Introduction
Often considered as "cultures of the land" (livestock, pastoralism, etc.), the pre-Hispanic societies of Lake Titicaca have developed many practices specific to "cultures of the sea" (navigation, fishing, offerings, etc.). This observation is at the origin of the archaeological project at Lake Titicaca, which aims to integrate the lacustrine factor into the interpretation of Andean societies in the Bolivian Altiplano.
The desire to explore the lake bottom of Titicaca in an archaeological process is not a recent idea. As soon as new techniques appeared and were mastered, allowing access to this previously inaccessible territory, many expeditions were conducted in the mythical waters of Lake Titicaca between 1954 and 2004, including that of Commander Jacques-Yves Cousteau in 1968 and that of Johan Reinhard of National Geographic between 1989 and 1992. Despite these numerous expeditions, only one submerged archaeological site was discovered (in 1977).
This history of underwater research and exploration in Titicaca constitutes an important heritage and a significant experience on which a new excavation project carried out by ULB between 2012 and 2014 (Proyecto Huiñaimarca) and a second project between 2016 and 2018 (Proyecto Titicaca) in collaboration with the Belgian Technical Cooperation-CTB could be formulated.
In 2012, the ULB will introduce for the first time the excavation techniques themselves into the lake sediment. Coupled with the implementation of predictive models, this strategy has made it possible to locate between 2012 and 2018 at least 25 submerged archaeological sites (Fig. 1) and to discover more than 21,000 objects and fragments of objects ranging from the formative period (800-200 BC) to the Inca period (1400-1532 AD).
These interventions represented more than 253 days of operations on the lake, 1902 hours of dives and 1616 dives. To date, after the 8th mission that ended in August 2018, 427 m2 of underwater land has been investigated and more than 500 km2 of land has been prospected by geophysical methods. Among the submerged sites discovered, we count offering sites, port sites, specialized workshop sites and human occupation sites (villages)... today immersed by the waters of the lake. Titicaca does contain an exceptional historical heritage, only a tiny percentage of which has been studied since 1954. The next research programme will be implemented by 2020.
Map: archaeological sites inventoried by the ULB project (2012-2014) and Enabel/ULB (2016-2018) (C. Delaere 2018)
Lake Titicaca
The Lake Titicaca basin, shared between Peru and Bolivia, is an altitude territory: the waters of the lake rise to 3810 metres above sea level and cover an area of more than 8,560 km2. This vast expanse of water was not a constraint: it contributed to the development of a dozen civilizations. It promoted the occupation of its shores and islands by generating a fully-fledged ecosystem within a semi-arid territory, and offered man many "material opportunities" favourable to human occupation.
Fig. 1: Modern underwater offering (~1940'), Lake Titicaca, Bolivia (Photo: Teddy Seguin)
Fig. 2: Underwater archaeological excavations, Lake Titicaca, Bolivia (Photo: Teddy Seguin)
Fig. 3: Excavation unit, Lake Titicaca, Bolivia (Photo: Teddy Seguin)
Fig. 4: Diver-archaeologist, Lake Titicaca, Bolivia (Photo: Teddy Seguin)
Objectives and method of the Excavation Project
The excavations carried out at Lake Titicaca aim to locate, identify and study the ancient occupations of the coastal space of the lake basin from the formative period (800-200 BC) to the Inca period (1400-1530/1550 AD). The methodological approach of the project, using the concept of a “lacustrine cultural landscape”, highlighted the importance of integrating the study of pre-Columbian coastal sites, now immersed under several metres of water, into a homogeneous cultural and tangible landscape.
The research project proposes an original analysis of unpublished data from underwater archaeological excavations carried out at Lake Titicaca since 2012 by the ULB. The concept of a lacustrine cultural landscape is based on an analytical approach and concerted reflection between geosciences and archaeology at all stages of the research work, from the data collection strategy (stratigraphic surveys) to their processing. The study of the population dynamics of the lake basin as well as that of political, economic, social and religious changes are in fact inseparable from the study of landscape changes linked to the fluctuations of Lake Titicaca over time.
Currently, the project focuses, in particular, on periods of disruption or "crises" that translate from an environmental point of view into floods and exodus events, and from a societal point of view into periods of extreme societal tensions ranging from the transformation of the socio-political and religious system to the collapse of the latter. The assessment of resilience, or in other words the societal capacity to resist or adapt to an abrupt or progressive event (social, cultural, environmental, etc.), is one of the major themes of this research project, which aims to reassess the historical trajectory of the lake basin.
Fig. 5: Underwater surveys, Lake Titicaca, Bolivia (Photo: Teddy Seguin)
Fig. 6: Bolivian student, Belgian cooperation project, Lake Titicaca, Bolivia (Photo: Teddy Seguin)
Fig. 7: Bolivian community at the excavation site, Lake Titicaca, Bolivia (Photo: Teddy Seguin)
Fig. 8: Meeting on the support boat, Lake Titicaca, Bolivia (Photo: Teddy Seguin)
Fig. 9: Kit of a Tiwanaku stonemason (500-1150 PCN), Lake Titicaca, Bolivia (Photo: Teddy Seguin)
The 2012-2014 project (Huiñaimarca Project) (ULB/NEMO33)
The Huiñaimarca Project is originally a doctoral research project conducted between 2012 and 2014 by Christophe Delaere. The research project focused on the study of a pre-Inca culture, Tiwanaku, whose emergence, transformation and completion phases were intrinsically linked to the paleoenvironmental factors that have marked the pace of the history of occupation of the Lake Titicaca basin. The project has developed rapidly and will be at the origin of the Titicaca 2016-2018 Project, which is part of the continuity and deepening of doctoral research. Since 2012, the project has been carried out in close collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MCyT) through the Archaeology and Museums Unit (UDAM) of the Vice Ministry of Interculturality, as well as with local communities and municipalities.
Fig. 9: Kit of a Tiwanaku stonemason (500-1150 PCN), Lake Titicaca, Bolivia (Photo: Teddy Seguin)
Fig. 10: Furniture and human remains from a Tiwanaku tomb (500-1150 PCN), Lake Titicaca, Bolivia (Photo: Teddy Seguin)
Fig. 11: Setting up the construction site, Lake Titicaca, Bolivia (Photo: Teddy Seguin
The 2016-2018 project (Titicaca Project) (ULB/CTB)
Within the framework of the Titicaca/Project of the Lake, financed by the Belgian Cooperation and executed by the Belgian Technical Cooperation - Enabel (BTC-Enabel), "the identification and inventory of the underwater and coastal cultural heritage of the lake basin" was one of the main activities. Indeed, in order to study, enhance and protect this little-known heritage, the archaeologist's first task was to carry out an inventory and expertise of it. The achievement of this objective has been implemented through various joint actions:
• R.1.2. Underwater Archaeological Survey Mapping Project (ULB)
• R.1.3. Coastal Archaeological Survey Project (BTC/ULB)
• R.1.4. Underwater Archaeological Excavation Soundings Project (ULB)
• R.1.1. Creation of an underwater archaeology school (ULB)
• R.1.5. Establishment of a Lake Cultural Heritage Management Centre (BTC/ULB)
2018 Project Team
The 2018 team consisted of Christophe Delaere (director), Marcial Medina Huanca (co-director), Bérenger Debrand Bonapetit, Arnaud Bourguignon, Sylvie Byl, Laurent Masselin, Pascal Laforest, Teddy Seguin, Xavier Rambaud, Marie-Julie Declerck, Aline Huybrechts, Ruth Fontenla Álvarez, Elvira Mayta Sarmiento, Nelson Mamani Arias, Jorge Mendoza Mamani, José Capriles Flores, Arthur Mouquet, José-Oscar Encuentra, Julien Bruffaerts, Céline Léonard, and Nestor Ticona Canllagua.
School of Underwater Archaeology
The creation of an ULB underwater archaeology school at Lake Titicaca is an essential step towards the sustainability of Bolivian underwater heritage management and study activities carried out in the waters of the lake since 2012. The objective of this school is to implement a program to train Bolivian divers specialized in underwater archaeology. This training involves not only the learning of technical skills specific to diving, but also theoretical, methodological and practical skills specific to underwater archaeology. The "sports" training is supervised by the Centro de Instrución de Buceo en Altura (CIBA) and the underwater archaeology training is supervised by the ULB.
Currently, six archaeology students from the Universidad Mayor San Andrés (UMSA) have benefited from this training: Ivanna Castro Prieto, Karen Lucero Mamani Condori, Sergio Duran Chacon, Usziel Leslie De La Fuente Arias, Debora Mattos Droguet and Katherine Bullain Miranda. This first class of diving archaeologists is the first national team trained and equipped to devote itself to the management, study and protection of Bolivia's underwater heritage. It will be able to intervene not only in the waters of the lake during preventive archaeological actions following accidental discoveries, but also during planned archaeological missions, whether national or foreign.
Fig. 12: Scientific and Technical Team 2016-2018, Lake Titicaca, Bolivia (Photo: Lise Nakhlé)
Titicaca Underwater Museum Project (IDDA/ULB)
As much as the first stage of the operations carried out in the waters of Lake Titicaca had the objective - between 2012 and 2018 - of locating, identifying and studying the immersed heritage (ULB), the next stage will have the objective of managing, enhancing and protecting this heritage by promoting both the sharing of knowledge, but also the enjoyment of and access to this heritage (ULB/CTB/UNESCO).
All the conditions are currently in place to make the "Underwater Museum" project at Lake Titicaca a reality. The latter, currently in the implementation procedure (IDDA/ULB/UNESCO), will be intended to be versatile and multidisciplinary, and will bring together within the same complex all the services necessary for heritage research, management and promotion. This project is supported by the 2001 UNESCO Convention.
Video presentation of the Museum project
IDDA website
Contact Titicaca Projet
Christophe Delaere (Direction)
Pr. Peter Eeckhout (Directeur de recherche)