The suÑawa monolith and a genre of extended-arm sculptures at tiwanaku, bolivia

Abstract

From pre-Columbian times until today, monolithic stone sculptures have constituted the public face of Tiwanaku. Researchers, however, have nearly exclusively focused on the sculptural class that we term “presentation monoliths”: anthropomorphic lithic beings that hold a chicha goblet in one hand and a snuff tablet in the other. Here, we direct attention to a complementary set of sculptures we designate “extended-arm monoliths,” focusing specifically on a sculpture known as the Suñawa Monolith. We argue that the Suñawa, together with its likely companion sculpture, the Pachakama, was one of several monoliths that belonged to this class, which constituted figures positioned to guard or accompany presentation monoliths. Accordingly, the iconography of the Suñawa Monolith depicts themes of sacrificial violence and vegetative generation. We suggest that Tiwanaku monumental sculpture encompassed an entire “society” of animate, differentiated, transacting monoliths that included not just presentation figures but also other beings, including attendant extended-arm monoliths.