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Why did Tiwanaku fall?

Asked 26 Oct 2026 by ·3 answers·0·0 following
Most likely: the state's ritual and political order broke down, with monuments desecrated and the elite's authority…Ahead on the evidence, not yet confirmed. It needs two reviews to be accepted.

Where it stands

Three answers have been proposed. A long drought from about AD 1100 made the raised-field agriculture fail and the city could not be fed. leads, with evidence 1 for, 1 against: partly supported by its tests. Two are still possible.

Why it matters

The city of 10,000 to 20,000 was abandoned within a century or two after AD 1000; the cause bears on how climate and politics interact in the Andes⁠[1]⁠[2].

Answers 3

Evidence: 1 for, 1 against
Most likely
Evidence: 1 for
Most likely
None of these.
Not tested enough to call either way
Evidence: none yet
Still possible

History

  1. Binford et al. puts forward: a long drought from about AD 1100 made the raised-field agriculture fail and the city could not be fed.
  2. Binford et al.: lake Titicaca levels and Quelccaya ice-core data show aridity after about AD 1100.For: A long drought from about AD 1100 made the raised-field agriculture fail and the city could not be fed.
  3. Janusek puts forward: the state's ritual and political order broke down, with monuments desecrated and the elite's authority…
  4. Janusek: decline of the monumental core is dated from about AD 1000, before the drought's onset.Against: A long drought from about AD 1100 made the raised-field agriculture fail and the city could not be fed.
  5. Janusek: monoliths and architecture show deliberate defacement in the terminal period.For: The state's ritual and political order broke down, with monuments desecrated and the elite's authority…
  6. Asked on this site
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