Lake Titicaca Hydraulic Civilization (43,000 - 12,900 BP) introduction

Results from the Jebel Irhoud site dating (a pre-modern phase in H.Sapiens evolution re: C.Stringer & J. Galway 2017) are confirming our theory that approx. 40,000 yrs ago in the vicinity of the the Lake Titicaca had begun a process on a large scale, during which concentrated and multilevel human activities took place, resulting in the creation of the Lake Titicaca Hydraulic Civilization (LTHC).

This process lasted until approx. 12,900 BP which corresponds to the Younger Dryas event, and it was then when catastrophic floods had changed drastically human conditions and a pattern of human existence in South and North America.

Initial phase was related to the extensive mining activities which were carried on for several thousands of years on a gigantic scale, and of which the final purpose we do not understand at this point. With depletion of important metallic minerals, the Mining Phase (approx. 40,000-21,000 BP) wained and was followed by the second Limited Phase (21,000-15,000 BP), during which the abandoned mines and degraded sites were slowly being adapted for the agricultural use. Corresponding climatic change forced new patters of behavior in the dryer and less friendly conditions, resulting the transition to the third Agricultural phase (17,000 - 12,900 BP), more known and important for our understanding of the global history , during which local population multiplied and created an extensive system of andenes and during which important ceremonial centers in Pucara and Tiwanaku were built. An extensive earthwork was carried out leading to create remote large water reservoirs (eg. Acmanuncocha, Laguna Sumbila, etc.) connected with surface canals, and alternatively with dugout ´rivers´ and perhaps complemented by ´dugout and cover´ underground puquis; unusually large coastal works re-shaped the Lake Arapa; evidence of aqueducts did not surfaced at this point, but we are not excluding their existence. This phase has been treated in more detail by other researchers.

see:  Karl August Wittfogel (1896–1988), in his book Oriental Despotism: A Comparative Study of Total Power (1957)