Laying the Foundations: A Unique Inka Construction Technique in the Northern Ecuadorian Highlands

Summary

While Inka architecture is occasionally discussed as if it were a unified corpus of building styles, regional variation is great, with the Inka frequently adopting local techniques. Recent excavations is northern Ecuador have uncovered examples of a little documented Inka foundation style found at several sites in the region. At Hacienda Guachalá, where local legends maintain that the hacienda chapel, reportedly one of the oldest in Ecuador, was built atop an Inka temple, the early colonial walls are underlain by an earthen platform that is bolstered by rocks. Only present under the oldest part of the Guachalá chapel, this massive earthen foundation matches an unfinished Inka foundation excavated in recent years at San Agustin de Callo where it is thought to be among the last constructions at the site, perhaps abandoned as the Spanish were moving northward towards Quito. Unlike more common Inka wall construction styles, which use finely packed sediments as dry mortars, the Callo-Guachalá foundation style, which is markedly layered, seems to have utilized wet-lain sediments, unlike other Inka or Spanish colonial foundations. While its origins are vague, the style suggests that the Inka continued to evolve technologically even as their empire was falling apart around them.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage