Limatambo in late prehistory : landscape archaeology and documentary images of Inca presence in the periphery of Cusco
Date
1989
Authors
Heffernan, Kenneth James
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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appendices include transcriptions of previously unpublished 16th Century title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.
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Thesis (PhD)