Technological Characterization of Inka and Pre-Inka Pottery: A Ceramic Petrology Approach

5) DE LA FUENTE, G. A.

The Old Potter´s Almanack

Prehistoric Ceramics Research Group and the Ceramic Petrology Group. Department of Scientific Research, British Museum

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2004 vol. 12 p. 1 - 14

0965-7479

The Inka state was a macro socio-political structure that controlled a vast territory for almost a century (A.D. 1438-1532), extending its political and economic dominion from northern Ecuador to southern Chile. The Inkas divided their territory into several provinces in which they applied different systematic policies to control the production of material goods, reflected in craft specialization (coca growers, miners, potters, weavers, farmers, fishers, etc.) at local and state level. The main Inka tribute exacted from local groups was in the form of labor rather in goods, and local communities were taxed at the household level according to the current existing population at the time of the periodic censuses. Concerning ceramic production, the Inkas obtained many ceramics by intensifying production by local potters and by creating labor enclaves of colonists called mitmaqkuna. It has been observed that Inka pottery was extremely standardized in form and decoration throughout all the controlled territory, although sometimes the vessels appear combined with local styles at a local level. One of the most important issues of ceramic production has been that of the function and distribution of Inka ceramic goods as well as the locus of their manufacture and consumption. With respect to ceramic styles, a differentiation between Inka/Cuzco, Inka Provincial, and local styles has been carried out for the Argentine northwestern region. One common hypothesis in the literature is that certain types of Inka settlement, described as administrative centres, is where the production of ceramic goods was concentrated; goods would have been exported from these centres and distributed across each region for state consumption. Some contrary evidence exists, from other types of Inka site classified as tambos, in which several stages of ceramic production have been recorded This report presents new information about the technological aspects of Inka (ca. A.D. 1480-1532) and pre-Inka ceramic artefacts collected at Tambo San Francisco archaeological site (Chaschuil region, Catamarca, Southern Andean Puna, Argentina). The technological characterisation was carried out throughout the use of binocular microscope (low magnification 20X-40X) and ceramic petrology (high magnification 40X-100X) technique.