The Inka Empire in the Valley of Volcanoes, Southern Peruvian Andes

Summary

States and empires attempt to incorporate and transform local landscapes and cultural practices in efforts to legitimize their social orders. Research on the Inka Empire in the Andagua Valley of the Southern Peruvian Andes has shown how these processes are incomplete and become entangled with local practices and the stubborn materiality of history. This poster presents recent archaeological and anthropological research, identifying the reach and effects of Inka Empire and distinguishing local pre-Inka and non-Inka cultural occupations and practices. This research reveals the tensions of empires evident in local settlement patterns, cultural practices and material culture, such as, stone offerings and monoliths (huancas), and ceramics that were marginalized and expanded during Inka rule. The painted stone disc and tablet tradition, in addition to larger stone features, articulated and manifest relations of history, power and space among local inhabitants in the valley. In Andagua, Inka imperial statecraft sought to re-orient local populations’ relations with the landscape, shifting from local huacas and ritual locations in the southern edge of the contemporary town of Andagua to emphasizing the volcanic flows of Ninamama and the broader valley through the placement of an ushnu (ceremonial platform).

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): 20243