The Cusco Valley Road System

Summary

This is an abstract from the "How Did the Inca Construct Cuzco?" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Inca road system in the Cusco Valley has been remarkably understudied and undertheorized despite lying at the heart of the largest empire in the Americas and being the origin point for a road system designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Far from the simplistic vision of four primary roads emanating to the four corners of Tawantinsuyu, this paper presents the Cusco Valley road system as a complex and multifunctional network that worked to enact and perform elements of Inca state power and perception. The paper also analyzes the form and function of viewing platforms found in close association with road remains near the valley horizon, suggesting a consideration of forced perspective and structured experience relating to the act of entering and exiting the Cusco Valley. Analyzing data collected during an extensive field survey conducted over two years between 2012-2013, this paper considers implications for our understanding of how intervisibility relates to and constructs Inca ideas of authority, relatedness, and identity.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• How Did the Inca Construct Cuzco?   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25330