The emergence of Inka Dominion: Historical and Chronometric Assesments

D'ALTROY, TERENCE N.; WILLIAMS, VERONICA; BRIAN BAUER

Washington DC

Mesa redonda; Roundtable on Inka Chronology; 2007

Dumbarton Oaks

This paper evaluates the evidence for the chronology of Inka expansionism across the Andes, as seen from the information presented in early Spanish documents and from radiometric dates obtained from Inka contexts throughout the former empire.1 Cabello Valboa’s (1951 [1586]) chronology, which is the basis for most modern historical interpretations, suggests that the Inka expansion out of the Cuzco region occurred around AD 1438 and that most of the Andes were conquered after 1463. In this model, the Inka state arose in conjunction with the imperial expansion. In contrast, radiocarbon dates suggest that the Inkas had created a complex, perhaps state-level, society in the southern Andes by 1300, if not earlier, and had established a presence in much of the Andes in the first half of the 15th century. The latter model extends the accepted duration for much of the Inka polity, suggesting that a rethinking of the nature of Inka history as recorded during the Colonial era may be in order. We conclude that the rise of Inka power in the Cuzco region likely took a couple of centuries, and that the imperial era lasted about a century or a little more.