Huanuco Pampa: An Inca City and Its Hinterland

New York: Thames and Hudson; New Aspects of Antiquity Ser., 1985. Cloth, 181 pages, illustrations; 26 cm. Firm binding, clean inside copy. Expected browning. Dust jacket protected in a mylar book cover. A near-fine copy of the first printing. ""Ever since Pizarro and his small band of followers toppled the Inca Empire in 1532, scholars have been both fascinated and perplexed by this great Andean civilization. The largest empire of the New World, it stretched for over 2500 miles from northern Chile to Ecuador, linked by a remarkable network of roads along which the Inca armies and relays of messengers could travel. Autocratic control was exercised from the capital Cuzco by a divine despot, the Inca himself. But how exactly was the royal will carried out? To what extent was the empire a uniform, monolithic state, as is commonly supposed? And how did the Inca system of government operate at the regional level? In order to tackle these questions, the authors and their colleagues undertook fieldwork in the Hua´nuco region of the Peruvian Andes, comparing their results with a detailed sixteenth-century Spanish census in the same area. The main site, Hua´nuco Pampa, located high up on the royal road to Cuzco, is one of the most spectacular and best-preserved of all Inca cities. Excavations revealed an administrative center with impressive masonry, hillside storehouses, and a huge central plaza built to accommodate highly organized feasting and ceremonies, by means of which the Inca redistributed wealth and maintained their authority. Intriguingly, however, villages around the city retained much of their non-Inca character, and at the local level imperial power was exerted indirectly through the established leadership. This pioneering study, superbly illustrated with examples of Inca goldwork, ceramics and architecture, puts into new perspective an empire which -- without benefit of the wheel or writing as we know it -- created one of the world's richest civilizations." - Publisher. CONTENTS: An empire destroyed and rediscovered; The Inca background for provincial Huanuco; The Hua´nuco region according to early historical sources; Huanuco Pampa: the architecture and ceramics; Economy, ritual and the politics of provincial administration; Subsistence and storage; Roads, bridges and waystations: the infrastructure of Inca rule in the provinces; The Chupaychu ethnicity; Ethnic diversity in the Huanuco region; Indirect rule and the ceremonies of state. . 1st. Hardcover. Very Good/Fine. 4to. Collectible.