The Tiwanaku state is represented by dense occupation in the region around Lake Titicaca, and a much wider distribution of material (such as pottery) of Tiwanaku type. A close relationship existed between Tiwanaku and the military state of Huari to its north.
Tiwanaku seems to have been a pilgrimage and sacred centre for a cult that revolved round the Staff God, popular since Chavin times and probably identifiable with the creator god known to the later Inca as Viracocha.
This cult was widely adopted, particularly by the Huari state, and its widespread popularity may account for the presence of Tiwanaku-inspired material as far north as Ecuador and in coastal regions.
Tiwanaku was also ideally located to control trade by llama caravan between the highlands and the lake basin and beyond. It established economic colonies in areas where important foodstuffs and other commodities were produced, in exchange supplying these regions with fine pottery, textiles, carved wood and gold objects and hallucinogenic snuff.
Many of these commodities were found in burials, some probably those of Tiwanaku administrators stationed abroad to supervise trade.
In the Tiwanaku region itself, a strongly hierarchical society existed, ranging in status from rulers who oversaw trade and public works, through specialist craftsmen to the peasants who grew the crops, wove the textiles and contributed their labour to sacred and secular construction projects.
