Recent Changes

While the two civilizations shared approximately 500km of border space, direct contact between the two has been hard to support through archaeological evidence. There is, however, enough of it to lead to the obvious conclusion that these people could not simply be living amongst one another with no contact whatsoever. The textile and ceramic production of both cultures, while clearly distinct, share some similar traits, including production methods and iconography. There is also evidence via analysis of Strontium level in recovered teeth that colonists from certain areas were moving during their lifetimes from one settlement to another. In one location, in the Moquegua Valley, direct contact between the two cultures is evident, with settlements of the two cultures located within close proximity.
It is believed that nearing CE 1000, both civilizations, nearing their collapse, regrouped into smaller polities, one of which would go on to become the Inka state, the largest and furthest reaching Pre-Columbian empire in the Americas. The reasons for the schisms and recombination are unclear, but may be related to a widespread drought in the region between 950-1050. This destabilization of the agricultural system of the Wari, as well as the lack of confidence in the Tiwanaku political leadership after the resettlements may be behind the subsequent and near simultaneous collapses.
For further reading regarding the subject, Stephanie Pavolini's argument has a great deal of good information as well.

The site of Cerro Baul is an interesting find, and one that would be expected more often found, with these two complex civilizations living in such close proximity at the same time. The Hilltop Wari site seems to have served a multitude of purposes, including being an administrative and ceremonial center in the Moquegua Valley, and is the only site with proven interaction of Tiwanaku and Wari people in the same place and time. While certain sites have some Wari influence in them, such as pottery and ceramics in Cusco, Cerro Baul is the only site with demonstrated interaction between the two groups simultaneously. Built upon the hill, the Wari site was surrounded by several Tiwanaku sites while in use, and shows architecture mainly of the Wari style, especially the D-shaped craft production and habitation areas, but some Tiwanaku style of buildings as well.
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The view from Cerro Baul of the Moquegua Valley, with terraced agricultural fields (andeñes) present.
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Cerro Baul as seen from a distance, raised above the nearby hills and naturally fortified.

Using analysis of strontium isotopes in the enamel of human teeth, it is possible to locate where that person generally lived for the first dozen years of their life. The levels of strontium vary in bone tissue based on plant and water consumption and absorption into hard tissue. While it generally takes between 2-20 years for turnover of bone composition (Parfitt, 1983), tooth enamel does not have this same turnover. Enamel is considered a dead tissue, due to the fact that it is not penetrated by any organic structure after formation and hardening (Hillson, 1986). Because of this, the area where a child was raised while the teeth formed is recorded in the specific composition of four separate strontium isotopes.
The analysis of strontium levels in the enamel of Tihuanaco inhabitants indicates that some were not born and raised at the site, but elsewhere within the Moquegua valley. The same holds true for other sites throughout the valley, including Chen Chen, where women both raised there and away from there have indistinct graves from each other, which would indicate limited to no inequality between the native and foreign inhabitants.
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Strontium analysis of both bone and enamel, showing local Huari burials and trophy heads.
The green bar represents current levels of strontium found in guinea pigs from the settlement.
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Though the site is believed to have been in use since at least 1500 BCE, Tihuanaco did not truly become a city and urban center for another 2000 years, when it began to establish itself as the leader of one of the most important pre-Inca empires in South America. Located on the Southern tip of Lake Titicaca, in Bolivia, Tihuanaco would lead an empire spanning parts of Bolivia, Peru, and Chile. At its height, the city boasted 6.5km of land and up to 30,000 inhabitants, before its climate-based decline between CE 950-1000.
(Shady, 2001).
While the two civilizations shared approximately 500km of border space, direct contact between the two has been hard to support through archaeological evidence. There is, however, enough of it to lead to the obvious conclusion that these people could not simply be living amongst one another with no contact whatsoever. The textile and ceramic production of both cultures, while clearly distinct, share some similar traits, including production methods and iconography. There is also evidence via analysis of Strontium level in recovered teeth that colonists from certain areas were moving during their lifetimes from one settlement to another. In one location, in the Moquegua Valley, direct contact between the two cultures is evident, with settlements of the two cultures located within close proximity.
It is believed that nearing CE 1000, both civilizations, nearing their collapse, regrouped into smaller polities, one of which would go on to become the Inka state, the largest and furthest reaching Pre-Columbian empire in the Americas. The reasons for the schisms and recombination are unclear, but may be related to a widespread drought in the region between 950-1050. This destabilization of the agricultural system of the Wari, as well as the lack of confidence in the Tiwanaku political leadership after the resettlements may be behind the subsequent and near simultaneous collapses.
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Map of Peru showing location of several important sites, including Tiwanaku on Lake Titicaca and Wari in the Andes to the Northwest.

The iconography of religious and ceremonial objects of both cultures also had certain similarities. There are similar beings wielding double staffs in both groups that seem to be indicative of sun and moon spirits, and are evident throughout the term of their existences. These images are found on Tiwanaku architecture, such as the Gate of the Sun, and on Wari ceramics and pottery. The pantheon of religious icons and deities also appears to have been extended throughout the Inka Empire, with these gods, as well as those of weather and rain, making frequent appearances (Menzel, 1977). The attendants for these gods, often wielding a single staff of their own and with wings, are also present throughout all three cultures’ iconography, as are representations of constellations. The current belief is that the attendants were representative of the constellations, which were important in Inka life and religion, and were part of a belief system which dictated that the deities would travel through the night sky and come down during the day to the Earth (Knobloch, 1989).
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Wari vessel with jaguar figures
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Gate of the Sun at Tihuanaco, portraying "Staff God"
Certain areas that had fallen under the Tiwanaku Empire, such as Lukurmata and Cochabamba, were continuously occupied, even after the collapse of the empire as a whole. Evidence at the sites indicate that the ceramic style was continued in tradition both in the Wari style, and further in time with the Inka, specifically with keros, or flared vessel cups produced first by the Tiwanaku (Bermann, 1994). Evolved from the earlier Chiripa and Pukara cultures, ceramic styles of the two later civilizations, with images of humans, many images of people in warrior garb and holding sacrificial heads are found. “These kneeling figures eventually became standing and then evolved into the figures that dominated the Classic Tiwanaku and Wari and on into the Inca, when the imagery of ritual power transferred into statecraft” (Hastorf, 2005).