At Least One Mystery is Solved at Pumapunku
The H-Blocks scattered around the site has stumped everyone for over a millennia but we finally have an answer to how they were made.
Hiya!
Ya know, I’m no expert when it comes to knowledge of ancient cultures. But I have always found them fascinating and learned quite a bit over the years. Though I’ve come to the conclusion that modern science greatly underestimates what ancient cultures were capable of. And it seems to me that perhaps, the ancients knew more than we do in many respects — and I don’t just mean in terms of hunting or foraging.
Stupendous monuments, structures, and complexes are found worldwide that defy what modern scholars and scientists deem possible of people at the time. Since many are built from stone, there are plenty of arguments, too, about when many of them were made, which only furthers the difficulties.
Though finally, it appears science is beginning to make some headway when it comes to at least one ancient site shrouded in mystery for over a thousand years. A place that the ancient Incas believed was where the world began— Pumapunku. While some secrets remain, scientists think they at least know how the bizarre H-Blocks were made.
Overview
Today, the area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but from 200 to 1,000 C.E. (altho the exact dates seem to fluctuate within a couple of hundred years either way, depending on the source), a pre-Ican culture called Tiwanaku dominated a region from northern Chilé to coastal Peru, and near Lake Titicaca in Bolivia was the heart of the civilization. A series of impressive complexes, among which was one called Pumapunku, or “door of the puma.”
Pumapunka was a glorious complex designed and built by the Tiwanaku culture, located in a region named after them. Tiwanaku city near the edge of Lake Titicaca was the highest city in the entire ancient world, sitting at an altitude of 12,600 feet (3,850 meters), and was home to between 30,000 and 70,000 people.
It was, experts suggest, the center of the most important Andean cultures, which isn’t hard to believe based on their sculptures, architecture, roads, and impressive empire management.
Pumapunku is a sizeable T-shaped structure sitting atop a complex with windows and gateways seemingly carved from single blocks of stone. Plus, plazas, paved courtyards, terraced mounds, ramps, and massive intricately carved blocks. In total, Pumapunku was a large rectangle about 66 feet (20 meters) wide and extending 91 feet (27.6 meters) long.
No one really knows why Tiwanaku collapsed sometime between 1,000 to 1,100 C.E., though drought and/or war appear to be the leading theories. Then around 1,300 C.E., the Incas rolled in and were so inspired by the ruins of Pumapunka that they believed it was the spot where the world began and set to work trying to restore it.
During restoration efforts, the Inca integrated some of the Tiwanaku stonework styles into their own architecture, like Machu Picchu and various structures in Cusco, the capital city of Peru. The Inca lived in the lands of Tiwanaku until the 1500s when the Spanish conquistadors arrived.
They, too, were impressed with Pumpapunku. So much so that they described it as “inconceivable” in 1549. The reason? Pumapunku demonstrated a new level of craftsmanship unprecedented to the pre-Columbian New World.
H-Blocks
Many of the structures in Pumapunka feature clean right angles, precision cuts, perfect circles, and skillfully fitted joints thought impossible for people living during that time. There were also giant megaliths weighing several tons, and the courtyards, too, had floors made of single massive slabs of stone rather than many small stones laid together.
Though what catches the attention of anyone — from the Spanish conquistadors to modern-day tourists — are the large H-shaped blocks of stone. You can see in the image below that their uniformity, sharp-right angles, and indentations impress anyone who sees them.
Considering experts presumed that the Tiwanaku only used stone tools, no one could figure out the preciseness of the cuts and the smoothness of the sizes. Not a single chisel mark to be seen.
Their appearance is confounding, and so is the disarray in which many of them lay scattered across the ground like a child’s discarded building blocks. The construction of Pumapunku and the style and positioning of the scattered H-blocks is so astounding that some wonder whether aliens were involved.
But then, just a couple of years ago, science officially debunked the alien idea when researchers took a closer look at the composition of the stones, including the H-Blocks, found at Pumapunka. They discovered the rocks weren’t carved from a single block or hulled from a quarry but made — concrete-styled mixtures likely poured into molds.
The H-blocks are mostly made of andesitic volcanic stone, but the analysis also found organic matter, which is not just unusual but is nearly impossible to occur naturally. The researchers conclude the H-Blocks are likely a “ceramic-like man-made stone.” Though, considering they weigh tens of tons, they wouldn’t have been easy to move, let alone assemble.
Still, in 2018, experts combined decades of research and published what they believe to be a reconstruction of Pumapunku. While impressive, considering the disarray of the blocks scattered around Pumapunku, we can’t be positive about what it looked like originally.
Perspective Shift
The Tiwanakus didn’t have access to massive quarries the way, say, the Ancient Egyptians did. Not to mention at such high elevations, transporting stones weighing tens to hundreds of tons isn’t exactly efficient. So, instead, the Tiwanankus got creative and combined materials to form and mold their stones to be exactly what they wanted.
Their creative problem-solving and engineering skills should be a lesson to us. As more evidence about various ancient cultures arises, we find that our previous assumptions that the ancients were primitive are wrong. To me, it seems more like they were brilliant and capable of far more than we give them credit for.
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