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Qullqa
A qullqa ( "deposit, storehouse"; (spelling variants: ''colca, collca, qolca, qollca'') was a storage building found along roads and near the cities and political centers of the Inca Empire. These were large stone buildings with roofs thatched with "ichu" grass, or what is known as Peruvian feathergrass ('' Jarava ichu''). To a "prodigious xtentunprecedented in the annals of world prehistory" the Incas stored food and other commodities which could be distributed to their armies, officials, conscripted laborers, and, in times of need, to the populace. The uncertainty of agriculture at the high altitudes which comprised most of the Inca Empire was among the factors which probably stimulated the construction of large numbers of qullqas. Background The pre-Columbian Andean civilizations, of which the Inca Empire was the last, faced severe challenges in feeding the millions of people who were their subjects. The heartland of the empire and much of its arable land was at elevations ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inca Roads-en
The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The Inca civilisation rose from the Peruvian highlands sometime in the early 13th century. The Portuguese explorer Aleixo Garcia was the first European to reach the Inca Empire in 1524. Later, in 1532, the Spanish began the conquest of the Inca Empire, and by 1572 the last Inca state was fully conquered. From 1438 to 1533, the Incas incorporated a large portion of western South America, centered on the Andean Mountains, using conquest and peaceful assimilation, among other methods. At its largest, the empire joined modern-day Peru with what are now western Ecuador, western and south-central Bolivia, northwest Argentina, the southwesternmost tip of Colombia and a large portion of modern-day Chile, forming a state comparable to the historical empires of Eurasia. Its of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tambo (Incan Structure)
A tambo ( Quechua: ''tampu'', "inn") was an Inca structure built for administrative and military purposes. Found along the extensive roads, tambos typically contained supplies, served as lodging for itinerant state personnel, and were depositories of quipu-based accounting records. Individuals from nearby communities within the Inca empire were conscripted to maintain and serve in the tambos, as part of the mit'a labor system. Tambos were spaced along Inca roads, generally about one day's travel apart. Characteristics and functions The Incas built many of their tambos when they began to upgrade their empire-wide road system during the reign of Thupa Inka Yupanki from 1471 to 1493. Scholars estimate there were 2,000 or more tambos.D’Altroy, Terence N. The Incas. Blackwell Publishing, 2003, pg. 238. Given this amount, the sheer variety of tambo size and function are hard to fully describe. At a minimum, tambos would contain housing, cooking facilities, and storage silos called ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quipus
''Quipu'' ( ), also spelled ''khipu'', are record keeping devices fashioned from knotted cords. They were historically used by various cultures in the central Andes of South America, most prominently by the Inca Empire. A ''quipu'' usually consists of cotton or Camelidae, camelid fiber cords, and contains categorized information based on dimensions like color, order and number. The Inca, in particular, used knots tied in a decimal positional system to store numbers and other values in ''quipu'' cords. Depending on its use and the amount of information it stored, a given ''quipu'' may have anywhere from a few to several thousand cords. Objects which can unambiguously be identified as ''quipus'' first appear in the archaeological record during 1st millennium CE,Urton, Gary. (2011). "Tying the Archive in Knots, or: Dying to Get into the Archive in Ancient Peru likely attributable to the Wari Empire. ''Quipus'' subsequently played a key part in the administration of the Kingdom of C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pre-Columbian Rafts
Pre-Columbian rafts plied the Pacific Coast of South America for trade from about 100 BCE, and possibly much earlier. The 16th-century descriptions by the Spanish of the rafts used by Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Native Americans along the seacoasts of Peru and Ecuador has incited speculation about the seamanship of the Indians, the seaworthiness of their rafts, and the possibility that they undertook long ocean-going voyages. None of the prehistoric rafts have survived and the exact characteristics of their construction and the geographical extent of their voyages are uncertain. It is likely that traders using rafts, constructed of balsa wood logs, voyaged as far as Mexico and introduced metallurgy to the civilizations of that country. Some scholars and adventurers of the 20th and 21st century (most notably Thor Heyerdahl) who reached Polynesia on the Kon-Tiki expedition, Kon-Tiki raft have asserted that the rafts and their crews journeyed thousands of miles across the Pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cuzco
Cusco or Cuzco (; or , ) is a city in southeastern Peru, near the Sacred Valley of the Andes mountain range and the Huatanay river. It is the capital of the eponymous province and department. The city was the capital of the Inca Empire until the 16th-century Spanish conquest. In 1983, Cusco was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO with the title " City of Cusco". It has become a major tourist destination, hosting over 2 million visitors a year and providing passage to numerous Incan ruins, such as Machu Picchu, one of the Seven modern wonders of the world and many others. The Constitution of Peru (1993) designates the city as the Historical Capital of Peru. Cusco is the seventh-most populous city in Peru; in 2017, it had a population of 428,450. It is also the largest city in the Peruvian Andes and the region is the seventh-most populous metropolitan area of Peru. Its elevation is around . The largest district in the city is the Cusco District, which has a po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mit'a
Mit'a () was a system of mandatory labor service in the Inca Empire, as well as in Spain's empire in the Americas. Its close relative, the regionally mandatory Minka is still in use in Quechua communities today and known as in Spanish. ''Mit'a'' was effectively a form of tribute to the Inca government in the form of labor, i.e. a corvée. Tax labor accounted for much of the Inca state tax revenue; beyond that, it was used for the construction of the road network, bridges, agricultural terraces, and fortifications in ancient Peru. Military service was also mandatory. All citizens who could perform labor were required to do so for a set number of days out of a year (the basic meaning of the word ''mit'a'' is a regular ''turn'' or a ''season''). The Inca Empire's wealth meant a family often needed only 65 days to farm; the rest of the year was devoted entirely to the ''mit'a''. Mit'a was repurposed by the Spanish Crown in 1573, drafting one-seventh of the adult male populatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chincha Culture
The Chincha culture (or Ica-Chincha culture) was the culture of a Native Peruvian people living near the Pacific Ocean in south west Peru. The Chincha Kingdom and their culture flourished in the Late Intermediate Period (900 AD–1450 AD), also known as the regional states period of pre-Columbian Peru. They became part of the Inca Empire around 1480. They were prominent as sea-going traders and lived in a large and fertile oasis valley. La Centinela is an archaeological ruin associated with the Chincha. It is located near the present-day city of Chincha Alta. The Chincha disappeared as a people a few decades after the Spanish conquest of Peru, which began in 1532. They died in large numbers from European diseases and the political chaos which accompanied and followed the Spanish invasion. The Chincha gave their name to the Chinchaysuyo Region, the Chincha Islands, to the animal known as the chinchilla (literally "Little Chincha"), and the city of Chincha Alta. The word "Ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chuño
() is a preserved potato product traditionally made by Quechua and Aymara communities of Bolivia and Peru, and is known in various countries of South America, including Bolivia, Peru, Chile and Northwest Argentina. It is a five-day process, obtained by exposing a bitter, frost-resistant variety of potatoes to the very low night temperatures of the Andean Altiplano, freezing them, and subsequently exposing them to the intense sunlight of the day (this being the traditional process). The word comes from Quechua , meaning 'frozen potato' ('wrinkled' in the dialects of the Junín Region). Origins The existence of dates back to before the time of the Inca Empire in the 13th century, based on findings that have been made of the product at various archaeological sites. Specifically, they have been found at Tiwanaku, site of a culture which developed in the Collao Plateau, a geographic zone which includes territories of Bolivia and Peru.. It had been described in 1590 by Spanis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tunanmarca Archaeological Site - Storehouse
Tunanmarca, Tunan Marca or Siquillapucara is an archaeological site in Peru. It is located in the Junín Region Junín may refer to: Places Argentina * Junín Partido ** Junín, Buenos Aires *** Junín Airport * Junín Department, Mendoza ** Junín, Mendoza * Junín Department, San Luis * Junín de los Andes, Neuquén Colombia * Junín, Cundinamarca * ..., Jauja Province, Tunan Marca District. The site was declared a National Cultural Heritage by ''Resolución Directoral Nacional'' No. 1359/INC on November 9, 2000. Commemorative Coin On 26 Nov 2013 the Central Reserve Bank of Peru issued 10,000 new 1 Nuevo Sol coin featuring Tunanmarca buildings and including the engraving ''1 NUEVO SOL TUNANMARCA S. XIII - XVI d.c.''. The coin was part of a series named the ''Wealth and Pride of Peru Series''.https://monedasdelperu.com/serie-riqueza-y-orgulloa-del-peru/riqueza-y-orgullo-del-peru_tunanmarca/ Tunanmarca See also * Hatunmarka References Archaeological sit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mantaro Valley
The Mantaro Valley, also known as Jauja Valley, is a fluvial inter-Andean valley of Junin region, east of Lima, the capital of Peru. The Mantaro River flows through the fertile valley which produces potatoes, maize, and vegetables among other crops. The Mantaro Valley is also renowned as an area containing many archaeological sites. At the northern end of the valley is the city of Jauja, an important pre-Columbian city and Peru's provisional capital in 1534. Huancayo is the largest city in the valley. Geography The Mantaro Valley is a north–south trending valley about long between the cities of Jauja and Huancayo, Peru. The Mantaro River bisects the valley, emerging from a steep gorge at the northern end of the valley and entering another steep gorge at its southern end. The valley floor averages about wide at elevations ranging from to . The land on either side rises to mountain ranges of more than elevation. The highest mountain in the area is Huaytapallana, 14 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
