The Timelessness of Tiwanaku : Archeology: The Getty Conservation Institute is collaborating with Bolivia to preserve an ancient city buried in the Andes.

Archeology is not an arcane discipline in Bolivia; it’s a key to national pride. Nowhere is that more evident than in the ancient city of Tiwanaku, the capital of an astonishingly advanced civilization that reached its zenith between AD 400 and 700 and dominated the Bolivian Andes for more than 1,000 years.

Tiwanaku (also written as Tiahuanacu) was the capital of an empire that boasted sophisticated stone masonry, a sewer system, a network of irrigation canals and agricultural expertise that far surpassed colonial methods. But the empire collapsed--probably because of a prolonged drought--and the capital city was abandoned. Eventually buried and hidden from sight, Tiwanaku has survived as an important but little-known symbol of Bolivia’s heritage.

Now a collaboration between Bolivia’s National Institute of Archeology and the Getty Conservation Institute aims to illuminate that symbol and ensure that it shines for centuries to come.

“Bolivians are very proud of Tiwanaku. It is a significant site for their national identity. Working with the Getty, we intend to develop a master plan for the preservation and conservation of the site and recover an important part of the past,” said Oswaldo Rivera, director of the Bolivian National Institute of Archeology.

“The basis of agreement between the two institutes is the need for training human resources and for doing research--collecting data and interpreting it,” Rivera said, speaking through an interpreter during a recent visit to the Getty Conservation Institute in Marina del Rey.

Rivera said the first year of the project will be devoted to analyzing existing information about the site and collecting new data, as well as training Bolivians to manage the site. “We can’t have a master plan without adequate knowledge of the site and its problems, and we can’t anticipate our policy until we have all the information,” Rivera said.

Luis Monreal, director of the Getty Conservation Institute, agreed: “We are on the same wavelength with our partner in Bolivia. Too often the tragedy of conservation is that people rush to apply treatment without diagnosing the problem.”

Bolivians are fortunate in this respect. Unlike some sites in Europe and Egypt that have been irreparably damaged by misguided conservation efforts 50 or more years ago, Tiwanaku wasn’t excavated until the late ‘50s and ‘60s. Only 1.5% of the 1,500-acre site has been exposed and less than .5% of the entire region of urban settlements has been touched, Rivera said.

Tiwanaku has been known to scholars, but until the last few years--when a team from the University of Chicago began work there--the buried ruins were thought to be temples on hilltops instead of entire cities. Archeologists now know that there are four or five major cities in the region along with smaller urban settlements buried up to 10 feet deep, according to Alan Kolata, head of the Chicago group.

Limited as they are, the Tiwanaku excavations have revealed evidence of “a magnificent civilization,” Rivera said. And the site already attracts tourists who marvel over giant monolithic figures, stone heads that protrude from walls (and possibly portray different ethnic types), a massive ceremonial gate carved from a single piece of stone and buildings constructed from various kinds of large stones that are held together by metal clamps.

Tiwanaku, which has a elevation of 13,000 feet and lies about 40 miles west of La Paz near the Peruvian border, promises to became a major tourist attraction. It has already served as a gateway to the country for foreign dignitaries, but human traffic is a major concern at any fragile archeological site. “Unless conditions of research, conservation and site control are met, it will not be desirable to bring masses of tourists to the site,” Rivera said.

The master plan will establish those conditions along with long-term policies for managing Tiwanaku. “The most important thing is to develop human resources to take care of the site,” said Rivera, who has a staff of 30 researchers. A preliminary training session was held last summer with members of the Getty staff. More workshops are planned for young Bolivian archeologists, the best of whom will travel to the Getty and other American conservation centers for additional training, Rivera said.

These archeologists will have to deal with a very complex conservation task. “We are trying to understand the influence of the environment, the deterioration of materials at the site and the impact of visitors,” Rivera said.

Among the natural forces that may lead to deterioration at Tiwanaku are a rising water table, increased humidity, salt efflorescence, wind erosion and thermal stresses due to abrupt changes in temperature that occur at high altitudes. In addition, a transcontinental highway that is only 90 feet from one of Tiwanaku’s great temples generates dust that may cause erosion, and vibrations from heavy truck traffic may stress the stone. The effects of a recently reactivated railroad also need to be studied, Rivera said.

The monumental sculptures at Tiwanaku already show signs of decay and may need to be sheltered at a government-funded museum that is planned for the site.

The Getty will advise Bolivia on all these studies, as well as the proposed museum and conservation facilities. “As in all the projects in all the countries we work with, we feel our role is to provide resources of expertise and instrumentation that may not exist in those countries and to support their national institutions. Our common objective is the conservation of a very major site,” Monreal said.

Rivera said he anticipates “no adverse reaction” to the Getty’s assistance. “It will be perceived as an institutional collaboration, as a common effort to provide to Bolivians an opportunity to upgrade their own human and technical resources. This will be a transfer of knowledge and not an intervention of a foreign institution on Bolivian soil.”

With the help of archeologists and agronomists, Tiwanaku farmers are doing very well with their soil. Reclaiming the drainage and irrigation systems used by their forefathers, they have increased their production of potatoes to seven times the national average in test projects.

This is a point of pride for Rivera, whose “global approach” to Tiwanaku involves studies of ground water, sediment, climate, plants and pollen, as well as artifacts. He is not only excavating an ancient city, he is reviving an efficient agricultural system that produced a prosperous economy and liberated many people from the fields.

“This is not archeology in the traditional sense, it’s archeology to recapture something from the past. Third World countries like Bolivia have customarily imported technologies, but in Tiwanaku they haven’t worked. This project is not a transfer of technologies in space, from one country to another; it’s a transfer in time, from the past to the present. We are bringing back technologies that were already forgotten when the Incas came to Bolivia, and they have already increased food resources,” Rivera said.

“This is the beauty of an integrated archeological project, using archeology to recoop knowledge that was forgotten and seems very adequate to the environment where the Bolivians still live,” he said.