The Inca~ Ancestors and their Author's Note Knowledge about indigenous Ande<1os - ancient, historic, and modern - is blossoming at an ever-increasing rate. I am profoundly indebted to multitudes of colleagues and Cordillera citizens for generously sharing their findings and observations with me. This has shaped my vie,,,s and I attempt to convey the true marvels of Andean accornplishment in this revised text. OUf knowledge of native achievement is becoming ever more detailed, and here I have tried to stand back and weave together broader evolutionary themes that highlight the fabric and design of indigenous accomplishment. While I address an international audience, I write most pointedly for millions of native Quechua ;lnd Aymara speakers because they are the proud inheritors of a past and patrimony that rivals all Old World civilizations. Younger native Andeans and new scholars will redefine the evolution of indigenous adaptations to the Cordillera, so I dedicate this revised volume to the fresh generation, and to Maya Elena. Frolllispica:: .-I.fi'IIII1/r SIt/fICod n:pr"Wl/flliflll 011 puilfll'd (,Of/Oil rllllli jil/Illd III KllrlPII. CI H)t)2 and 2001 Thames & !-Iudson Ltd, London All Rights Resernd. No part ofthis publication m:ly be rcproduced or mmsmitted in any form or by any mC:lns, electronic or mechanic:11, induding photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retric,':!1 system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. First published in the United States uf America in It)1)2 by Th,lmes & Hudson Inc., 500 Fifth :\venue, New York, New York 10110 thamcsandhudsollusa.com Revised cuilion 2001 Reprinted 2008 Libmry of Congrt."Ss C:nalog Card Number 00-108866 Printcd and bound in SltI\'cnia by MKT Print d.d. CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE Introduction 7 TheIncas 9 The conquest II The historical record 12 The archaeological record 17 CHAPTER TWO Land of the Four Quarters 25 The Cordillera 25 Geography of the Four Quarters 32 Making a living 43 CHAPTER THREE The Inca Model of Statecraft The cosmos 51 The ayllu 53 Statecraft 70 CHAPTER FOUR Colonization of the Cordillera The colonization process 87 Adaptive dispersal 92 Domestication 102 CHAPTER FIVE The Preceramic Foundations of Civilization 107 Preceramic economies 107 Social formations 114 Arts I 15 Monumental architecture I 17 CHAPTER SIX The Initial Period and Early Horizon 13 I Irrigation agriculture 133 Monumental architecture 136 Highland developments 143 The Titicaca Basin 154 The Early Horizon 158 The southern sphere 158 Chavin and the northern sphere 163 CHAPTER SEVEN The Early Intermediate Period 173 North coast 174 The central and south coasts 196 The sierra 203 The altiplano 208 CHAPTER EIGHT The Middle Horizon 223 Moche upheaval 223 Huari adaptive dispersal 230 Tiwanaku 238 CHAPTER NINE The Late Intermediate Period 245 The Titicaca region 245 The southern sierra 247 The central and northern sierra 257 The central and south coasts 258 Chimor and the north 261 Epilogue Sources of Illustrations General Bibliography 279 Archaeological Bibliography 280 Index CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION On the eve of Columbus's Caribbean landfall the largest nation on earth was probably not Ming China or the Ottoman Empire, but Tahuantinsuyu, the 'Land of the Four Quarters' as the Incas called their sprawling realm. Extending more than 5,500 km down the mountainous Andean backbone of South America, the Land of the Four Quarters was the biggest native state to arise in the Western Hemisphere, and the largest empire of antiquity ever to develop south of the equator. By alliance, diplomacy and dint of armed con quest the masters of Tahuantinsuyu governed the longest, most rugged moun tain chain in the world, second only to the Himalayas in height and harshness. To the west their sovereignty reached over the dry Atacama desert; to the east it included the flanks of the Amazon rainforest. Inca legions - like their Roman counterparts - marched far beyond the frontiers of civilization to dominate bar barian tribes, and heterogeneous societies. At its height, the imperial capital of Cuzco exercised rule over northern Chile, upland Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and the south of Colombia. No contemporary Andean nation compares in magnitude or prosperity, and the great wealth of Tahuantinsuyu fostered its downfall. The conquest of Mexico whetted the Spanish appetite for gold. Yet hopes of securing truly prodigious quantities of precious metal eluded the conquistadores until 1532. That year Francisco Pizarro and a small contingent of mercenaries disembarked on the desert coast and ventured into the Andean uplands. At the town of Cajamarca the Inca emperor was enticed to a supposedly peaceful meeting, then kidnapped and ransomed for a room full of gold, and two of silver. After payment of about $50 million by today's bullion standards, the sol diers of fortune garroted the monarch, and marched to Cuzco, the capital and heart ofTahuantinsuyu. The great metropolis was first sighted by a cavalry vanguard. By all accounts it was unbelievable - it was alien - and it was magnificent. The many distant buildings were clustered so close to the clouds that men and horses of the expe ditionary force fought for breath in the oxygen-deficient altitude. Catching and reflecting the sun, towering stone walls shimmered with brilliant hues of gold and silver. Ascending a broad highway into the urban nexus, the party of mounted men was greeted by a brilliantly clad entourage of nobles and atten dants, stately but fully foreign in physique and attire. Led across spacious malls with sparkling fountains, and along paved avenues flanked by cut-rock palaces, villas, halls, temples, and shrines, the awe-struck visitors beheld imposing edi fices encrusted with precious metals that played dazzling light on all beholders near and far. 7 INTRODUCTION n"" The city was unbeliey,,"le because there was nothing of comparable splendor 12-1./ in the soldiers' Castilian homeland. It was alien because the troops had jour neyed from an old, familiar world to a new and unusual one. It was magnificent because Cuzco was the home of the Sun, the god Inti, and gold was his essence. Inti was the sacred patron of the city and its empire. Images of the solar deity and other luminaries of the imperial pantheon resided in an opulent sanctuary, the Coricancha or 'House of the Sun.' A glimpse of this remarkable palace of the gods survives in the thoughtful reflections of Cieza de Leon, conquistador and author of Chronicle ~r Peru. Striding around the temple he found that it measured (more than fOlll" hundred paces in circuit' and was of finely hewn masonry. The stone appeared to me to be of a dusky or black color, and most excellent for building purposes. The wall had many openings, and the doorways were very well carved. Round the wall, half way up, there was a band of gold, two palmas wide and four dedos in thickness. The doorways and doors were covered with plates of the same metal. Within were four houses, not very large, but with walls of the same kind and covered with plates of gold within and without ... In one of these houses, which was the richest, there was the figure of the SUll, very large and made of gold, very ingeniously worked, and enriched with many precious stones . ... They had also a garden, the clods of which were made of pieces of fine gold; and it was artificially sown with golden maize, the stalks, as well as the leaves and cobs, being of that metal. ... Besides all this, they had more than twenty golden sheep [llamas) with their lambs, and the shepherds with their slings and crooks to watch them, all made of the same metal. There was a great quantity of jars of gold and silver, set with emeralds; vases, pots, and all sorts of utensils, all of fine gold. Indeed the splendor of the Coricancha and the elegant wealth ofCuzco were so overpowering that the narrator was compelled to conclude, ' ... it seems to me that I have said enough to show what a grand place it was; so I shall not treat further of the silver work of the chllq/l;ra [beads), of the plumes of gold and other things, which, if! wrote down, I should not be believed.' If a w/lqllislildor felt his eye-witness account of Inca accomplishment would be beyond belief, then it is little wonder that centuries later archaeologists con front a uniquely difficult task in attempting to reconstruct this bygone achieve ment, describe its evolution, and make Andean civilization intelligible to Western society. Many aspects of Andean accomplishment are only intelligible as adaptations to environmental extremes, particularly life at extremely high elevations. The towering Cordillera is, after all, the only cradle of ancient civilizations where tourists must worry about heart seizures in the rarefied air, and visitors regu larly experience altitude sickness due to anoxia. If an eminent empire had once flourished atop the Himalayas, then Tahuantinsuyu could be studied in 8 .r;"" (''' ( rn ....... COLOMBIA J ""'. t i Pachaculi 1438-63 ?OUlto... ..· '. \ i -'f II '-.... ,,_ '"~ ;( 1lIIIllI (TPaapac hIantc;uah 1's4 6r3e-ig7n1) ECUA1DuOmRib /a mb'a- ''-.._.2 ! > . """ , /._9 r .::''yl ~ TOIla Inca 1471-93 BRAZil (" [ill Wayna Capac I ,{ 1493-1525 Cajamar~ -, l. , , L_ .'1 " Huanuco Pampa ___ ,/ . -S· \ I "I ......... --.. Machu Picchu '\.... ,'Oc~~ ----CUlCd ') LAKE TITICACA .; \ ~.- BOL,IV.I_A .- J PARA PACIFIC OCEAN PACIFIC . r<. GUAY V "- .J "'. -., OCEAN ARGENTINA o 300 miles o 300 miles _--'J.,I of- I- ----','I of- I sOOkm 500 11m 1,2 (Ldi) Tlrl' gromlh oIlhe film empire. Dalesjor Ihe illca rulers (lfe Ihe SIIhjl!({ oIsdlO/(frf)1 dd!llle, alld (fl'e git't:II heri! (/.1' {/ general gllidc (}II(V. (Righi) The 111m road lIetlJ)(II'k. comparative perspective and might seem less alien. Yet, this is not the case, and many aspects of Andean civilization are unprecedented, and thus unique. Because of these factors we must first understand the geography of Tahuantinsuyu and the nature of Inca rule before turning to the prehistoric record to examine how this way of life and government evolved. An under standing of Inca society and statecraft will serve as a guide for interpreting the archaeological data. However, after reviewing the Inca as an interpretative model, I will turn to the earliest inhabitants of the Andes and trace the evolu tion of native society and statecraft forward in time to its culmination on the eve of Spanish conquest. The Incas It is important to note that the term ~Inca' refers only to a small group of kindred, less than 40,000 individuals, who built a great Andean state by force of arms, and who ruled as the realm's governing nobility. The head of this royal family was the head of state, and at the height of the empire his dominion extended over ten million people or more. These individuals were Inca subja/s, but they were lIot Incas because this was a closed ethnic body. 9
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