The Incas

by Morris, Craig; von Hagen, Adriana

• ISBN13: 9780500289440
• ISBN10: 0500289441
• Edition: 00
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-02-06
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson

Summary

At its zenith it extended northward from the Inca capital Cuzco along the spine of the Andes to embrace most of modern Peru and Ecuador, and southward into Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. The sheer scale of the empire, coupled with the challenges of the rugged landscape, made the Inca achievement truly remarkable. This is the most up-to-date and authoritative account available of the Incas: their politics, economics, religion, architecture, art, and technology. The authors look in detail at the four parts of the empire, exploring not just famous sites such as Machu Picchu but all the major regional settlements. The book concludes with the end of the empire: the arrival of the Spaniards, the assassination of the Inca ruler Atawallpa, and the final years of the rebellious, neo-Inca state in the tropical forests of Vilcabamba.

Author Biography

Craig Morris is renowned for his excavation of Hunuco Pampa, one of the largest Inca provincial centers. He was Curator of South American Archaeology as well as Senior Vice-President and Dean of Science at the American Museum of Natural History, New York. Adriana von Hagen is co-director of the Leymebamba Museum in Chachapoyas, Peru. She is the co-author with Craig Morris of The Cities of the Ancient Andes and The Inka Empire and its Andean Origins.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. 7
Prologue: The Road to Chachapoyas	p. 9
Introduction: Land of the Four Quarters	p. 12
The Birth and Growth of Tawantinsuyu	p. 20
Wari and Tiwanaku: setting the stage for the Incas	p. 20
The pre-imperial Cusco valley	p. 22
Inca myths of origin and expansion	p. 25
The king list	p. 28
Empire-building	p. 31
The Principles of Inca Statecraft: Feared Warriors, Generous Rulers	p. 32
Organizing an empire	p. 32
The memory of things	p. 34
War and ritual war as tactics of expansion	p. 37
Specialized soldiers: the Cañari and Chachapoya	p. 40
Mitmaq: a patchwork of interspersed colonies	p. 42
Royal generosity, service, and loyalty	p. 42
Roads and cities: the infrastructure of rule	p. 43
Religion as statecraft	p. 44
Ties that bind: kings, kinship, and royal alliances	p. 45
The four parts: an empire united by division	p. 47
The Wealth of the Empire: Land, Labor, and the Worth of Goods	p. 48
Reciprocity as an exchange system	p. 48
Seasonal and full-time labor	p. 57
Terraces, breweries, and warehouses	p. 61
Cloth, shells, silver, and gold	p. 62
Religion and Ideology: The Sun, the Moon, the Oracles, the Ancestors	p. 65
"Glad words"-the voice of oracles	p. 66
Imperial sun temples	p. 66
The revered ancestors	p. 68
The sacred origins of kingship	p. 70
Astronomy and the ritual calendar	p. 70
Imperial rites and sacred occasions	p. 73
Processions, networks, and order	p. 74
The end of imperial religion	p. 76
Technology and the Arts: Architects, Potters, Weavers, and Smiths	p. 77
Building temples, palaces, terraces, and storehouses	p. 82
Storehouses for the realm	p. 85
Quarrying and working sacred stones	p. 86
Achieving the fit	p. 88
Linking the empire: roads and bridges	p. 91
Imperial tableware	p. 97
Fine garments and emblems of rank	p. 98
Metalworking: glitter of the sun, glow of the moon	p. 100
Cusco: Capital of the Realm	p. 102
The conceptual plan	p. 104
Pachakuti the architect?	p. 104
A sacred city	p. 113
The ceremonial core	p. 114
Town palaces	p. 118
The golden enclosure	p. 119
The royal mummies	p. 122
The temple-fortress	p. 124
Royal country estates	p. 127
Chinchaysuyu: Land of the Setting Sun and the Sacred Shell	p. 133
The route of the setting sun	p. 133
Vilcaswaman: city at a pivotal junction	p. 137
Lodgings before the descent	p. 140
A city coded in brilliant colors	p. 142
An oracle by the sea	p. 144
Inkawasi: a new Cusco	p. 147
Southern coastal Chinchaysuyu	p. 148
Pachacamac: the lord of earthquakes	p. 151
The route of the gods	p. 152
A junction on the Qhapaq Ñan	p. 153
Huánuco Pampa	p. 155
North to Huamachuco	p. 169
Cajamarca: strategic entrepot	p. 169
The kingdom of Chimor	p. 170
Chachapoyas: cloud forest crossroads	p. 174
Strategic corridor into Ecuador	p. 176
Far northern Tawantinsuyu: land of the sacred shell	p. 178
Tumibamba: a new Cusco	p. 179
Gateways to the sacred shell	p. 182
Chains of forts	p. 184
Northernmost Tawantinsuyu	p. 185
Antisuyu: The Road to Machu Picchu and Beyond	p. 186
Early tropical forest conquests	p. 186
A city of stairways	p. 190
The gateway to Vilcabamba	p. 196
Empire in exile	p. 199
Qollasuyu and Kuntisuyu: Herds, Metals, and Mountains of Sacrifice	p. 210
Places of imperial origin	p. 212
On the road to Qollasuyu	p. 216
The lake kingdoms	p. 219
The warm foothills and the jungle frontier	p. 220
Southern Qollasuyu's mineral wealth	p. 223
West through Kuntisuyu	p. 225
Qollasuyu in Chile: mines and farmland	p. 228
Human offerings to sacred peaks	p. 230
Why were Chinchaysuyu and Qollasuyu different?	p. 233
The Fall: Bearded Men from across the Sea	p. 234
Foreign disease	p. 234
A tragic encounter	p. 235
The clash of empires	p. 236
New-found wealth	p. 238
Inca resistance and decline	p. 240
Notes	p. 242
Further Reading	p. 245
Sources of Illustrations	p. 252
Index	p. 253
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