Puruwá Polity under Inka Rule in Colta, Chimborazo Province (Ecuador)

Summary

The Inka incorporated the territory of today's Ecuador to the Tawantinsuyu around 1420. This conquest is well documented from South to North by recording the expansion of monumental features such as pukaras, tambos, bridges, terraces, collkas, wakas, patios and plazas, built in traditional Inka style. The political transformation of northern Andes landscape by the Inka was very profound in the Loja and Azuay provinces of southern Ecuador. While it was a milder transformative factor around Quito and other northern suyus. In the Chimborazo province, the Puruwá territory at the time of Inka expansion was transformed into an agricultural production area, as witnessed by the constructions of dozens of monumental terraces associated to nucleated houses that seem to be erected using Inka techniques. Both terrestrial and aerial survey data has been used to reconstruct the history of occupations of Colta region within the Chimborazo province to track changes in landscape that correspond to these sociopolitical events, as well as to natural catastrophes that modeled Puruwá patterns of economy before, during, and after Inka rule.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20848