The City Of The White Men (Who Built Tiahuanaco)

UNMuseum ^ | unknown

[blam]

The City of the White Men

There isn't much left of the city of Tiahuanaco in Bolivia, South America. In the 1500's, the Spanish systematically destroyed the buildings. Later, many of the stone blocks were looted for houses in a nearby village. Most recently more stone was taken to lay a railroad right-of-way.

Despite this, what is left is still a sight to see. Tiahuanaco is old. It was already in ruins when the Incas took over the area in 1200 A.D.. It is situated on a mountain at an altitude of 12,500 feet and boasts a pyramid 700 feet long, 500 feet wide and 50 feet tall. There is also a temple 440 feet long topped with columns up to 14 feet high that may have once supported a roof.

The most impressive thing about Tiahuanaco isn't its architecture, though. It's the legend about who built it. According to traditions the city was constructed by a group of white skinned-strangers with beards. The leader was named Viracocha. According to an early European explorer ,it was said that Viracocha, "gave rules to men how they should live, and he spoke lovingly to them with much kindness, admonishing them they should be kind to each other..."

There are similar stories about visits by a bearded white man among the Aztec and Mayans. He was called Quetzalcoatl by the Aztecs and Kukulcan by the Mayans. How did white men arrive in Peru long before the Spanish did? Archaeologists estimate the city was founded around 200 A.D. If the legends are true, who are these people? Some have suggested that the Egyptians, Cretans, Greeks, Phoenicians or even Irish monks may have crossed the Atlantic to visit South America. The explorer Thor Heyerdahl even built a boat of reeds and sailed it across the ocean to prove the Egyptians could have made such a voyage.

There is no solid evidence to prove any of these theories, so who these white men were and why they built Tiahuanaco may remain a mystery that may never be solved.

[SunkenCiv]

As his last (?) project, Heyerdahl was in the Andes somewhere, investigating a known but obscure site with a bunch of pyramids. Heyerdahl's excavations on Easter Island in the 1950s turned up a statue (shown in "Aku-Aku" I think) that was an early ancestor to the famous statues of that place, and also has affinities to art of Tiahuanaco.

There was a claim that the plaza at Tiahuanaco was built to align with (I think) the sunrise at the equinox, but that the alignment was only valid about 17,000 years ago. That is very poor methodology, obviously, since there is no inscription or carved illustration showing that intent. That's my usual complaint for most archaeoastronomical claims. The site is obviously not 17,000 years old.

Surviving stonework was set without mortar (a common technique in PreColumbian America), but there are also carved channels to bridge across the tops of many of the stones; metal joiners were either pounded in to the holes, or molten metal poured in to fill the channels. The same technique was used here and there in pharaonic Egypt.

[blam]

"...metal joiners were either pounded in to the holes, or molten metal poured in to fill the channels. The same technique was used here and there in pharaonic Egypt."

I'm pretty sure it was poured. What was the metal, bronze?

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Blam.

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[MarkL]

I thought that Quetzalcoatl was a feathered, winged serpent!

Mark

[Dustbunny]

Wow, excellent pics. Only way those of us that don't/can't travel can see the wonders of archaeological finds.

[ThanhPhero]

All premodern cultures seem to have idealized white color and light skin just as white is the universal color of "purity" and legendary founders are described as light skinned.In every culture known, the ruling class has been made up of lighter skinned prople and rulers married their progeny to lighter skinned mates. When a darker skinned usurper founded a new dynasty he did the same thing. He married his sons and daughters to the lighter skinned eligibles. Aristocracies did/do the same. It is still the norm in all cultures though fading in the most advanced. It occurs among our own very "tolerant" and liberal elite.

I would discount the legends of founders or lawgivers or redeemers being light skinned just because their status as gods and heroes seems to require that characteristic because the founders and gods are "pure".

[Toadman]

ping for checking back.

I wonder if deep ocean current (set and drift) could be calculated for period around 200 A.D.

I doubt it's changed in such a short geographic period of time.

[Junior]

No writing either. They kept records using knotted threads.

[Junior]

I would like to point out that, with the exception of gold, silver and copper, the New World civilizations were essentially stone age. Their "advanced technology" extended to flaking obsidian knives for ritual sacrifices -- something the "barbaric" Europeans had considered obsolete for millennia. The club and the obsidian-edged sword were the height of New World military technology.

Even their architectural prowess was matched millennia earlier by the Egyptians and Romans and surpassed by Medieval Arabs.

[StoneGiant]

Gee... since the folks in that region don't bow toward the East and pray several times a day, I guess we can rule out friendly Muslim adventurers....

[shuckmaster]

Z. Sitchin's book 'The Lost Realms' has a very extensive & informative chapter on Tiahuanaco with lots of diagrams of the layout. Of course, he ties it in with his 12th planet astronauts but he does give a lot of info and interesting insight about the archaeological finds there. His theory is that it was constructed and operated as a tin mine and processing plant.

[shuckmaster]

Do a google for Pedro Cieza de León. He seems to be the one who discovered and gave the earlier accounts.

[Notforprophet]

I've been there. My parents were stationed in Bolivia for several years, around the time I was in 2nd to 4th grade. I remember it being very cold and grey but the stones were very big. I've always wanted to go back as an adult and see it again.

NFP

[johnny7]

It's easy to see where the Inca got their stone-cutting skills from. Funny that all these advanced, high-altitude civilizations in South America... got their beginnings in the fetid jungles.

[dsc]

"After all, the Old World had bows and arrows in the late Paleolithic (thousands of years ago), but the invention appears to have not reached the New World until about 800AD."

So, if we accept the Bering land bridge theory, those who crossed 15,000 years ago didn't bring the bow with them?

[Bob J]

Some Spaniards and Italians have dark skin due to Moorish occupation.

[muawiyah]

Correct. They brought the spear. They had other weapons as well.

[muawiyah]

Some Moors have dark skins due to Italian and Spanish occupation.

[dsc]

"Correct. They brought the spear. They had other weapons as well."

I marvel, as I remember my sons making bows for themselves from materials scrounged around the house, from around the age of five or so.

It boggles my mind: how could intelligent men go so many millenia (100 or more?) without that particular light bulb coming on?

[Max in Utah]

In every culture known, the ruling class has been made up of lighter skinned prople and rulers married their progeny to lighter skinned mates.

You can see that in the upper classes of Mexico today. It seems that the rich men tend to choose blonde-haired, blue-eyed wives.