Limatambo in late prehistory : landscape archaeology and documentary images of Inca presence in the periphery of Cusco

Abstract

This study combines the results of surface archaeological survey and early historic documentary information to examine the expansion of the Inca polity and its interaction with local socio-economic systems in the Apurimac Basin near Limatambo from about AD 1000 to the arrival of the Spaniards in Cusco during 1533. The respective roles and limitations of the two sources of information are discussed and give rise to the organization of chapters in four groups. Chapters 1 to 3 discuss the modes and degrees of Inca presence throughout the Andes and their measurement for comparison with the circum-Cusco region. The system of site survey, environmental background of the study region and the late prehistoric archaeology of surrounding areas are examined in greater detail to enable inferences of site function and dating. Chapters 4 and 5 describe recorded archaeological sites of late prehistory and present detailed measurements and maps of large prehistoric terrace sites which enable their systematic internal analysis. Ethnohistoric information is synthesized in Chapters 6 and 7 and the appendices include transcriptions of previously unpublished 16th Century title records. The attachment of the social data they contain to specific landscapes supports the inference of an intricate variety of Inca-local relations at the end of prehistory that is not apparent in the standard chronicles. The final chapters use two different approaches to assess current propositions about the nature of Inca expansion which have been largely derived for this area from documentary generalizations. Chapter 8 employs archaeological data in a landscape model to infer site function and to compare parameters which may have affected the choice of site location. It assumes that the distribution of settlements and of energy inputs in terrace construction are measures of Inca and local-level interest in different Limatambo environments during late prehistory. Chapter 9 uses documentary data to elaborate a social hypothesis to explain the recorded variation in Inca terrace schemes and Chapter 10 is a similar analysis of mountain-summit Inca sites in the study region. Available comparative data suggest that the distribution patterns of such sites in Limatambo are part of a wider phenomenon near Cusco and provide a basis for comparison of the centre of Inca state formation with greater Tawantinsuyu.