The Inkas or Incas were just one of the multiple chiefdoms competing for power after the collapse of the Wari and Tiwanaku polities of the Middle Horizon.
[1]
And yet, they developed to become the largest indigenous empire in the Americas, known as Tawantinsuyu (’the four parts together’).
[2]
Growing from the Killke confederation, they started to expand in the Cuzco Valley and beyond over the late 14th and 15th centuries CE.
[3]
Over a short period from 1480 to 1532, three successive rulers ‒ Pachakuti, Thupa Inka Yupanqui and Huayna Capac ‒ pursued an expansionary policy which saw the empire stretch from southern Colombia to central Chile, covering most of the Andes.
[4]
Its geographical extent may have covered between 500,000 and 2 million square kilometres,
[5]
including dry coastal deserts, snow-capped mountains, and the fringes of the Amazon rainforest.
Because of their expansionary policy over huge swathes of land, the Inkas needed to establish adequate ruling strategies. They could exert indirect control through their hegemony over local allies. At Farfán in northern Peru, the blend of Chimú and Inka architectural styles may indicate that local elites were the vessel through which Inka rule was manifested.
[6]
Over the areas they conquered by force, the Inkas established new settlements and imposed their own regional administrators. Near Cañete, they massacred the local Guarco population and installed their own colonists at the site of Cerro Azul.
[7]
The dispersion and relocation of unruly people was one of their strategies to avoid uprisings, and could also serve to foster the empire’s productivity. Indeed, resettled populations could be clustered to create specialized centres of production, such as the weavers and potters of Milliraya, Bolivia.
[8]
In addition to these violent methods, however, the Inka elite used ideological strategies to create a sense of community among conquered populations. Inka art employed a uniform geometric style, easily recognizable throughout the empire. Apart from the fine textiles and metals crafted for the royal lineages by chosen craftspeople, the rest of their ceramics and textiles were mass-produced and mass-distributed.
[9]
This meant that Inka identity could be easily replicated and grafted onto existing cultures. The Inka ’package’ included ceremonial vessels known as k’eros and aribalos,
[10]
used to distribute maize beer or chicha in state-sponsored feasts. The Inkas also reused previously important ceremonial shrines (wak’as) ‒ Muyu Orco, for example, was revered from the Late Formative period to the arrival of the Spanish.
[11]
‒ and incorporated them into the network of shrines (z’eque) radiating outwards from Cuzco.
[12]
Every year, important state rituals manifested this state ideology on an impressive scale: the Inti Raymi or solstice festival was a grand state ceremony lasting for eight or nine days.
[13]
Cuzco acted as a great ceremonial centre with its sacred precincts; provincial administrators could be formally installed during the course of some of these rituals.
[5]
The empire is also known for its elaborate infrastructure works. The royal highway, known as Qhapaq Ñan, was composed of two north/south axes linked by 20 east/west segments, and stretched over 40,000 kilometres.
[14]
Empire-sponsored storage facilities were located near every major town and village along the Inka roads. These units, known as tampus, were located no further than 15-25 kilometres apart,
[15]
a distance that corresponds to a day’s walk and facilitated the transport of armies and commodities throughout the empire. A highly efficient courier system was also in place, whereby messengers called chaski were stationed every 6-9 kilometres to relay messages,
[16]
allowing information and commands to travel 250 kilometres in a day.
[17]
Population and political organization
The Inka empire was unprecedented in the Andean region in its ambition and scale.
[18]
Working backwards from colonial estimates, archaeologists and historians have estimated that its population in the early 16th century could have reached between 6
[19]
and 14 million.
[20]
The capital, Cuzco, was a thriving city of 20,000 people
[21]
divided into two moieties, hanan and hurin, which represented both status divisions and geographical origin.
[22]
At the top of the religious, military and administrative hierarchy was the the emperor, the Sapa Inka. Considered to be the Son of the Sun, he was believed to control supernatural powers.
[23]
After their deaths, Inka rulers were still venerated as mummies and their cults were managed by descendants from the same lineage.
[24]
The Inkas used a 10-tiered administrative system, with 80 provinces administered by a governor in a local urban settlement.
[25]
They implemented a characteristic mode of production known as mit’a (’to take a turn’).
[26]
This built on Andean notions of reciprocal exchange to extract corvée service from heads of households for two or three months each year, ensuring that the state could rely on constant labour on a rotating basis.
The empire came to an abrupt end at the beginning of the 16th century. The Sapa Inka at this time, Huayna Khapaq, was stricken with disease ‒ possibly smallpox that had spread southwards from Central America, where it had been introduced by European invaders ‒ and died in 1528 CE.
[27]
His sons Waskhar and Atawallpa both claimed the throne, and the empire was soon weakened by civil war and disease. The Spanish. arrived in 1532 and conquered the Inka empire in a few years. It took several decades for them to assert their authority over the impressive geographical extent of the former Inka territory: by 1572, they had subdued the last bastion of Inka power at Vilcabamba.
[28]
However, indigenous resistance continued until Peru obtained its independence in 1821.
[1]: (D’Altroy 2002, 48) Terence D’Altroy. 2002. The Incas. Oxford: Blackwell.
[2]: (D’Altroy 2014, 2) Terence N. D’Altroy. 2014. The Incas. 2nd ed. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.
[3]: (Farrington 2013, 25) Ian Farrington. 2013. Cusco: Urbanism and Archaeology in the Inka World. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.
[4]: (D’Altroy 2014, 96) Terence N. D’Altroy. 2014. The Incas. 2nd ed. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.
[5]: Alan Covey 2017, personal communication
[6]: (D’Altroy 2014, 382) Terence N. D’Altroy. 2014. The Incas. 2nd ed. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.
[7]: (D’Altroy 2014, 100) Terence N. D’Altroy. 2014. The Incas. 2nd ed. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.
[8]: (D’Altroy 2014, 374) Terence N. D’Altroy. 2014. The Incas. 2nd ed. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.
[9]: (D’Altroy and Schreiber 2004, 267) Terence N. D’Altroy and Katherine Schreiber. 2004. ’Andean Empires’, in Andean Archaeology, edited by H. Silverman, 255‒79. Oxford: Blackwell.
[10]: (D’Altroy 2014, 443) Terence N. D’Altroy. 2014. The Incas. 2nd ed. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.
[11]: (Bauer 2004, 44) Brian S. Bauer. 2004. Ancient Cuzco: Heartland of the Inca. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
[12]: (Bauer 1998, 3-5) Brian S. Bauer. 1998. The Sacred Landscape of the Inca: The Cusco Ceque System. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
[13]: (D’Altroy 2014, 262-63) Terence N. D’Altroy. 2014. The Incas. 2nd ed. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.
[14]: (D’Altroy 2014, 5) Terence N. D’Altroy. 2014. The Incas. 2nd ed. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.
[15]: (Hyslop 1984, 303) John Hyslop. 1984. The Inka Road System. New York: Academic Press.
[16]: (D’Altroy 2014, 370) Terence N. D’Altroy. 2014. The Incas. 2nd ed. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.
[17]: (Marchetti and Ausubel 2012, 26) Cesare Marchetti and Jesse H. Ausubel. 2012. ’Quantitative Dynamics of Human Empires’. International Journal of Anthropology 27 (1-2): 1-62.
[18]: (Schreiber 1992, 282-83) Katherine J. Schreiber. 1992. ’Wari Imperialism in Middle Horizon Peru’. Anthropological Papers, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan. 87.
[19]: (Cook 2004, 113) Noble David Cook. 2014. Demographic Collapse: Indian Peru, 1520-1620. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[20]: (McEwan 2006, 96) Gordon F. McEwan. 2006. The Incas: New Perspectives. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.
[21]: (Bauer 2004, 189, 227) Brian S. Bauer. 2004. Ancient Cuzco: Heartland of the Inca. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
[22]: (Farrington 2013, 221) Ian Farrington. 2013. Cusco: Urbanism and Archaeology in the Inka World. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.
[23]: Alan Covey 2015, personal communication.
[24]: (D’Altroy 2014, 176) Terence N. D’Altroy. 2014. The Incas. 2nd ed. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.
[25]: (D’Altroy 2014, 354-55) Terence N. D’Altroy. 2014. The Incas. 2nd ed. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.
[26]: (D’Altroy 2014, 395-96) Terence N. D’Altroy. 2014. The Incas. 2nd ed. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.
[27]: (D’Altroy 2014, 107) Terence N. D’Altroy. 2014. The Incas. 2nd ed. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.
[28]: (D’Altroy 2014, 21) Terence N. D’Altroy. 2014. The Incas. 2nd ed. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.
| alliance with [---] | |
| none |
| EsHabsb |
| cultural assimilation | |
| population migration | |
| continuity |
| Preceding: Cuzco - Late Intermediate II (pe_cuzco_6) [population replacement] |
| unitary state |
| unknown |
| present |
| present |
| present |
| absent |
| present |
| present |
| inferred present |
| present |
| inferred absent |
| absent |
| Year Range | Inca Empire (pe_inca_emp) was in: |
|---|---|
| (1400 CE 1531 CE) | Cuzco |
[1]
[2]
[3]
"The city of Cuzco is the principal one of all those where the lords of this land have their residence; it is so large and so beautiful that it would be worthy of admiration even in Spain; and it is full of the palaces of the lords, because no poor people live there, and each lord builds there his own house, and all the caciques do likewise, although the latter do not dwell there continuously."
[4]
Language
[1]: (Andrushko 2007, 9-10)
[2]: (Bauer 2004, 1)
[3]: (Farrington 2013)
[4]: (Bauer 2004, 110; cite: Sancho)
[1] Tawantinsuyu means "the four parts together indivisibly,” or “the unity of the four parts.” Tawa is “four,” suyu is “part, region,” and -ntin- is an enclitic that binds two things together in a relationship that constitutes a whole. [2] Covey: Roads leaving Cuzco were laid out to delimit the territories of these four provincial regions. [2]
[1]: (Covey 2003, 333)
[2]: (Covey 2015, personal communication)
[1] Tawantinsuyu means "the four parts together indivisibly,” or “the unity of the four parts.” Tawa is “four,” suyu is “part, region,” and -ntin- is an enclitic that binds two things together in a relationship that constitutes a whole. [2] Covey: Roads leaving Cuzco were laid out to delimit the territories of these four provincial regions. [2]
[1]: (Covey 2003, 333)
[2]: (Covey 2015, personal communication)
[1] Tawantinsuyu means "the four parts together indivisibly,” or “the unity of the four parts.” Tawa is “four,” suyu is “part, region,” and -ntin- is an enclitic that binds two things together in a relationship that constitutes a whole. [2] Covey: Roads leaving Cuzco were laid out to delimit the territories of these four provincial regions. [2]
[1]: (Covey 2003, 333)
[2]: (Covey 2015, personal communication)
"If factionalism and fraternal rivalry were symptomatic of Inka succession, scholars must rethink the trajectory of the Inka polity. Many writers see the civil war between Atawallpa and Waskhar as evidence that the Inka were incapable of governing their large empire effectively over the long term. ... Based on comparisons with other states and empires, there is no reason to believe that the Inka empire was in permanent decline in 1532."
[1]
Central Cuzco almost completely razed by fire during an Inca siege of the Spanish held city in 1536 CE.
[2]
[1]: (Covey 2006, 194)
[2]: (Bauer 2004, 107)
"The Pachakutiq myth cannot explain the available evidence adequately, and A.D. 1438 should not be used as a starting date for the Inka polity and its history."
[1]
1572 CE Spanish. execute last direct heir.
[2]
"The dating of the Killke era from ad 1000 until about 1400 is still based on relatively few radiocarbon dates, but they are consistent with one another (Dwyer 1971; Kendall 1985; Bauer 1992; Adamska and Michecsynski 1996). Carbon dates taken from Pumamarca architecture end in the fourteenth century (Hollowell 1987), while the Inca-style rectangular and ceremonial constructions at Pukara Pantillijlla are also earlier than we would expect from the historical chronology (Covey 2006b: 163). In light of the early dates, Bauer (1992: 47) has ventured that some structures usually thought to belong to the imperial era were actually raised during the Killke period. As noted in chapter 2 (section entitled “Time frames”), carbon dates suggest that the transition from the pre-Inca to Inca eras at Chokepuquio seems to have occurred 1400 - 30, which is in keeping with the idea of a late incorporation of the Lucre region."
[3]
AD: The code starting at 1375 CE reflects a possible beginning in the late 14th century. Covey: "Seems reasonable, especially given the uncertainty regarding when the Inca state qualifies as an “empire.” 1400 might be closer to the mark, but we have a lot of work left to date Inca expansion in Cuzco and to correlate that chronology with radiocarbon chronologies for the Inca presence beyond the Cuzco region."
[4]
[1]: (Covey 2006, 173)
[2]: (Bauer 2004, 3)
[3]: (D’Altroy 2014, 83)
[4]: (Covey 2015, personal communication)
"Not all groups were reduced to subordination during the initial territorial expansion. Some alliances were maintained, while hostile groups were attacked and raided periodically for decades before being conquered."
[1]
"During the 14th century, the Inka state annexed new territory through increasingly protracted military campaigns. Local resistance or rebellions led to the territorial consolidation of the increasingly large parts of the Inka heartland, while long distance diplomatic contacts became more sustained and formalized."
[1]
[1]: (Covey 2003, 353)
"Not all groups were reduced to subordination during the initial territorial expansion. Some alliances were maintained, while hostile groups were attacked and raided periodically for decades before being conquered."
[1]
"During the 14th century, the Inka state annexed new territory through increasingly protracted military campaigns. Local resistance or rebellions led to the territorial consolidation of the increasingly large parts of the Inka heartland, while long distance diplomatic contacts became more sustained and formalized."
[1]
[1]: (Covey 2003, 353)
Spanish Empire - Viceroyalty of Peru
Wthin the Cuzco NGA, continuity: "Continuing studies by Peruvian archaeologists have recovered Killke pottery from at least seven more locations, distributed across an area that approximates imperial-era Cuzco. Their work in and around the Qorikancha has yielded exceptionally high-quality pottery (Bauer and Covey 2004: 77-8). The planning of parts of the early town apparently foreshadowed the imperial capital’s layout. Building foundations under the present-day Hotel Libertador were found to have orientations like those of nearby imperial masonry. From that evidence, we may infer that at least part of the most prestigious imperial layout overlaid an existing design. In turn, that suggests that there was some sort of conceptual continuity from the pre-imperial to imperial eras (González Corrales 1984; Hyslop 1990: 30-4)." [1] Outside the Cuzco NGA, the Incas conquered and either assimilated these polities culturally, as with the Chimu [2] or relocated groups inside these zones, as in the case of Cerro Azul [3] . Farrington mentions the presence of Killke pottery in urban excavations in Cuzco [4] , but he explains the growth of the site in terms of a post-1438 urbanization project by Pachakutiq [5] .
[1]: (D’Altroy 2014, 80)
[2]: (D’Altroy 2014, 382)
[3]: (D’Altroy 2014, 100)
[4]: (Farrington 2013:142) Ian Farringon, 2013. Cusco: Urbanism and Archaeology in the Inka World. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
[5]: (Covey 2015, personal communication)
Wthin the Cuzco NGA, continuity: "Continuing studies by Peruvian archaeologists have recovered Killke pottery from at least seven more locations, distributed across an area that approximates imperial-era Cuzco. Their work in and around the Qorikancha has yielded exceptionally high-quality pottery (Bauer and Covey 2004: 77-8). The planning of parts of the early town apparently foreshadowed the imperial capital’s layout. Building foundations under the present-day Hotel Libertador were found to have orientations like those of nearby imperial masonry. From that evidence, we may infer that at least part of the most prestigious imperial layout overlaid an existing design. In turn, that suggests that there was some sort of conceptual continuity from the pre-imperial to imperial eras (González Corrales 1984; Hyslop 1990: 30-4)." [1] Outside the Cuzco NGA, the Incas conquered and either assimilated these polities culturally, as with the Chimu [2] or relocated groups inside these zones, as in the case of Cerro Azul [3] . Farrington mentions the presence of Killke pottery in urban excavations in Cuzco [4] , but he explains the growth of the site in terms of a post-1438 urbanization project by Pachakutiq [5] .
[1]: (D’Altroy 2014, 80)
[2]: (D’Altroy 2014, 382)
[3]: (D’Altroy 2014, 100)
[4]: (Farrington 2013:142) Ian Farringon, 2013. Cusco: Urbanism and Archaeology in the Inka World. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
[5]: (Covey 2015, personal communication)
Wthin the Cuzco NGA, continuity: "Continuing studies by Peruvian archaeologists have recovered Killke pottery from at least seven more locations, distributed across an area that approximates imperial-era Cuzco. Their work in and around the Qorikancha has yielded exceptionally high-quality pottery (Bauer and Covey 2004: 77-8). The planning of parts of the early town apparently foreshadowed the imperial capital’s layout. Building foundations under the present-day Hotel Libertador were found to have orientations like those of nearby imperial masonry. From that evidence, we may infer that at least part of the most prestigious imperial layout overlaid an existing design. In turn, that suggests that there was some sort of conceptual continuity from the pre-imperial to imperial eras (González Corrales 1984; Hyslop 1990: 30-4)." [1] Outside the Cuzco NGA, the Incas conquered and either assimilated these polities culturally, as with the Chimu [2] or relocated groups inside these zones, as in the case of Cerro Azul [3] . Farrington mentions the presence of Killke pottery in urban excavations in Cuzco [4] , but he explains the growth of the site in terms of a post-1438 urbanization project by Pachakutiq [5] .
[1]: (D’Altroy 2014, 80)
[2]: (D’Altroy 2014, 382)
[3]: (D’Altroy 2014, 100)
[4]: (Farrington 2013:142) Ian Farringon, 2013. Cusco: Urbanism and Archaeology in the Inka World. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
[5]: (Covey 2015, personal communication)
(Relationship): Wthin the Cuzco NGA, continuity: "Continuing studies by Peruvian archaeologists have recovered Killke pottery from at least seven more locations, distributed across an area that approximates imperial-era Cuzco. Their work in and around the Qorikancha has yielded exceptionally high-quality pottery (Bauer and Covey 2004: 77-8). The planning of parts of the early town apparently foreshadowed the imperial capital’s layout. Building foundations under the present-day Hotel Libertador were found to have orientations like those of nearby imperial masonry. From that evidence, we may infer that at least part of the most prestigious imperial layout overlaid an existing design. In turn, that suggests that there was some sort of conceptual continuity from the pre-imperial to imperial eras (González Corrales 1984; Hyslop 1990: 30-4)."
[1]
Outside the Cuzco NGA, the Incas conquered and either assimilated these polities culturally, as with the Chimu
[2]
or relocated groups inside these zones, as in the case of Cerro Azul
[3]
. Farrington mentions the presence of Killke pottery in urban excavations in Cuzco
[4]
, but he explains the growth of the site in terms of a post-1438 urbanization project by Pachakutiq
[5]
., Wthin the Cuzco NGA, continuity: "Continuing studies by Peruvian archaeologists have recovered Killke pottery from at least seven more locations, distributed across an area that approximates imperial-era Cuzco. Their work in and around the Qorikancha has yielded exceptionally high-quality pottery (Bauer and Covey 2004: 77-8). The planning of parts of the early town apparently foreshadowed the imperial capital’s layout. Building foundations under the present-day Hotel Libertador were found to have orientations like those of nearby imperial masonry. From that evidence, we may infer that at least part of the most prestigious imperial layout overlaid an existing design. In turn, that suggests that there was some sort of conceptual continuity from the pre-imperial to imperial eras (González Corrales 1984; Hyslop 1990: 30-4)."
[1]
Outside the Cuzco NGA, the Incas conquered and either assimilated these polities culturally, as with the Chimu
[2]
or relocated groups inside these zones, as in the case of Cerro Azul
[3]
. Farrington mentions the presence of Killke pottery in urban excavations in Cuzco
[4]
, but he explains the growth of the site in terms of a post-1438 urbanization project by Pachakutiq
[5]
., Wthin the Cuzco NGA, continuity: "Continuing studies by Peruvian archaeologists have recovered Killke pottery from at least seven more locations, distributed across an area that approximates imperial-era Cuzco. Their work in and around the Qorikancha has yielded exceptionally high-quality pottery (Bauer and Covey 2004: 77-8). The planning of parts of the early town apparently foreshadowed the imperial capital’s layout. Building foundations under the present-day Hotel Libertador were found to have orientations like those of nearby imperial masonry. From that evidence, we may infer that at least part of the most prestigious imperial layout overlaid an existing design. In turn, that suggests that there was some sort of conceptual continuity from the pre-imperial to imperial eras (González Corrales 1984; Hyslop 1990: 30-4)."
[1]
Outside the Cuzco NGA, the Incas conquered and either assimilated these polities culturally, as with the Chimu
[2]
or relocated groups inside these zones, as in the case of Cerro Azul
[3]
. Farrington mentions the presence of Killke pottery in urban excavations in Cuzco
[4]
, but he explains the growth of the site in terms of a post-1438 urbanization project by Pachakutiq
[5]
.
(Entity): "The traces of pre-imperial Cuzco itself are unfortunately still mostly buried, a common problem in urban landscapes, but archaeological studies are incrementally fleshing out the character of the early settlement. Valcárcel (1934-5) made a major advance in understanding the early settlement through his extensive excavations in the early 1930s at that site. There, he recovered abundant ceramics, about one-quarter to one-third of which were later determined to be pre-imperial Inca (Killke style)."
[1]
For the regions conquered outside of the Cuzco Basin, the previous polities are Late Intermediate Period polities.
[1]: (D’Altroy 2014, 80)
[2]: (D’Altroy 2014, 382)
[3]: (D’Altroy 2014, 100)
[4]: (Farrington 2013:142) Ian Farringon, 2013. Cusco: Urbanism and Archaeology in the Inka World. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
[5]: (Covey 2015, personal communication)
"The archaeological evidence and chronicle accounts indicate that a centralized state formed in the Cusco region and expanded over a period of several generations leading up to the explosive territorial expansion of the 15th and early 16th centuries."
160 different languages within the empire, 16 language groups. Araun, Arakawan, Aymaran, Cahuapanan, Harakmbet, Jivaroan, Panoan, Peba-Yaguan, Quechuan, Tacanan, Tucanoan, Tuoi, Witotoan, Zaparoan, two unlabelled. Quechua was the official language. [1] "Drawing from historical linguistic and toponymic (place-name) evidence, some linguists suggest that the Incas probably spoke Aymara well into the early imperial era, since that was the language of the southern Peruvian highlands in late prehistory and Aymara place-names are even found as far north as the central Peruvian highlands (Adelaar and Muysken 2004; Cerrón-Palomino 2004, 2008; Heggarty and Beresford-Jones 2012; figure 2.6b). Quechua and Aymara speakers apparently interacted a great deal, to the extent that the two languages now overlap about 30 percent (e.g., in lexicons).6 Such a scenario raises the questions as to when the Incas adopted Quechua as their administrative language, and why. The leading Andean linguist today, Rodolfo Cerrón-Palomino (2012), suggests that the shift may have occurred as late as the rule of Wayna Qhapaq, that is, no more than three or four decades before the Spanish.’ arrival, because its widespread use in the lands to the north made it an effective sociopolitical tool." [2]
[1]: (Kaufmann and Kaufmann 2012)
[2]: (D’Altroy 2014, 59-60)
Cuzco peak.
[1]
According to Vicente de Valverde, in a letter to the king of Spain: "the city had but only three or four thousand houses, [the valley] held more than twenty thousand people." Ruiz de Acre c1545 CE also estimated 4,000 houses.
[2]
Alan Covey: This may reflect the area of Spanish Cuzco, but it probably omits the dense network of towns and villages that immediately surrounded the Inca city.
[3]
Another Spaniard estimated a population of ten times that size.
[4]
"The UNESCO report’s author, Santiago Agurto Calvo, surmised that the population of the central sector was about 15,000-20,000 people, with an additional 50,000 in a ring of immediately surrounding districts. He estimated, very roughly, that 50,000-110,000 more people may have occupied the suburban area that extended about 5 km beyond the urban neighborhoods. While the evidence to support any population estimate is thin at best, we may judge that greater Cuzco housed somewhere between 100,000 and 150,000 people. The city was thus smallish by the standard of ancient imperial capitals."
[5]
[1]: (Bauer 2004, 3)
[2]: (Bauer 2004, 189, 227)
[3]: (Covey 2015, personal communication)
[4]: (Alan Covey 2015, personal communication)
[5]: (D’Altroy 2014, 203)
in squared kilometers.
According to Alan Covey, none of these measurements can be taken into account: "This is an overly crude measure, especially in the Andes, where vast amounts of land are desert or high montane landscapes with potential for permanent human occupation. The maps that we use to show Inca conquests over time are highly problematic, and do not give us enough detail to make meaningful calculations of Inca territory."
[1]
Expert checked: variable now coded as blank.
41,000: 1400 CE; 125,000: 1450 CE; 1,925,000: 1500 CE; 2,000,000: 1530 CE
[2]
"In terms of administered territory, it is difficult to assess the total area controlled by the early Inka state, although it is clear that the polity in the Cusco Basin had surpassed the operational boundaries for pre-state polities."
[3]
Polity heartland was 60 km radius from Cuzco and covers the region inhabited by the Inca of Privilege.
[4]
" Territory is difficult to measure in the Andes, until we develop an ecologically-sensitive map of archaeological settlement that accounts for the huge areas that are covered by desert, snow-capped mountains, and impassable cliff-sides."
[5]
"A quick estimate would be to use the Pacific coast as a western boundary, the Colombian border (or Pasto province) as a northern boundary, the Maule River in Chile as a southern boundary, and the rough eastern border that Rowe laid out in his 1945 article, which is more conservative than the map that Parssinen (1992) has developed. I would use D’Altroy (2015) for the general run of that eastern border."
[6]
From D’Altroy’s map, a territory of about 2,000,000 square kilometers can be estimated. David Beresford-Jones uses an estimate of 1,000,000 square kilometers
[7]
A range of 500,000-2,000,000 square kilometers takes most possibilities into account.
[1]: (Alan Covey 2015, personal communication)
[2]: (Chase-Dunn Spreadsheet)
[3]: (Covey 2003, 342)
[4]: (Bauer 2004, 22)
[5]: Alan Covey 2013, pers. comm.
[6]: Covey 2017, pers. comm.
[7]: David Beresford-Jones, pers. comm.
Approved of as "reasonably vague" by Alan Covey.
[1]
Cook 1980
[2]
has done a thoughtful overview of Andean demography and the Inca population at the time of contact
[3]
. Cook reaches an estimate of 5.5 million to 9.4 million inhabitants
[4]
, but he favours the upper range of this estimate, settling on a number of 9 million
[5]
. However, Alan Covey has pointed out the methodological weaknesses of Cook’s work, which is inferred from documentary evidence compiled decades after the fall of the Incas
[3]
.
A possible estimate for the period between 1375-1420 CE would be an inferred 150,000-250,000 inhabitants, based on data for the Killke period (note that the data provides an estimate of 35,000 for the core region; the estimate used for 1400 CE infers a larger population over a territory of 41,000 km2):
Sacred Valley Archaeological Project survey region after "Inka consolidation of the Cusco region"
[6]
- undated, presumably 1200-1400 CE? Key: Big dot = over 10 ha; medium dot = 5-10 ha; small dots = 1-5 ha; circle and ? = Size unknown. Map has 31 small dots, 4 medium dots, 2 large dots and 3 size unknown.
If small dots average 2.5 ha, medium dots 7.5 ha, and the largest dots are 15 ha, and size unknown are 5 ha total urban area of survey area is 152.5 ha. If we assign 150 per ha to small dots (11,625), 300 per ha to medium dots (9,000), 400 per ha to the large dots (12,000), and 200 ha to unknown dots (3,000), estimated urban population (sites > 1 ha) of the Sacred Valley Archeological Project survey region after 1200 CE (?) is 35,625.
Cuzco valley: 10,000-20,000. According to a Spaniard in mid 16th century, valley held over 20,000
[7]
Alan Covey: But another Spaniard estimated a population of ten times that size.
[3]
Sacred Valley Archeological Project survey region: 35,625 - 40,000. First figure is estimated urban population (sites > 1 ha) of the valley after 1200 CE (?)
"Spanning over 4,000 km of western South America and encompassing more than ten million inhabitants, Tawantinsuyu was a century-long latecomer to Andean civilization, built on more than three millennia of complex societies."
[8]
"Given the complexity of the population problem and the limitations of all the methodologies used by various scholars, it seems unlikely that we shall ever be able to determine an accurate population figure. Nevertheless, these attempts have helped narrow the range of estimates. Most modern Inca scholars seem to accept and work with figures ranging between 6 million and 14 million people."
[9]
8,000,000: 1532 CE
[10]
[1]: (Alan Covey, pers. comm.)
[2]: (Noble David Cook. 2014. Demographic Collapse: Indian Peru, 1520-1620. Cambridge: CUP
[3]: (Covey 2015, personal communication)
[4]: (Cook 2004: 113) Noble David Cook. 2014. Demographic Collapse: Indian Peru, 1520-1620. Cambridge: CUP
[5]: (Cook 2004: 114) Noble David Cook. 2014. Demographic Collapse: Indian Peru, 1520-1620. Cambridge: CUP
[6]: (Covey 2003, 343)
[7]: (Bauer 2004, 189, 227)
[8]: (D’Altroy 2014, xv)
[9]: (McEwan 2006, 96)
[10]: (Bauer 2004, 1)
levels.
[1]
1. Capital city (Cuzco)
At its height "Cuzco became a cosmopolitan center, and people from diverse areas of the empire came to live there."
[2]
Occupied almost exclusively by about 12 royal ayllus
[3]
"Commoners and foreigners were not permitted to live there and had to leave the city each night. These peoples were housed in satellite communities surrounding Cuzco at a short distance. As a result, Cuzco never grew to the enormous size of the capitals of European empires such as Rome or even as large as some of its key administrative centers in the provinces."
[4]
Cuzco had 20,000 inhabitants at its peak
[1]
and "the urban core was a planned settlement, covering about 40 hectares."
[5]
Alan Covey: These are both weak readings of the ethnohistory. Eyewitnesses stated that nobles from across the empire had houses in Cuzco, and there were diverse populations of retainers in Inca royal households, as well as populations of craft specialists living in outer districts. McEwan’s statement about population size is inaccurate regarding the size of provincial centers, which did not have permanent populations larger than Cuzco’s. Only Chan Chan, the coastal Chimú capital, would have rivalled Cuzco in terms of population, and its size was probably greatest before Inca conquest.
[6]
2. City (provincial)Inca provincial centers Hatun Xauxa (Peru), Cotapachi (Bolivia), Campo del Pucara (Argentina)
[7]
Quito was a very important city, on the way to becoming the second capital of the Inca empire.
[8]
Cajamarca had 7,000-10,000 inhabitants in 1532 CE
[3]
Unsubstantiated.
Alan Covey: Statement on Quito is accurate, but there are better sources, like Frank Salomon. The number given for Cajamarca is not based on any early colonial source that I am aware of.
[6]
3. Town.Can have as many as 4,000-5,000 inhabitants.
"In the Upper Mantaro Valley, my colleagues and I have recorded more than 125 Inca-era settlements within about a day’s walk of the provincial center of Hatun Xauxa. The largest of those towns, Marca and Hatunmarca, each contained about 4,500 residential structures. We estimate that their populations were probably in the order of 4,000-5,000."
[9]
4. VillageExample, Muyu Cocha. Large village. No evidence that is was occupied during the Killke Period. Perhaps created to house state construction workers.
[10]
5. Hamlet
[11]
These hamlets could have grouped one or several canchas. The Cancha architectural unit was a walled domestic compound and "the basic settlement unit in the Andean region from the inception of agriculture and llama herding to post-colonial times"
[3]
Alan Covey: completey untrue.
[6]
(AD: we probably should not take anything written by Kaufmann and Kaufmann for granted.)
Killke period hamlets occupied between 0.25-1 ha
[12]
so Inca period hamlets were probably of a similar size.
[1]: (Bauer 2004, 3)
[2]: (Bauer 2004, 106)
[3]: (Kaufmann and Kaufmann 2012)
[4]: (McEwan 2006, 76)
[5]: (D’Altroy 2014, 198)
[6]: (Covey 2015, personal communication)
[7]: (Bauer 2004, 96)
[8]: (Salomon, F., 1986. Native lords of Quito in the age of the Incas: The political economy of north Andean chiefdoms (p. 84). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[9]: (D’Altroy 2014, 294)
[10]: (Bauer 2004, 95-96)
[11]: (Bauer 2004, 95)
[12]: (Covey 2006, 124)
levels.
1.Intip churin
Inca
9th Imperial ruler added the title intip churin (Son of the Sun) to the paramount qhapaq/capac title.
[1]
2.OraclesGave advice to the Inca and performed function of state ambassador
3. Mamakunas (priestesses)
4. Chosen virgins (aqllawasi)
3.High priestPrinciple temple was the Coricancha
[1]
4.PriestsLocal level state religious infrastructure
[1]
Other actors were important in religious life but had a parallel role and did not come into this hierarchy.House of Cloistered women:
"In the sequestered House of the Chosen Women (aqllawasi), they were taught religion, weaving, cooking, and chicha-making by lifelong virgins dedicated to the religious institutions. Cobo said that as many as 200 women of various ages could be found in the largest aqllawasi. Although they were well protected, the girls and women were not entirely confined, since they participated in many ceremonies at locations outside their quarters. After about four years, the girls were ready to serve as mamakuna (priestesses) or to marry men who merited the honor for their service to the Inca (Cobo 1990: 172-4; Rowe 1946: 283)."
[2]
This system runs parallel to the religious hierarchy, as the girls can become priestesses (level 4). Alan Covey: The mamakuna were much more numerous than any male priestly functionaries, and should probably be thought of as the real imperial religious hierarchy.
[3]
. Mamakunas and aqllakunas are counted within the 4 religious levels as outlined above.
Ritual advisor for state matters
OraclesAdvised the Sapa Inca and performed function of state ambassador "Some, but not all, huacas had oracular powers. Some of the most famous, such as Pachacamac and Apurimac have already been mentioned. In Inca culture all decisions were made only after consulting the supernatural. Questions put to oracles usually had to do with seeing the future and result of certain actions."
[4]
"After consulting his oracles and counselors, the Inca ruler chose to favor the Lupaqas but hedged his bets by promising aid to both sides."
[5]
"The mummies and their oracles also served the king in an advisory capacity. The ruling Inca was expected to seek advice from the ancestors on issues of importance, and it was carefully observed which oracles provided sound advice and which did not. The most trusted mummies and their spokespersons were used as ambassadors for the Inca."
[6]
"Each mummy had an oracle: an individual who spoke for and received things on behalf of the dead king."
[7]
-> seem to be parallel, religious command, not administrative.
Innovations relating to organization of state religion occurred during reign of Qhapaq Yupanki. "Several different Inka rulers are credited with the institution of the Sun cult." The Coricancha was the "principal temple in Cusco." This cult had a "high priest." Inka Roq’a required that "aqlawasi (house of cloistered women) be established in Inka-controlled towns" which produced crump (fancy cloth) and aqha (maize beer) used in rituals.
[8]
Alan Covey: I wouldn’t treat this as historical, but rather to say that a state sun cult developed around the time of early state expansion (maybe in the later 13th or early 14th century).
[9]
[1]: (Covey 2006, 119)
[2]: (D’Altroy 2014, 301)
[3]: (Alan Covey 2015, personal communication)
[4]: (McEwan 2006, 159)
[5]: (D’Altroy 2014, 93)
[6]: (Bauer 2004, 167)
[7]: (Bauer 2004, 165)
[8]: (Covey 2003, 352)
[9]: (Covey 2015, personal communication)
levels.
Military units, like civilian administration, organized with decimal system.
[1]
1. Sapa Inca
King was commander in chief and occasional field general.
[2]
Alan Covey: Most military commanders were sons or brothers of the ruler.
[3]
(2. aucacunakapu (chief of soldiers)came from Hanan Cuzco
[1]
2. aucata yachachik aup (chief in charge of organizing soldiers)came from Hurin Cuzco
[1]
2. hinantin aucata suyuchak apu (chief who assigns troops to their proper place)Equivalent to European sergeant major of period
[4]
2. apusquipay (commander in the field)Usually a relative of the Sapa Inca
[1]
the apusquiprantin was an assistant of the apusquipay
[1]
)
Alan Covey: Concerning these ranks from aucacunakapu to apusquipay) This all comes from a really spurious late 18th century source (Juan de Velasco), and is not corroborated by any early chronicler
[3]
AD: number of ranks corrected to 6 (see hierarchy below).
3. hunu kuraka10,000 men were lead by a hunu kuraka - not known how often 10,000 men were fielded
[5]
4. Waranqa kuraka"One thousand men were commanded by a waranqa kuraka"
[5]
5. PihcachuncacamayocsPosition held by local leaders
[1]
The second lowest order was 100 soldiers, under a pachaka kuraka.
[5]
Alan Covey: Pichka chunka is 50. Pachaka is 100.
[3]
6. Chuncacamayocs (50 soldiers)
[3]
Position held by local leaders
[1]
"The smallest unit contained ten heads of household (hatun runa), under the command of a chunka kamayuq."
[5]
7. Individual soldier
aucapussak
Huaminca: veteran units from Hanan Cuzco and Hurin Cuzco
[1]
had captains called aucapussak
[1]
Alan Covey: Again, I wouldn’t use information from this source.
[3]
"Each division contained two halves, each with its own leader."
[5]
[1]: (Kaufmann and Kaufmann 2012)
[2]: (D’Altroy 2014, 332)
[3]: (Covey 2015, personal communication)
[4]: (Kaufmann and Kaufmann 2012; cite Ian Heath)
[5]: (D’Altroy 2014, 334)
levels.
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
Administrative levels, in theory:
[6]
1. Sapa Inca2. apu chincahaysuyu / apu antisuyu / apu kollasuyu / apu cuntisuyu (Lord of region_name)Four territorial units called suyu
"Individuals holding this rank would have been close relatives of the ruler, usu- ally brothers, cousins, or uncles."
[7]
3. Provincial governor (20,000 households)territorial unit called huamani. at least 80 provinces.
The governor (tokrikoq) reported directly to the Inca and was assisted by local elites and functionaries, such as quipucamayoc (record-keepers)
[8]
4. hunu kuraka (theoretical jurisdiction: 10,000 householdsterritorial unit called saya "Each province was composed of two or three ranked parts called saya"
[8]
5. pichkawaranqa kuraka (theoretical jurisdiction: 5,000 households)6. waranqa kuraka (theoretical jurisdiction: 1,000 households)7. pichkapachaka kuraka (theoretical jurisdiction: 500 households)8. pachaka kuraka (theoretical jurisdiction: 100 households)territorial unit called marca
9. pichkachunka kamayuq (theoretical jurisdiction: 50 households)10. chunka kamayuq (theoretical jurisdiction: 10 households)
"In practice, the government consisted of an umbrella of Inca officials who oversaw a hierarchy of hereditary ethnic lords drafted into state service."
[9]
"In terms of levels of hierarchy, I don’t know that the Incas had so many more than I would expect for Wari. Most high-ranking Inca officials were close relatives of the ruling couple, and there were provincial lords and ladies who ruled client kingdoms. Beneath the noble level, the Incas had their decimal hierarchy, which organized from 10,000 household units down to about 10, but the lower-order positions were not full-time bureaucrats, as much as local people charged with organizing a bunch of their own relatives and neighbors to do their turn of labor service."
[10]
Administrative levels, in practice:
[10]
1. Sapa Inca2. apu chincahaysuyu / apu antisuyu / apu kollasuyu / apu cuntisuyu (Lord of region_name)Four territorial units called suyu
"Individuals holding this rank would have been close relatives of the ruler, usu- ally brothers, cousins, or uncles."
[7]
3. Provincial governor (20,000 households)territorial unit called huamani. at least 80 provinces.
The governor (tokrikoq) reported directly to the Inca and was assisted by local elites and functionaries, such as quipucamayoc (record-keepers)
[8]
4. hunu kuraka (theoretical jurisdiction: 10,000 householdsterritorial unit called saya "Each province was composed of two or three ranked parts called saya"
[8]
Coded as 4-6 to allow for a certain degree of flexibility.(AD)
[1]: (D’Altroy 2014)
[2]: (Bauer 2004)
[3]: (Kaufmann and Kaufmann 2012)
[4]: (Covey 2003)
[5]: (Covey 2006)
[6]: (D’Altroy 2014, 354-355)
[7]: (McEwan 2006, 114)
[8]: (D’Altroy 2014, 353)
[9]: (D’Altroy 2014, 351)
[10]: Alan Covey 2017, pers. comm.
Majority of army was not professional. Garrisoned soldiers at border outposts the exception. [1] "The fighting men were drawn from the masses of the hatun runa and participated as part of their labor tax obligation." [2] Alan Covey: More comprehensive sources include Samuel Connell and colleagues, or Sonia Alconini. John Murra’s 1986 chapter on Inca armies addresses this, too [3] [4]
[1]: (Kaufmann and Kaufmann 2012)
[2]: (McEwan 2006, 127)
[3]: John Murra. 1986. “The Expansion of the Inka State: Armies, War, and Rebellions.” In Anthropo- logical History of Andean Polities, edited by John V. Murra, Nathan Wachtel, and Jacques Revel, 49-58. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[4]: (Covey 2015, personal communication)
The Coricancha was the "principal temple in Cusco." This cult had a "high priest." Inka Roq’a required that "aqlawasi (house of cloistered women) be established in Inka-controlled towns" which produced qumpi (fancy cloth) and aqha (maize beer) used in rituals.
[1]
"In the sequestered House of the Chosen Women (aqllawasi), they were taught religion, weaving, cooking, and chicha-making by lifelong virgins dedicated to the religious institutions. Cobo said that as many as 200 women of various ages could be found in the largest aqllawasi. Although they were well protected, the girls and women were not entirely confined, since they participated in many ceremonies at locations outside their quarters. After about four years, the girls were ready to serve as mamakuna (priestesses) or to marry men who merited the honor for their service to the Inca (Cobo 1990: 172-4; Rowe 1946: 283)."
[2]
Alan Covey: Irene Silverblatt (Moon, Sun, and Witches)
[3]
is still the best-researched treatment of this institution.
[4]
[1]: (Covey 2003, 352)
[2]: (D’Altroy 2014, 301)
[3]: (Silverblatt, I.M., 1987. Moon, sun, and witches: Gender ideologies and class in Inca and colonial Peru. Princeton University Press.
[4]: (Covey 2015, personal communication)
"The delegation of military authority extended to more distant relatives as the Inka state formed and began to engage in more distant and sustained campaigns."
[1]
"Inka rulers began to appoint close relatives to religious, administrative, and military positions."
[2]
Commander of a pukara fortress usually a nobleman from Cuzco (orejon) appointed by the king, whilst the garrison was locally recruited.
[3]
"I don’t think I would expect "professional" military officers--of the sort that the Romans developed under Marius, after centuries of trying to use municipal offices to do the trick--but I think it is fair to say that both societies had military commanders. For Wari, this can be inferred iconographically in warrior imagery on ceramics, and maybe from an uptick in elite trauma that Tiffiny Tung has noted for later Wari populations. For the Incas, we have ethnohistory. In the Inca case, the northern frontier (Ecuador) saw a transformation of military command in the last 50 years of Inca expansion. As territorial growth slowed in placed very far from Cuzco, the emperor moved up to the frontier and fought with Cuzco nobles and special troops that served more or less full-time. By the time the Spanish. arrived, I think it would be hard to deny that there were military professionals--low-born captains such as Quizquiz and Chalcochima--whose only work was leading troops, and who were well-versed in campaign logistics and battle tactics."
[4]
[1]: (Covey 2003, 347)
[2]: (Covey 2003, 353)
[3]: (Kaufmann and Kaufmann 2012)
[4]: Alan Covey 2017, pers. comm.
Alan Covey: After several years in the aqllawasi, most girls were married off to provincial men by Inca governors in mass ceremonies, but some were selected to go to Cuzco for further religious and craft training. Many of these became mamakuna, and they ran the aqllawasi cloisters and took care of sacred objects, shrines, and royal mummies. There wasn’t much of a selection, training, and promotion for Inca men, but the aqllawasi did these things for Inca women.
[1]
No formalised procedure.Usually high officials (provincial governor level) had to be ethnic Inca, however there were exceptions.
[2]
There was some degree of merit promotion.
"Inka rulers began to appoint close relatives to religious, administrative, and military positions."
[3]
Inca of Privilege could hold roles in the government administration and leadership positions like provincial governor.
[4]
Commoners could rise to become top administrators and military leaders.
[5]
[1]: (Covey 2015, personal communication)
[2]: (D’Altroy 2014, 353)
[3]: (Covey 2003, 353)
[4]: (Bauer 2004, 18-22)
[5]: (Kaufmann and Kaufmann 2012)
"Cuzco also appointed a centrally controlled set of inspectors (tokoyrikoq, “He Who Sees All”) who checked on affairs in the provinces. Diez de Betanzos (1996: 110-11) wrote that the sons of the ruler were charged with the inquiries. The highest-ranking official may have been the “Inspector General” of the conquered territories, a position that was sometimes filled by the emperor’s brother. The existence of these independent agents implies that the rulers evidently did not fully trust the provincial officials to conduct all affairs with the best interests of the Sapa Inca and the state in mind."
[1]
"Imperial overseers and specialized record keepers produced tribute levies, population counts, and assessments of provincial development potential"
[2]
Given-Wilson writes of the important role played by the ’curacas’ who functioned below the governor (’toqrikok’) appointed for each province. Day-to-day organization or labour and tribute and the administration of justice was entrusted to the curacas, with the toqrikoks acting as overseers or magistrates, who were themselves monitored by superior inspectors, usually members of the royal family.
[3]
The most important bureaucratic tools for the Incas was the quipu (a number of strings or cords tied with various nots at certain points, each signifying a certain piece of information. Given-Wilson argues that a lack of alphabetic writing did not prevent the Inca Empire from running an extensive bureaucracy, it just altered its character and effect.
[4]
Alan Covey: I wouldn’t necessarily call them bureaucrats, although quipu specialists (quipucamayocs) might be the closest thing to non-noble functionaries with regular state duties.
[5]
[1]: (D’Altroy 2014, 358)
[2]: (Covey 2006, 169)
[3]: (Given-Wilson 2016: 96)
[4]: (Given-Wilson 2016: 81-88) Given-Wilson, C. 2016. Bureaucracy without Alphabetic Writing: Governing the Inca Empire, c.1438-1532. in, Crooks, P and Parsons, T. (eds.) Empires and Bureaucracy in World History: From Late Antiquity to the Twentieth Century. Cambridge University Press.
[5]: (Covey 2015, personal communication)
Does not seem to be a specialised function. Alan Covey: The Quechua title apu means “lord,” but also “judge.” There was also an official called an huchukamayuq who dealt with offenses against Inca majesty in the provinces. These were not necessarily full-time or bureaucratic appointments.
[1]
On provincial governors (tokrikoq): "He also judged all the cases that were related to state interests and had the authority to pass sentences up to and including the death penalty (Cobo 1979: 194-202; Moore 1958: 115)."
[2]
. It seems that being a judge was only one of his many functions.
"Further aspects of law emphasized the cleavages of status found in Inca society (Moore 1958: 74-5). In general, any individual in the state hierarchy could be judged only by someone of higher rank."
[3]
"Inspectors and JudgesCuzco also appointed a centrally controlled set of inspectors (tokoyrikoq, “He Who Sees All”) who checked on affairs in the provinces. Diez de Betanzos (1996: 110-11) wrote that the sons of the ruler were charged with the inquiries. The highest-ranking official may have been the “Inspector General” of the conquered territories, a position that was sometimes filled by the emperor’s brother. The existence of these independent agents implies that the rulers evidently did not fully trust the provincial officials to conduct all affairs with the best interests of the Sapa Inca and the state in mind."
[4]
[1]: (Covey 2015, personal communication)
[2]: (D’Altroy 2014, 354)
[3]: (D’Altroy 2014, 359)
[4]: (D’Altroy 2014, 358)
There were legal codes covering the social and administrative
[1]
but there was no writing system. "For instance, they do not seem to have created a formal system of laws or a separate judiciary."
[1]
Alan Covey: Inca law was largely divided between management of the Inca population of Cuzco (overseen by the Inca ruler), the maintenance of Inca interests in provincial areas (done by noble Inca inspectors and “confessors”), and the practice of local custom in provincial communities. Low-level kurakas had limited power to punish serious crimes, which was done periodically by Inca governors.
[2]
Coded as present following Alan Covey’s explanations.
[3]
"Guaman Poma credits Wiraqocha Inka with the development of a judicial system."
[4]
[1]: (D’Altroy 2014, 358)
[2]: (Covey 2015, personal communication)
[3]: (Bauer 2004, 22)
[4]: (Covey 2003, 347)
The Incas did not have markets but some of the polities they conquered did. "Although they annexed lands with markets, money, and specialized communities, the Incas did not adopt market features into their state economy. Instead, they created an independent set of state resources and institutions that provided for their needs." [1] “We have no accounts of large marketplaces, few descriptions of independent traders except on the margins of the empire […] yet in spite of this, evidence for small marketplaces exists in the pre-Hispanic Central Andes. Local fairs flourished, and there was a brisk trade in many goods, both basic commodities and products of highly specialized labor.” [2] “The historical data are quite clear that there were few price-making markets, but substantial barter markets, in the Andes.” [3] “We contend that barter fairs were the means by which most commodities were traded in the Andes prior to and even during the Inca Empire. There was without doubt a state imperial economy that produced and moved large quantities of goods outside of any barter or other kind of market. But at the daily, domestic level, people most likely produced and traded goods, at least locally, if not regionally, outside of the state economy.” [4]
[1]: (D’Altroy 2014, 394)
[2]: (Stanish and Coben 2013, 419)
[3]: (Stanish and Coben 2013, 427)
[4]: (Stanish and Coben 2013, 431)
Irrigated lands created by the Chacan canal system. Inka Roq’a improved irrigation and these resources "were passed down to his descendants, an innovation linked to the establishment of a royal estate system and the reorganization of Cusco’s moieties in the new state." [1] "The incorporation of some groups to the north of the Vilcanota River occurred around A.D. 1300, allowing the state to begin the development of hundreds of hectares of irrigated maize lands in the Vilcanota Valley." [2]
[1]: (Covey 2003, 351)
[2]: (Covey 2003, 353)
"Thousands of storage units were built on the hills surrounding the Inca provincial centers ... Hundreds of other storage units were built surrounding other secondary and tertiary sites of Inca administration. ... These buildings generally held agricultural materials, including maize, quinoa, and potatoes." [1] Tambos storage and accommodation complexes also contained food. Every village, town and city along important Inca roads had to maintain a tambo, and additional ones added to ensure soldiers need march no further than 22-28 km in a day. [2] Alan Covey: Hyslop 1984 on road system. Round colcas built on cool, dry high ground used to store staples. [3] Alan Covey: Terry LeVine’s volume on Inca storage is a good reference on this topic. [4]
[1]: (Bauer 2004, 96)
[2]: (Hyslop, J., 1984. The Inka Road System. Studies in archaeology.
[3]: LeVine, T. ed., 1992. Inka storage systems. University of Oklahoma Press
[4]: (Covey 2015, personal communication)
In Cuzco gutters ran down the middle of paved streets [1] (which took the water away). Fountains and springs [2] - did these provide drinking water or were they for ceremonial use? In Ollantaytambo: "Canals running through the streets provided fresh water and may have carried away effluent." [3] Alan Covey: There’s no reference to a formal system of drinking water being brought to Cuzco (the way that Roman aqueducts fed basins and fountains). More likely that local springs provided water. [4] According to Wright, Tipon was a hydro-engineering feat due to its canals, plazas, aqueducts, and fountains--infrastructure that transformed a remote mountainside into a true engineering marvel. [5]
[1]: (Bauer 2004, 110)
[2]: (Bauer 2004, 132)
[3]: (D’Altroy 2014, 221)
[4]: (Covey 2015, personal communication)
[5]: Wright, K. 2006. Tipon: Water Engineering Masterpiece of the Inca Empire. American Society of Civil Engineers
In Cuzco gutters ran down the middle of paved streets [1] (which took the water away). Fountains and springs [2] - did these provide drinking water or were they for ceremonial use? In Ollantaytambo: "Canals running through the streets provided fresh water and may have carried away effluent." [3] Alan Covey: There’s no reference to a formal system of drinking water being brought to Cuzco (the way that Roman aqueducts fed basins and fountains). More likely that local springs provided water. [4] According to Wright, Tipon was a hydro-engineering feat due to its canals, plazas, aqueducts, and fountains--infrastructure that transformed a remote mountainside into a true engineering marvel. [5]
[1]: (Bauer 2004, 110)
[2]: (Bauer 2004, 132)
[3]: (D’Altroy 2014, 221)
[4]: (Covey 2015, personal communication)
[5]: Wright, K. 2006. Tipon: Water Engineering Masterpiece of the Inca Empire. American Society of Civil Engineers
[1] Royal road administrators. [2] During imperial period numerous roads widened and expanded due to greater number of people coming and going. [3] In Cuzco streets were paved and laid out in a grid (with right angles) [4] which owed to the construction of cancha wall compounds around residences. [5] At height about 40,000 KM road network, 25,000 of which survives today. [5]
[1]: (Andrushko 2007, 11)
[2]: (Bauer 2004, 22)
[3]: (Bauer 2004, 106)
[4]: (Bauer 2004, 110)
[5]: (Kaufmann and Kaufmann 2012)
Alan Covey: There was some maritime trade that moved up and down the Pacific coast, but not necessarily ports. Also, it is worth noting that rivers in the Andes served as barriers to transport, rather than facilitators of easy movement of people and goods. [1]
[1]: (Covey 2015, personal communication)
Officials responsible for bridges [1] Rope suspension bridges on thick grass cables which had to be remade every year. [2] Example at the Apurimac river: Keshwa Cacha. [3]
[1]: (Bauer 2004, 22)
[2]: (Kaufmann and Kaufmann 2012)
[3]: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/world_of_wonders/2011/02/the_last_incan_grass_bridge.html
"The Incas’ mines were distributed throughout their domain; copper deposits are distributed in bands along the length of the Andes, but gold and silver occur in more restricted deposits. Tin, which was used widely in the empire to make bronze, was concentrated in southern Bolivia and northern Chile." [1]
[1]: (D’Altroy 2014, 440)
[1] Garcilaso (1539-1616 CE) "described two types of keepers of oral tradition, the amautas who transformed historical events into short stories, and the harauicus who recorded these events in poems and songs [2] Alan Covey: The references to amautas don’t appear in the early Colonial chronicles. Those sources do refer to praise songs and oral histories, which Inca women and men participated in. According to Sarmiento de Gamboa’s Historia de los Incas (1572 CE) "in lieu of writing, historical events were recorded on quipus (knotted cords) and passed down from father to son." [3] Alan Covey: This is completely unfounded, and offers an incorrectly gendered vision of Inca history. Most Inca khipu specialists interviewed by Spanish. were men (although men were almost exclusively represented in early Colonial documents and legal proceedings), but it is clear that Inca women composed and performed praise songs and the dance performances of oral history. After these public performances were suppressed, women were largely excluded from the collection of historical information. [4] "Imperial overseers and specialized record keepers produced tribute levies, population counts, and assessments of provincial development potential, using a system of knotted cords (a khipu) as their principal device." [5] The quipa accounting method was "based on strings and knots; various colors, lengths, and thicknesses were knotted to represent numbers or as an aide-memoir." [6]
[1]: (Covey 2003, 333)
[2]: (Andrushko 2007, 20-21)
[3]: (Andrushko 2007, 21)
[4]: (Covey 2015, personal communication)
[5]: (Covey 2006, 169)
[6]: (Kaufmann and Kaufmann 2012)
Calendar could not have been a written document. "Pachakutiq Inka Yupanki created the imperial calendar." [1] Alan Covey: The Incas maintained a lunar calendar that they corrected with solar observations. Each month had a name and many had important rituals and festivals. The calendar was not written down. [2]
[1]: (Covey 2003, 351)
[2]: (Covey 2015, personal communication)
"Along the coast and in Ecuador, there was also a long pre-Inca tradition of fabricating bronze axe-monies (hacha) in units of 2, 5, and 10 (Hosler et al. 1990). It is not certain if the axe-monies were still in use by the Inca era, but shell and gold beads (chaquira) used as media of exchange were certainly in circulation in Ecuador and along the north coast. In neither case, however, did the Incas adopt the currencies into their economies." [1]
[1]: (D’Altroy 2014, 164)
Tribute store houses contained bars of copper and plates of silver and gold. [1] Although the monetary use of these resources is not confirmed. "Although they annexed lands with markets, money, and specialized communities, the Incas did not adopt market features into their state economy. Instead, they created an independent set of state resources and institutions that provided for their needs." [2]
[1]: (Bauer 2004, 96)
[2]: (D’Altroy 2014, 394)
"Another important difference lay in the long-time presence of special-purpose money and more sophisticated weights and measures than those found in the central Andean highlands. It is not clear how widely the currencies were used in prehistory. There is no evidence, for example, that land or labor could be purchased until the Colonial era (Hosler et al. 1990; Salomon 1986; 1987; Netherly 1978). The Incas themselves did not adopt the currencies for the state economy, although they used large amounts of the shell and gold for political and ceremonial ends. Instead, they either left things alone or manipulated the situation politically to give favored groups an advantage." [1]
[1]: (D’Altroy 2014, 320)
"Another important difference lay in the long-time presence of special-purpose money and more sophisticated weights and measures than those found in the central Andean highlands. It is not clear how widely the currencies were used in prehistory. There is no evidence, for example, that land or labor could be purchased until the Colonial era (Hosler et al. 1990; Salomon 1986; 1987; Netherly 1978). The Incas themselves did not adopt the currencies for the state economy, although they used large amounts of the shell and gold for political and ceremonial ends. Instead, they either left things alone or manipulated the situation politically to give favored groups an advantage." [1]
[1]: (D’Altroy 2014, 320)
"Another important difference lay in the long-time presence of special-purpose money and more sophisticated weights and measures than those found in the central Andean highlands. It is not clear how widely the currencies were used in prehistory. There is no evidence, for example, that land or labor could be purchased until the Colonial era (Hosler et al. 1990; Salomon 1986; 1987; Netherly 1978). The Incas themselves did not adopt the currencies for the state economy, although they used large amounts of the shell and gold for political and ceremonial ends. Instead, they either left things alone or manipulated the situation politically to give favored groups an advantage." [1]
[1]: (D’Altroy 2014, 320)
"Chasqui runners served at posts located at one quarter to one-half league intervals along the Inca roads, carrying and relaying verbal messages between Cuzco and the provincial capitals." [1] Postal stations were huts, called chullas, that accommodated two messengers for each direction. [2] With the chasqui runner system "messages or packages could travel as many as 50 leagues (c.275-300 km) in a period of 24 hours." [2] Hyslop is better than these sources.
[1]: (Andrushko 2007, 12)
[2]: (Kaufmann and Kaufmann 2012)
"In the physical domain, Ollantaytambo also exemplifes their bent for modifying the terrain and adapting their designs to existing land forms. Taking advantage of a meander in the Urubamba, engineers diverted the water ow from the le bank to the right and back again and also channelized the Río Patakancha where it owed through the site (Protzen 1993: 22). e eleven expansive terraces that face the settlement gracefully blended in with the natural slope of the piedmont. In 1536, their steep stone walls helped to repel the Spanish expedition sent against Manqo Inka. e Incas even used the waterworks in their defense, as they ooded the valley where the Spanish. were attacking, handing them their only real defeat of the campaign (P. Pizarro 1986: 146-8). " [1] "Troops defending fortified locations responded with a similar array of weaponry, to which they added large boulders rolled down onto advancing forces. Piles of hundreds of sling stones lining the interior of defensive walls can still be found at various Inca forts, such as Cerro del Inga, Chile (Planella et al. 1991: 407)." [2]
[1]: D’Altroy 2014, 224)
[2]: (D’Altroy 2014, 345-347)
"In the physical domain, Ollantaytambo also exemplifes their bent for modifying the terrain and adapting their designs to existing land forms. Taking advantage of a meander in the Urubamba, engineers diverted the water ow from the le bank to the right and back again and also channelized the Río Patakancha where it owed through the site (Protzen 1993: 22). e eleven expansive terraces that face the settlement gracefully blended in with the natural slope of the piedmont. In 1536, their steep stone walls helped to repel the Spanish expedition sent against Manqo Inka. e Incas even used the waterworks in their defense, as they ooded the valley where the Spanish. were attacking, handing them their only real defeat of the campaign (P. Pizarro 1986: 146-8). " [1] "Troops defending fortified locations responded with a similar array of weaponry, to which they added large boulders rolled down onto advancing forces. Piles of hundreds of sling stones lining the interior of defensive walls can still be found at various Inca forts, such as Cerro del Inga, Chile (Planella et al. 1991: 407)." [2]
[1]: D’Altroy 2014, 224)
[2]: (D’Altroy 2014, 345-347)
"Frontal attack by shock troops was the preferred method of taking a stronghold in Andean war, so forts were designed to repel waves of soldiers in close combat. They usually consisted of walled enclosures with broad open areas and spare architecture, set on hilltops or at the crest of steep slopes." [1]
[1]: (D’Altroy 2014, 331)
no direct evidence for earth ramparts, but considering the elaborate forts constructed by the Incas, we can probably infer presence
"While Inca fortifications used the same architectural techniques as those of LIP populations -- concentric walls or wall-ditch complexes, baffled gates and non-aligned gates, parapets with slingstone piles -- the density, design, and defensibility of Inca forts varied from region to region, depending on function, the level of threat, and local architectural tradition (Hyslop 1990:189)." [1]
[1]: (Arkush 2006, 534)
"The battles were noisy, colorful affairs. The soldiers from each etnía were clothed in their distinctive martial vestments. Cobo (1990: 216) wrote that the warriors adorned themselves with finery: “Over this defensive gear, they would usually wear their most attractive and rich adornments and jewels; this included wearing fine plumes of many colors on their heads and large gold and silver plates on their chests and backs; however, the plates worn by poorer soldiers were copper.” " [1]
[1]: (D’Altroy 2014, 345)
"Copper-tin bronze alloys were developed by metalworkers in the cassiterite-rich southern Andean highlands of Bolivia, Peru, and northwest Argentina. Both bronze alloys were in use by about 850 A.D." [1] Possible that breastplates [2] were made from this material.
[1]: (Holder and Streeser-Pean 1992: 1215) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/CTK5MTBV.
[2]: (Bauer 2004, 96)
This technology is not known to have been developed anywhere in the Americas before European colonization.
This technology is not known to have been developed anywhere in the Americas before European colonization.
This technology is not known to have been developed anywhere in the Americas before European colonization.
Thomas Cressy: Peter Turchin decided that Machetes should be coded as swords, so I changed the code to ’inferred present’ due to being in use previously
[1] The Wanka people carried spears in the Inca army. [2] and lances: "The whole fortress was a deposit of arms, clubs, lances, bows, axes, shields, doublets thickly padded with cotton and other arms of various sorts ..." [3] Lances. [4]
[1]: (D’Altroy 2014, 345)
[2]: (Kaufmann and Kaufmann 2012)
[3]: (Bauer 2004, 100-101; cite: Sancho)
[4]: (Bauer 2004, 102; cite: Pedro Pizzaro)
Knives. "Sancho went on to describe the remarkable array of materials that were stored in the complex, including arms, quilted armor, clothing, pigments, cloth, tin, lead, silver, and gold. Recent excavations at Saqsawaman confirm this description, as archaeologists have unearthed a variety of sumptuary craft goods, including tupu pins, knives, other metal objects, and polychrome pottery (Valcárcel 1934-5; Rowe 1944; Van de Guchte 1990: 127-9)." [1]
[1]: (D’Altroy 2014, 211)
This technology is not known to have been developed anywhere in the Americas before European colonization.
This technology is not known to have been developed anywhere in the Americas before European colonization.
This technology is not known to have been developed anywhere in the Americas before European colonization.
This technology is not known to have been developed anywhere in the Americas before European colonization.
"During that endeavor, one of the more fabled events of Inca history is said to have taken place - a voyage by Thupa Inka Yupanki to the Pacific islands of Anachumbi and Niñachumbi. Sarmiento wrote that some 20,000 soldiers sailed with him on balsa rafts." [1] This is a story, but could have an inkling of truth.
[1]: (D’Altroy 2014, 99)