Inka Craft and Ritual Production: Compositional Analysis of Ceramic Pastes and Pigments from the Temple of the Sun, Pachacamac

Summary

In Andean South America during the Late Horizon (AD 1400 - 1532), rituals and ceremonies, both inclusive and exclusive, were a major part of the Inka Empire’s strategy for control of its subjects. These ceremonies involved the use of distinct Inka-style material culture, which has its origins in Cuzco but spread throughout the Andes with the expansion of territory of the empire Tawantinsuyu. The Inka required local craft producers to replicate these imperial styles as a part of their mit’a labor obligation to the state, though occasionally these styles were sometimes imported to provincial locations from the capital or other Inka centers. Pachacamac, on the central coast of Peru, was a major ritual and pilgrimage center before and during Inka control. This poster examines the chemical composition of pastes and pigments of ceramics found at the Temple of the Sun, the principal Inka structure at Pachacamac, using Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) and Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). This analysis is used in an attempt to understand the level of control and influence the Inka exerted over local craft producers, as well as the role that these ceramics played in the production of state-sponsored rituals and ceremonies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Ceramics of the Indigenous Cultures in South America: Studies of Production and Exchange using INAA

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