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Decline of the Tiwanaku Civilization (c. 1000 CE)

Type Event Region South America Time c. 1000–1050

The Tiwanaku polity on the Andean highlands collapsed around 1000 CE, the exact cause still debated; drought may have struck raised-field agriculture.

Timeline

  1. c. 1000–1020Raised-field agricultural zone around Lake Titicaca · La Paz DepartmentEnvironmental pressures such as drought may have weakened the raised-field (suka kollus / waru waru) agriculture on which Tiwanaku depended. The specific claim of a 'sudden lake-level drop in the early 1080s' cannot be verified and is replaced by a formulation of systemic stress around 1000 CE.
  2. c. 1000–1050Tiwanaku ceremonial and residential zone · La Paz DepartmentArchaeology and overviews place the cessation of large-scale capital construction and political dissolution at around 1000 CE. The Wari Empire collapsed at roughly the same time. The claim that the Akapana pyramid was 'demolished in the 1080s' and specific narratives of colonization in the Moche valley cannot be verified and are not adopted.

Sources