The founding of the Inca provincial center of Tambo Viejo, Acarí, Perú

Abstract

The Peruvian south coast was one of the regions annexed into the Inca state by diplomatic means. Tambo Viejo was the Inca center built in the Acarí Valley, which marks the southern boundary of the region. Building upon some dates found in ethnohistorical documents, the late John H. Rowe asserted that the Inca conquest of the region likely took place about AD 1476. Recent archaeological research at Tambo Viejo enabled us to secure AMS dates. The calibrated dates and Bayesian model suggest that the starting boundary of Inca occupation of Tambo Viejo began as early as ∼AD 1380, while the ending boundary is ∼AD 1510. The dates are earlier that Rowe's expected dates, but in line with other 14C dates from elsewhere the empire. What is clear is that the date is several decades earlier than the traditional chronology and agrees with the document known as Relación de Chincha.