Inca Expansion Research Articles

El estado inka en el valle de Acarí de la costa sur del Perú

Until recently, it was thought that the Inka state’s interference in regions that accep- ted peaceful incorporation was minimal. It was argued that beyond the provincial cen- ters established by the Cusco rulers, Inka interference was almost negligible, apparently because the state did not see it necessary to interfere with a population that accepted his presence. Recent archaeological research carried out in the Acarí Valley on the south coast of Peru shows that the Inka occupation resulted in significant changes, such as the establishment of new settlements, to which the local people appear to have been relocated. Thus, the new evidence demonstrates that people who did not offer any resistance to the Inka expansion were affected by the decisions adopted by the Cusco authorities.

A Chronological Model for Inca Provincial Expansion: The Case of the Copiapo Valley

Abstract This article examines a new dataset of radiocarbon dates that provides insights into the progressive installation of Inca infrastructure in the Copiapo Valley, situated at the southern edge of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. It shows that the Inca imperial expansion in this region was not a linear process and was likely shaped by local negotiations and conflicts. The findings describe three main stages of Inca expansion. The first is the construction of the North–South Inca Road and the establishment of high-altitude mountain shrines. The next stage consisted of a physical intervention in a local village located in the upper valley, including the construction of administrative buildings and public spaces. The last stage involved indirect intervention in local villages, characterized by the presence of isolated administrative buildings that were potentially used for diplomacy and negotiation. I argue that the Inca imperial expansion, characterized by evolving strategies across regions and time periods, not only demonstrates the state's capacity for learning but also suggests the pivotal role of local actors in positions of power who wielded agency to shape these developments.

The Late Intermediate Period in the south-central Andes (AD 1000–1450): Key problems in chronology

The Late Intermediate Period (LIP, cal AD 1000–1450) in the central Andes is defined as a hiatus after the collapse of Tiwanaku and Wari, expansive state polities of the Middle Horizon (cal AD 600–1000), and before the domination of the Inca empire in the Late Horizon (cal AD 1450–1532). The LIP is often characterized as a unit, but major developments took place within this long period, including diasporic migrations and the new colonization of some regions, demographic change, intensified conflict, large-scale adverse climate episodes, and changes associated with the onset of Inca expansion. Here we make a preliminary attempt to clarify the chronology of these developments. A database of published and new radiocarbon dates is compiled for the south-central highlands and coastal valleys in order to model overall and subregional demographic trends using an updated “dates-as-data” cumulative kernel density estimate (CKDE) approach, and to examine specific LIP phenomena in two subregions. Our results indicate major demographic change including 1) substantial population growth beginning in the 13th century, 2) a marked 14th-century population surge in most, but not all, subregions included here, 3) evidence of population decline in several subregions during the same intervals when neighboring populations are expanding. Population growth was associated with intensified violence and increased physiological stress in the upper Nasca drainage. In the altiplano of Peru and Bolivia, population growth accompanied the rise of defensive hillforts and monumental cemeteries. Our date models also indicate a more complicated terminal LIP in the altiplano, with the height of classically “LIP” societies overlapping with early evidence for imperial Inca presence. This paper highlights the ways that more refined chronology can make advances in our understanding of a turbulent post-collapse era in the Andes.

A new piece of the puzzle: slag and ore analysis to reconstruct the prehispanic smelting technology at the Atacama Desert, Chile

The Incas appropriated many local metallurgical technologies throughout the Andes, each of which had its unique peculiarities and was based on local ancestral knowledge. The widespread use of tin-bronze during the Inca expansion, the development of mining and smelting sites, as well as ethno-historical records evidence the Incas’ interest in copper smelting, a key activity in the Andes since ca. 1400 BC. However, little is known about the technical parameters achieved by ancient metallurgists and the changes that occurred during the Inca expansion. In this paper, we address these changes through a case study of Copiapó valley, focusing on the Viña del Cerro site, one of the most famous Inca smelting centres of the southern Andes. Although this place was architectonically restructured by the Incas, its operations began long before the imperial expansion and used wind-powered furnaces. We analysed 19 slag and 11 copper ore samples using OM, SEM–EDS, WD-XRF, and XRD analyses. Results identified heterogeneous and viscous slags, rich in SiO2 (43 wt%) and poor in FeO (13 wt%). Copper retention was high (up to 60 wt%). Microstructural analyses indicate that slags were formed under unstable oxidising conditions, reaching temperatures that ranged between 1000 to 1100 °C. The copper produced was very pure. High-grade copper ores containing up to 69 wt% CuO were reduced at the site, combining carbonates (malachite, azurite), halides (buttgenbachite, clinoatacamite), and some sulphates (brochantite). We propose that even under the relatively unfavourable conditions for slag formation, the smelting conditions generated at Viña del Cerro were competent enough to extract metal, but not necessarily enough to form liquid slag. These conditions were facilitated by the local metallurgists’ thorough knowledge of the wind flow and their ability to select the right ore. This new information contributes to understanding the efficiency of metallurgical technology and the knowledge, skills, and adaptability of the ancient metallurgists from Copiapó valley, a group that was integrated into the economic networks of the Inca Empire.

The Inca: Lost Civilizations

The Inca: Lost Civilizations

A RADIOCARBON CHRONOLOGY FOR ESTADIO DE QUILLOTA IN THE ACONCAGUA VALLEY, CENTRAL CHILE, WITH REFERENCE TO THE ADOPTION OF INTENSIVE MAIZE AGRICULTURE AND REVISITING THE TIMING OF INKA INFLUENCE ON THE SOUTHERN FRONTIER

ABSTRACTEstadio de Quillota (EDQ) is the largest known pre-Columbian cemetery site within the Aconcagua Valley of Central Chile. Despite its importance, existing chronological data for EDQ are limited and questions remain regarding the prehistory of the Valley, particularly around the adoption and intensification of maize agriculture, as well as the timing of Inka influence reaching the region. Seventeen new AMS radiocarbon dates presented here indicate two distinct phases of use at EDQ: An earlier phase (339–196 cal BC to cal AD 128–339), and a later phase (cal AD 1280–1387 to cal AD 1413–1458). Accompanying stable isotope (δ13C and δ15N) analyses of human bone collagen (n=22) demonstrate diachronic dietary changes corresponding to these phases, with a reliance on terrestrial C3 resources during the earlier period, followed by a heavy dependence on C4-based (maize) resources during the later use. Bayesian modeling of the dates from Late Period contexts suggests Inka influence arrived in Central Chile by ca. cal AD 1400, decades before the date cited in traditional chronologies, AD 1471. Inka expansion likely occurred here with an initial phase of interaction and exchange preceding a later phase of integration. This finding supports growing evidence that the traditional chronology of the Inka Empire requires reconsideration.

Imperial ritual appropriation and violence?: the severed heads from Fiambalá and Copiapó during Inca times

ABSTRACT The appropriation of local ritual practices and their expansion as part of the Inca imperial ideology is a well-documented mode of dominance in the Central Andes. However, there is still no relevant evidence on how it worked in the southern areas of the empire. We show how the Incas might have appropriated some local ritual practices that consisted of burying caches of skulls with perforations, possibly associated with ancestor veneration cults. However, the meanings associated with this practice seem to have changed during the Inca expansion to Chile, serving as a device for coercion over local populations in the Copiapó valley.

Mortuary Practices Amid Sociopolitical Changes: Interpreting a Large Communal Ossuary at Las Huacas, Chincha Valley

Ancient Andean mortuary practices were dynamic events where individual and group identities were displayed and negotiated during Inca imperial expansion (AD 1400–1532) and the Colonial period (AD 1532–1824). This article explores the significance of a large communal ossuary found at the site of Las Huacas in the Chincha Valley through analyzing the context, material culture, and human remains. The feature is a secondary interment of at least 42 individuals that incorporates broad local trends and integrates some Late Horizon innovations, including the manipulation of vertebrae on a reed post. If the feature was deposited during the Late Horizon, the burial event was likely embedded within sociopolitical strategies under Inca-Chincha joint rule. If deposited during the colonial period, it could represent an offering made in response to a drastic decrease in population. Regardless, the feature demonstrates how local Chincha material culture and mortuary practices persisted and changed after Inca expansion.

Empire and stable isotopes: assessing the impact of Inka expansion on local diet in the southern Puna, Argentina

Dietary studies can offer insight into the effects of imperial rule on colonised populations. Inka expansion was associated with change in agricultural production and diet, including greater emphasis on maize. This article presents stable isotope analyses of ten individuals from two locations in Antofagasta de la Sierra, Argentina. AMS dating assigns one site to the start of the Inka period and one to the end. Despite diachronic changes in material culture, isotope analyses indicate that maize remained relatively unimportant in local diet. Given the symbolic value of maize in the Inka world, this lack of dietary change suggests limited imperial influence over local agricultural production and diet.

Multi-isotopic and morphometric evidence for the migration of farmers leading up to the Inka conquest of the southern Andes

We present isotopic and morphometric evidence suggesting the migration of farmers in the southern Andes in the period AD 1270–1420, leading up to the Inka conquest occurring ~ AD 1400. This is based on the interdisciplinary study of human remains from archaeological cemeteries in the Andean Uspallata Valley (Argentina), located in the southern frontier of the Inka Empire. The studied samples span AD 800–1500, encompassing the highly dynamic Late Intermediate Period and culminating with the imperial expansion. Our research combines a macro-regional study of human paleomobility and migration based on a new strontium isoscape across the Andes that allows identifying locals and migrants, a geometric morphometric analysis of cranio-facial morphology suggesting separate ancestral lineages, and a paleodietary reconstruction based on stable isotopes showing that the migrants had diets exceptionally high in C4 plants and largely based on maize agriculture. Significantly, this migration influx occurred during a period of regional demographic increase and would have been part of a widespread period of change in settlement patterns and population movements that preceded the Inka expansion. These processes increased local social diversity and may have been subsequently utilized by the Inka to channel interaction with the local societies.

Radiocarbon Chronology of the Inca Expansion in Argentina

The purpose of this article is to broaden the information available on the chronology of the Inca expansion in Collasuyu by analyzing all radiocarbon dates obtained in Argentina’s Inca sites. We ev...

Turismo y desarrollo sustentable del Qhapaq-Ñan: problemas y oportunidades de desarrollo

En el proceso de desarrollo, el territorio no es un receptor pasivo de las intervenciones externas sino un espacio que tiene una estrategia propia de inserción en la dinámica general. El territorio es visto como un ‘entramado de intereses’ o un ‘agente de transformación social’; es decir, como un conjunto de relaciones sociales que dan origen y a la vez expresan una identidad y un sentido de propósito compartidos por múltiples agentes (Vázquez-Barquero, 2000). Este enfoque, es el que posibilitará que el turismo sea realmente un agente de desarrollo endógeno y sostenible. En este sentido; a través, de la presente nota científica en torno al Qhapaq-Ñan, las autoras buscan esclarecer las posibilidades de los territorios ubicados en sus cercanías para alcanzar un desarrollo local sostenible, a través del turismo, que genere oportunidades a fin de mejorar la calidad de vida de las comunidades locales sin afectar o alterar el patrimonio mundial. El Qhapaq-Ñan, en términos de patrimonio arqueológico, es el mayor bien patrimonial seriado que se conoce en el continente americano, abarcando seis países andinos. Este sistema vial andino constituye la expresión tangible de la expansión incaica y de la convivencia del orden imperial con las diversas culturas locales. La declaración del Qhapaq-Ñan como patrimonio mundial, en el año 2014, ha llevado a aunar esfuerzos conjuntos entre diversos países, diversas provincias, departamentos y diferentes sectores con el propósito de preservar este bien de valor universal excepcional.

Tracing the genetic history of the \u2018Ca\xf1aris\u2019 from Ecuador and Peru using uniparental DNA markers

BackgroundAccording to history, in the pre-Hispanic period, during the conquest and Inka expansion in Ecuador, many Andean families of the Cañar region would have been displaced to several places of Tawantinsuyu, including Kañaris, a Quechua-speaking community located at the highlands of the Province of Ferreñafe, Lambayeque (Peru). Other families were probably taken from the Central Andes to a place close to Kañaris, named Inkawasi. Evidence of this migration comes from the presence near the Kañaris–Inkawasi communities of a village, a former Inka camp, which persists until the present day. This scenario could explain these toponyms, but it is still controversial. To clarify this historical question, the study presented here focused on the inference of the genetic relationship between ‘Cañaris’ populations, particularly of Cañar and Ferreñafe, compared to other highland populations. We analysed native patrilineal Y chromosome haplotypes composed of 15 short tandem repeats, a set of SNPs, and maternal mitochondrial DNA haplotypes of control region sequences.ResultsAfter the genetic comparisons of local populations—three from Ecuador and seven from Peru—, Y chromosome analyses (n = 376) indicated that individuals from the Cañar region do not share Y haplotypes with the Kañaris, or even with those of the Inkawasi. However, some Y haplotypes of Ecuadorian ‘Cañaris’ were associated with haplotypes of the Peruvian populations of Cajamarca, Chivay (Arequipa), Cusco and Lake Titicaca, an observation that is congruent with colonial records. Within the Kañaris and Inkawasi communities there are at least five clans in which several individuals share haplotypes, indicating that they have recent common ancestors. Despite their relative isolation, most individuals of both communities are related to those of the Cajamarca and Chachapoyas in Peru, consistent with the spoken Quechua and their geographic proximity. With respect to mitochondrial DNA haplotypes (n = 379), with the exception of a shared haplotype of the D1 lineage between the Cañar and Kañaris, there are no genetic affinities.ConclusionAlthough there is no close genetic relationship between the Peruvian Kañaris (including Inkawasi) and Ecuadorian Cañar populations, our results showed some congruence with historical records.

Producing legibility through ritual: The Inka expansion in Huarochirí (Lima, Peru)

This article builds a framework for the analysis of the Inka Empire’s (1400–1532 CE) expansion in the Peruvian highlands. Drawing from recent archaeological excavations at the site of Canchaje (Huarochirí), I propose that the Inka built upon cultural familiarities between them and their subjects by using ritual emplacements (rock outcrops and plazas) as arenas of mediation. At the same time, the construction of mutual legibility enabled subjected communities to maintain and redefine their cultural practices in ways that survived the Inka Empire. By recasting the Inka from foreign conqueror to new kin within local ritual systems, the people of Huarochirí reinvented their traditions to garner political agency. Using archaeological data and colonial-period documents, I show that local agency informed empire-building, leading to the reinvention of local traditions. Ultimately, my work shows how mutual legibility was built on the ground while exploring specific instances of negotiation through ritual.

Stable isotope analysis of the Inca mummy from Nevado de Chuscha (Salta, Argentina)*

This paper presents the carbon (13C/12C), nitrogen (15N/14N), oxygen (18O/16O), hydrogen (2H/1H) and sulfur (34S/32S) stable isotope values measured in the hair of a female individual from north‐western Argentina. The analysis of segments of this tissue allows for the recording of the diet and migratory changes with a short time resolution. The sample is from a mummified young female individual discovered in Chuscha mount, Salta province. It was found at more than 5000 masl, in a mountain sanctuary of the Inca expansion (capacochas). The paper discusses the paleodiet and mobility patterns of this individual in the period before her death, focusing on the isotopic variations in a limited time scale. The results indicate that the individual moved from a different region to the place where she was sacrificed. Furthermore, in the last year the individual was alive, a shift in the isotopic composition of the food consumed is detected: a variation in the importance of C4 over C3 resources is evident. The results are compared with the isotopic estimations for other children and young people recovered in archaeological contexts associated with capacochas to infer variability in the geographical trajectories covered during their last months of life.

Displays of Violence and Power at the Edge of the Empire: Provincial Trophy Heads during Inca Times

The Inca expansion to the southern Andes catalyzed important political and symbolic changes in local communities. In addition to economic changes in mining production and the installation of logistical and administrative infrastructure, new forms of ideological violence emerged in the Copiapó Valley, Chile. One new form was the display and discarding of human heads, a burial pattern unprecedented in the region. In this article, we present evidence of perforated heads buried without grave goods next to a local cemetery in a Late Horizon village. We argue that the performative use of modified severed heads from young individuals at the Iglesia Colorada site was part of Inca ritual practices. Their use represented an effort to ideologically rule over newly incorporated subjects by demonstrating power and ensuring their compliance.

1470 Inca Expansion into the Land of the Chachapoya

Starting from around AD 800, the Chachapoya developed their own culture with monumental architecture. It came to an end in 1470 after the conquest by the Incas. At that time, a different architecture was introduced in the region followed by changes in the landscape. The article summarises the available evidence on architectural and archaeological remains dated to the period following the Inca conquest.

1470 Inca Expansion into the Land of the Chachapoya

Starting from around AD 800, the Chachapoya developed their own culture with monumental architecture. It came to an end in 1470 after the conquest by the Incas. At that time, a different architecture was introduced in the region followed by changes in the landscape. The article summarises the available evidence on architectural and archaeological remains dated to the period following the Inca conquest.

Rural Cuzco before and after Inka Imperial Conquest: Foodways, Status, and Identity (Maras, Peru)

State expansion brings cultural change or persistence, and foodways reveal how status and identity result from these events. We examine diet choices and food service at two large villages in the Inka imperial heartland (Cuzco, Peru). Yunkaray was occupied during the time of early Inka expansion (eleventh to fifteenth centuries), whereas Cheqoq housed a late imperial (fifteenth to sixteenth centuries) multiethnic retainer population serving the Inka nobility. We use faunal remains and ceramic assemblages to reveal the uneven process of “Inkanization” and find that migrated retainer laborers had greater affinities with Inka practices than early Inka marriage partners.

El Condor mine: Prehispanic production and consumption of hematite pigments in the Atacama Desert, northern Chile

The mineral richness of the Atacama Desert permitted the development of a diverse array of mining activities, including the production of metals, lapidary, and pigments, which developed into significant sociocultural practices for desert dwellers throughout the occupation of the region. El Cóndor mine is an important hematite source located in the middle section of the Loa River, exploited from the Formative Period (ca. AD 300) until Inca times (ca. AD 1500). In contrast to other mining sites of Atacama region, the El Condor mine complex contains specialized infrastructure where different kinds of activities were carried out: extraction pits, processing areas with multiple anvils and grinding tools, and semicircular structures used for domestic activities. Pigment production was initially developed as a small-scale craft that intensified during later periods (ca. AD 1200). It was most extensive following the Inca expansion (ca. AD 1400), as evidenced by wider networks of distribution and consumption, as well as infrastructural changes. El Cóndor mine constitutes a notable example of a large-scale hematite operation that articulated important networks of exchange, and as such provides a case study for evaluating the organization of mining activities during late periods of the pre-Hispanic sequence in the Atacama Desert. We then emphasize that the circulation of pigments constitutes an important social practice and a salient economic activity, fulfilling a political role through the production and reproduction of social relations between different cultural entities that could be compared to similar cases from other regions in the world.