ice age.
Confirmation of this unusually early date comes from an unexpected source associated with the study of extinct animals. Several of the carvings on the Gate of the Sun depict a strange creature unlike any modern animal. The image of this creature is found on some fine ceramic vessels and metal ornaments; it looks like a cross between a rhino and a hippo. In the 1930s, biologists identified it as a toxodonta, a mammal belonging to a species that became extinct at the end of the last ice age, about 11,000 years ago.
For Arthur Poznanski, Tiahuanaco was the oldest and most significant city in the New World. In time immemorial, a supreme race ruled here, establishing laws and moral norms that spread to Argentina and the southwest of the modern United States. The authority of Tiahuanaco, according to the views of Poznanski, was due to its deep antiquity compared to other American civilizations.
Poznanski argued that 17,000 years ago, climatic conditions in the Lake Titicaca basin were particularly favorable. Although today the waterless highland of the altiplano surrounds the lake up to 100 feet above the coast, Poznanski believed that during the city's greatness the surface of the altiplano was below the water level. Therefore, he called the large mound and the underground courtyard, located at some distance from the main group of monuments, the remains of a seaport. The most sensational was his statement about the opening of "a real dock, or a dock … where hundreds of ships could simultaneously stand unloading and loading." Poznanski saw other evidence of the former size of Lake Titicaca in the presence of "a complex system of hydraulic structures and canals, now dry, but connected to the former bottom of the lake." This also seemed to confirmthat Tiahuanaco belongs to a vague and distant past - before the lake shrank to its present size.
The coastal position of Tiahuanaco, which led to the city's prosperity, predetermined its death. Poznanski believed that the city was destroyed by a terrible natural disaster around 10,000 BC. e.:
"The cause of this catastrophe was seismic shifts, which led to the overflow of Lake Titicaca and volcanic eruptions … At the same time, a large amount of water was released, gushing … in a rapid and unstoppable stream."
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A catastrophic flood turned into a scene of general destruction for Tiahuanaco: the corpses of animals and people floated among the ruins, heaps of shells, sand and gravel piled up among the monuments. As for the Gate of the Sun, according to Poznanski, "the carver was just bringing the finishing touches to his work" when the flood broke out. The sculptor had to flee, "abandoning his chisel forever."
Arthur Poznanski's theoretical reasoning was largely overlooked by professional archaeologists who preferred the later dates suggested by Bennett. However, he found zealous supporters among influential Bolivians and other natives of South America. He was hardly heard of in Europe until his work was mentioned in a global interpretation of human history recently proposed by journalist Graham Hancock and his associates (see Pole Shift under Lost Lands and Disasters).
Poznanski's views fit perfectly with Hancock's ideas about a lost civilization that existed during the last ice age.
Although this cannot be learned from the writings of Hancock, in the fifty years that have passed since the publication of Arthur Poznansky's theory, an enormous amount of archaeological research has been carried out in and around Tiahuanaco. Excavations have been carried out in Tiahuanaco itself by a group of Bolivian and American archaeologists since 1960; over the past 20 years, they have been led by Dr. Osvaldo Rivera of the National Institute of Archeology and Dr. Alan Kolata of the University of Chicago. Kolata and his colleagues have also undertaken extensive research in the countryside around Tiahuanako, in the towns of Lukurmata and Iwave, in villages and farms, and also studied nearby fields and irrigation ditches (Poznanski canals).
How well does Poznanski's theory, in the part about the dating of Tiahuanaco to the last Ice Age, correspond to modern archaeological knowledge? The combination of a sequence of pottery styles and radiocarbon dating allowed the construction of an archaeological chronology. Bennett's excavations provided a clear picture of the evolution of pottery at Tiahuanaco over time; then this picture was compared with the pottery of other settlements in the Andes. Outside Tiahuanaco, one or two styles of pottery emerged after the city had fallen into disrepair, but before the arrival of Inca pottery in the region. We know from Spanish chronicles that the Inca empire conquered the basin of Lake Titicaca around 1450 AD. e. Moving back from this famous date, Bennett suggested that the changes in ceramic styles he was able to identify werehappened in about a thousand years. Already after Bennett's research, radiocarbon dating of materials found under the mounds and courtyards of Tiahuanaco made it possible to move the dates of the beginning of construction several centuries ago, but generally confirmed his conclusions.
It is now generally accepted that the “village” of Tiahuanaco was founded around 400 BC. e. In the period from 100 to 300 BC. e. it became a city, and by the end of this time Tiahuanaco began to dominate the rest of the settlements located in the basin of Lake Titicaca. All this happened long before the appearance of the Incas - exactly as the local Aymara Indians said to Cieza de León back in 1549. From then until the fall of the city around AD 1000. e. Tiahuanaco has undergone several grandiose construction projects, and the city itself has become the center of an ever-expanding trading empire that rules the course of events even 500 miles south on the Chilean coast. Archaeologists at least agree with Arthur Poznanski that Tiahuanaco was a major center of power, although they do not accept its dating.
But what about Professor Poznanski's own scientific chronology - with the astronomical orientations of the main monuments of Tiahuanaco? In the end, his calculations were approved by several prominent astronomers. The problem here is not the calculations themselves, but their connection with dating issues. Poznanski's astronomical age estimates are entirely dependent on a single initial assumption: the Kalasasaya temple was originally designed to serve as an excellent solar observatory. But there is nothing in Kalasasaya that would indicate her belonging to the centers of astronomical science. Kolata and other archaeologists did find astronomical landmarks in the location of the main monuments of Tiahuanaco, but not nearly as accurate as Poznanski claimed. According to Kolata,"The major structures within the urban / ceremonial core of Tiahuanaco roughly correspond to cardinal directions with a deviation of 4-5 degrees west of true north."
This also means that they are oriented towards sunrise and sunset. Cieza de Leon first noticed this in 1549, writing that two artificial hills, which he called "the tomb towers of the indigenous rulers of Tiahuanaco", have "doorways facing the sunrise." People living in the Tiahuanaco Valley today still think of the sun as a luminary rising from the icy peaks of Mount Illimani in the east and sinking into the waters of Lake Titicaca in the west. Kolata believes that this natural phenomenon was very important for the inhabitants of ancient Tiahuanaco:
“The majestic snow-covered mountain peaks and the lake are clearly visible from the slopes of the mountains surrounding the valley, but both of these spectacles can be contemplated simultaneously from the city of Tiahuanaco only from the top of Akapana, the highest stepped mound with a flat platform at the top … Only from there you can observe the entire heavenly path of the sun between its two “harbors” behind the ridge and in the waters of the lake”.
As Kolata notes, the Kalasasaya temple itself shares a solar orientation with the neighboring Underground Temple. This orientation connects the two monuments during the spring and autumn equinox, at vital moments of the agricultural year: "More specifically, on the morning of the equinox, the rays of the sun split the Underground Temple in two and illuminate the center of the monumental staircase in Kalasasia." As you can see, the solar orientations in Kalasasai work fine today, which makes the astronomical dating of Arthur Poznanski plausible only if we accept the stretched hypothesis that the temple served as an observatory, and ignore the modern radiocarbon dates.
Other evidence - alleged images of extinct animals and the location of Tiahuanaco by the lake - do not stand up to the test of modern knowledge better. It is extremely difficult to decide which particular animal is depicted in a particular piece of religious art. After all, the artist's intention was not to reproduce the image of the animal with photographic precision, but to convey its spiritual essence. Of course, Poznansky never claimed that the winged people depicted on the Gate of the Sun proved the existence of angels in the time of Tiahuanaco. In fact, archaeologists have always considered Poznanski's “toxodont” to be a stylized representation of a cougar. (Ignoring this fact, Hancock openly claims that the toxodont at Tiahuanaco has been “convincingly identified by scientific methods.”)
As for the "port of Tiahuanaco", modern archaeological research makes it possible to put an end to this question. The early excavations of Bennett and Poznanski focused almost entirely on the ritual center of Tiahuanaco; while the less impressive ruins and landfills were ignored. These houses and rubbish heaps are full of pottery from the same period found around the monuments in the city center. Tiahuanaco is now believed to have been a regular large city with a permanent population of roughly 40,000 to 80,000 inhabitants, in an area ranging from 5 to 6 square miles. Such a city could well have its own port. Unfortunately for Professor Poznanski's theory, however, the ruins of poor houses and rubbish heaps are located in the same area that, in his opinion, should have been at the bottom of Lake Titicaca. The same can be said about the large city of Lukurmata, which existed at about the same time as Tiahuanaco. These new discoveries convincingly prove that Tiahuanaco did not have its own port. However, near Iwave, on the modern coast of Lake Titicaca, excavations have unearthed the remains of an ancient port, proving that the level of the lake was about the same as it is today during Tiahuanako's time.
Professor Poznanski can be forgiven for his excessive enthusiasm and misinterpretation of some of the architectural elements. It is much more difficult to understand Hancock, who completely ignores the new data and repeats Poznansky's arguments, as if there were no recent discoveries in archeology.
What can you say about the fate of Tiahuanaco according to Poznansky - about the tragic death of the city as a result of the flood? Anatomical studies show that "flood victims" are actually the remains of human sacrifices that were performed in order to propitiate the gods. A layer of rounded green pebbles discovered by Poznanski at the summit of Akapana, the largest stepped pyramid of Tiahuanaco, ended up there not after a catastrophic flood, but as a result of human effort. The upper levels of Akapana actually consist of layers of dense clay, interspersed with thin layers of green pebbles. Kolata suggested that this characteristic pebble was brought to Tiahuanaco from the Kuimsachata mountains as a building material for Akapana, which represented a symbolic mountain peak. Thus,a hypothetical flood disappears without a trace in the dry soil of Tiahuanaco.
James Peter