Urban Development of Pre-Inca and Inca Cities and their Link to Today, Demonstrated on Tiahuanaco (Tiwanaku)
Abstract: Historical development of urban construction attracted the interest of researchers and journalists in the Czech Republic particularly in the mid-20th century. After 1989 the Czech theoretical urban research moved toward solving the pressing issues of today and in essence the scientists stopped paying attention to the study of the historical context entirely. Nevertheless, historical science had altered fundamentally over the last 50 years – starting with the paradigm and ending with the method of presentation but the view of historical development of city construction from the perspective of urban planners (and for urban planners) has basically remained unchanged. Proceeding from studies of foreign sources and fieldwork on the actual sites as well as in the light of new findings of historical sciences, the study extends general theoretical urban knowledge of the segment which from the perspective of urban development is very attractive but only partially explored. The presented work aims at mapping the development of the main pre-Inca and Inca settlements, on the actual example of Tiahuanaco (Tiwanaka), which is shrouded in not only historical but also urban myths and thus can be considered as something like a microcosm of the issues connected with the pre-Inca and partially Inca development of urban construction. Aimed at shedding more light on the development of the local pre-Inca settlements using the example of Tiahuanaco, the research, albeit a limited part of the Andean area, has shown that the issue is so complex that the contribution may have raised more questions than provided answers. On one hand, it has emerged that many of the "mysteries" are based on the technical and technological ignorance of some of the authors, others have stemmed from the fact that many authors have never visited the described sites and the last and probably most serious enigma is based on the fact that historical artefacts are often tampered with regrouped and misinterpreted in a literally nonsensical way. The authors of this study have come to the conclusion that exploration of the history in our line of expertise – i.e. building, development and functioning of human settlements should not be left only in the hands of non-technical researchers.
