La agricultura fue una actividad fundamental de las comunidades aldeanas de las tierras altas de Arica en los Andes centro sur, durante el período Intermedio tardío (1100-1450 dC), hasta convertirse en uno de los principales propósitos de la expansión inca en la región en los siglos quince y dieciséis. Este trabajo presenta el hallazgo, en la cuenca alta del Valle de Azapa, de maquetas o infraestructuras agrícolas grabadas en miniatura. Caracterizamos sus formas y soportes, examinamos su distribución en los territorios tardíos de la región y las contrastamos a macroescala regional con evidencias similares. Finalmente, discutimos su vínculo con el flujo de conocimientos y experiencias relativos al manejo del agua y la topografía, junto con la ritualización del paisaje agrícola en tiempos incas.

This article examines a new dataset of radiocarbon dates that provides insights into the progressive installation of Inca infrastructure in the Copiapo Valley, situated at the southern edge of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. It shows that the Inca imperial expansion in this region was not a linear process and was likely shaped by local negotiations and conflicts. The findings describe three main stages of Inca expansion. The first is the construction of the North–South Inca Road and the establishment of high-altitude mountain shrines. The next stage consisted of a physical intervention in a local village located in the upper valley, including the construction of administrative buildings and public spaces. The last stage involved indirect intervention in local villages, characterized by the presence of isolated administrative buildings that were potentially used for diplomacy and negotiation. I argue that the Inca imperial expansion, characterized by evolving strategies across regions and time periods, not only demonstrates the state's capacity for learning but also suggests the pivotal role of local actors in positions of power who wielded agency to shape these developments.

The distribution and hybridization of ceramic vessels provide insights into how local elites and imperial officials navigated imperial expansion. This article presents data on ceramic sherds from the sites of La Centinela and Las Huacas in the Chincha Valley that date to the period of Inca occupation (AD 1400–1532). In Chincha, the Inca established a style of joint rule in which Inca and local authority were closely aligned. The ceramic data demonstrate that Inca imperial designs and diagnostic shapes were most numerous in contexts associated with direct Inca presence and that the types of vessels and designs that elites used to develop their authority differed among the contexts: hybrid material culture thus varied throughout the Chincha Valley. These different hybrid material cultures include state-sponsored hybrid wares (Inca vessels, on which the Inca intentionally integrated Chincha designs) and local vessel shapes on which elites used Inca symbols and vessel shapes to assert their status to a mostly local audience.

Research carried out in the Carangas region of highland Bolivia has identified a surprising concentration of pre-Hispanic religious sites, which are linked both to ancient Andean cults of wak'a (sacred mountains, tutelary hills and mummified ancestors) and to the Incan settlement of the region. Of these sites, one ceremonial centre stands out for its unprecedented characteristics for the Andes.

The post-mortem manipulation of human bodies is documented in many regions of the world, including South America. Recent archaeological fieldwork in the Chincha Valley, Peru, adds to this catalogue nearly 200 examples of the threading of human vertebrae onto reed posts. Here, the authors report on the distribution and composition of these ‘vertebrae-on-posts’, which are radiocarbon-dated to the Late Horizon (AD 1400–1532) and Colonial (AD 1532–1825) periods. The authors argue that these modified remains represent a social process that reconstructed the dead in response to Colonial-period looting. This manipulation of human remains reflects protracted relationships between the living and the dead, and the enduring social lives of human remains.

In the pre-Columbian Andes, the use of hallucinogens during the Formative period (900–300 BC) often supported exclusionary political strategies, whereas, during the Late Horizon (AD 1450–1532), Inca leaders emphasised corporate strategies via the mass consumption of alcohol. Using data from Quilcapampa, the authors argue that a shift occurred during the Middle Horizon (AD 600–1000), when beer made from Schinus molle was combined with the hallucinogen Anadenanthera colubrina. The resulting psychotropic experience reinforced the power of the Wari state, and represents an intermediate step between exclusionary and corporate political strategies. This Andean example adds to the global catalogue documenting the close relationship between hallucinogens and social power.

En los Andes surandinos, las prácticas funerarias incluyeron una diversidad de actos rituales en torno a los restos de los difuntos que iban más allá de la preparación del cuerpo y el lugar de depósito. El desarrollo y las características de estos actos dependían principalmente de la condición social que tenían los muertos en vida. En el Pucará de Tilcara, definido como capital de la provincia incaica de Omaguaca, se detectan una amplia variedad de formas de inhumación, pero en este trabajo abordamos el caso de un contexto mortuorio de una mujer, cuya muerte se estima ocurrió hacia el final del período Incaico o inicios de la época Hispano-Indígena. Análisis interdisciplinarios del contexto arqueológico y, particularmente, los estudios entomológicos de la fauna cadavérica y bioantropológicos permitieron determinar que esta mujer estuvo expuesta antes de quedar sepultada por procesos naturales. Proponemos que esta exposición ocurrió en el marco del culto a los ancestros difundido por todo el imperio, y sirvió para remarcar su estatus social. El acompañamiento mortuorio y los análisis de estroncio sugieren que la mujer formó parte de un grupo de elite oriundo de otra región del Tawantinsuyu, que pudo trasladarse y asentarse en la Quebrada durante la caída del Imperio inca, buscando refugio ante la inminente envestida española.

Haciendo eco de las crónicas coloniales sobre el sistema vial imperial andino, la mayoría de las investigaciones sobre caminos incaicos se han centrado en su planificación y tecnología monumental como las principales características de esta infraestructura prehispánica tardía. Mediante un estudio regional en los valles de Arica (18° S), abordamos, en este trabajo, una investigación del Qhapaq Ñan (sistema vial incaico) desde una perspectiva de redes. Analizamos un palimpsesto de 13.000 km de vías, producido por la acumulación de sistemas viales de distintos períodos cronológicos. Este es relacionado con el patrón de asentamiento prehispánico tardío para modelizar los flujos de movimiento durante los siglos quince y dieciséis: mediante análisis espaciales, delineamos las estructuras más probables de las redes viales local e imperial. Finalmente, consideramos medidas de centralidades y acumulación de flujo para discutir la hipótesis del control del movimiento como estrategia imperial. Los resultados muestran que la hegemonía incaica se pudo relacionar con el control espacial de los flujos de las interacciones, y también que el enfoque de red aplicado a los palimpsestos viales reviste gran potencial para la arqueología del movimiento en regiones desérticas y montañosas.

One of the most impressive examples of an Inca capacocha ceremony was discovered during an archaeological expedition to the summit of Misti volcano in 1998. The offerings at the site included several human sacrifices, along with fine ceramics and figurines made from gold, silver, and Spondylus sp. shell. One of the two burials appeared to contain the bones of males and the other of females. The sex was established based on the contents of the graves, because the fragile skeletal material had been badly affected by volcanic activity and exact identification was difficult to make in situ. To limit the risk of damage, the bones were excavated together with the surrounding soil and transported in frozen blocks to the Museo Santuarios Andinos of Universidad Católica de Santa María in Arequipa. This material was the object of a bioarchaeological investigation in February and March 2018. The results revealed that at least eight individuals had been buried in the graves. The findings have increased our understanding of the age categories and physical condition of the individuals chosen to be sacrificed during the capacocha ritual.

As the Inca Empire expanded across the South American Andes during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries AD, Lake Titicaca became its mythical place of origin and the location of a pilgrimage complex on the Island of the Sun. This complex included an underwater reef where stone boxes containing miniature figurines of gold, silver and shell were submerged as ritual offerings. This article reports a newly discovered stone offering box from a reef close to the lake's north-eastern shore. The location, content and broader socio-cultural context of Inca sacrifices are examined to illuminate the religious and social meaning of underwater ritual offerings at Lake Titicaca.

As the Inca Empire was predominantly agrarian, the integration of local farming communities into a corporate agricultural system constituted a great challenge for the imperial political economy. The authors thus analyse an unusual circular structure in the Altos de Arica region of northern Chile, which resembles an important building—called ‘sunturhuasi’—in the capital, Cusco. They explore this structure using three-dimensional modelling, identifying its probable use in astronomical observations and hence its clear connection with the Inca agricultural calendar, ultimately suggesting that it was central to an imperial built environment related to the political economy of maize production.

The Inca mitmaq policy ambitiously resettled up to one-third of its subject population. Despite the importance of this mass relocation, we know little of the mitmaqkuna, the people resettled under the policy. Through a spatial analysis of Yanawilka, an agricultural mitmaq settlement near the Inca provincial capital of Vilcashuamán, this article explores how Inca imperial control differentially affected various aspects of the mitmaqkuna's social landscapes. The use of space syntax analysis to assess the centrality of the Inca imperial presence within such settlements may be of value for assessing other imperial contexts around the world.

Estudiamos el imperialismo incaico en el contexto de las formaciones socioterritoriales del Colesuyu durante la época prehispánica tardía (siglos quince y dieciséis). Por su poblamiento con alto grado de multietnicidad e imbricación socioterritorial, además de su heterogeneidad biogeográfica entre el Pacífico y el Altiplano, esta región de los Valles Occidentales de los Andes Centro-Sur planteó un reto geopolítico para su integración imperial. Nos interesamos aquí por el caso de los Altos de Arica, que los archivos coloniales describen como un espacio multiétnico, con complejos sistemas de asentamiento interdigitados, extendidos entre el altiplano de Carangas y el litoral de Arica. A partir de un catastro arqueogeográfico, complementado con datos de excavaciones y dataciones, analizamos el proceso de ordenamiento incaico del valle precordillerano de Belén (ca. 3.000 m snm), el cual era conocido como Tocoroma en los archivos coloniales y constituía la principal isla del archipiélago carangas en la vertiente occidental andina del 18° S. Evidenciamos la producción de un paisaje agrícola imperial en el valle y discutimos la función nodal de Tocoroma-Belén en el contexto de la integración socioterritorial de la transecta Arica-Carangas. Asimismo, el estudio confirma el protagonismo del Tawantinsuyu en la estructuración de los archipiélagos verticales de los Andes Centro-Sur, además de documentar la diversidad de los dispositivos de hegemonía imperial implementados para este fin.