How Did the Inca Construct Cuzco?

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "How Did the Inca Construct Cuzco?," at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Cuzco, the former capital of the Inca Empire, is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the Americas. Inca architecture and planning continue to define the layout of the modern city. Cuzco has one of the richest historical records of any indigenous site on the continent. Generations of architects, archaeologists, and historians have tried to correlate the location of major Inca compounds, streets, and open spaces with the historical evidence. But, "several alternative models of the former Inca capital can be derived from largely the same data sources" (Bauer 2004: 211). This session will debate research into the layout of the roads, terraces, buildings blocks, wall construction, labor investment and modifications of Inca buildings in Cuzco and beyond. Despite a lack of C14 dates for the city center, this architectural analysis can provide new insights into the building sequence in Cuzco by assessing it in relation to stone source locations and our archaeological and historical understanding of the expansion of Inca territorial control, including the development of royal estates. This session invites discussion about potential changes in the authority and control of the emerging Inca Empire as well as the social, economic and ritual functions of the Inca capital.