Distant Provinces in the Inka Empire: Toward a Deeper Understanding of Inka Imperialism

Two Archaeobotany of Cerro del Inga, Chile, at the Southern Inka Frontier

Editors’ Introduction This study represents the introduction of systematic water flotation archaeobotany to Chilean archaeology. As such, Rossen et al. provide new lines of analysis for understanding the interaction between the Inkas and their conquered people. Specifically, using archaeobotany to identify the food remains and stored foods at the site of Cerro del Inga allowed the authors to see how the Inkas introduced their own foods into the local economy, yet continued to use the foods of the region. As they state, this analysis goes beyond simple identification of food plants and provides information about social, political, and economic policies. The archaeobotanical analysis was also able to identify the uses of some of the structures at the site as qollqas and others as habitations. The imperial policy of storing only one kind of grain in a storeroom was also corroborated in the research. An intriguing aspect of the research in this chapter is whether the individuals in charge were local leaders elevated to the status of kurakas or whether Inka individuals from other regions were present. Both ethnohistorical information and archaeological work indicate the presence of Jack Rossen, María Teresa Planella, and Rubén Stehberg Chapter Two Archaeobotany of Cerro del Inga, Chile, at the Southern Inka Frontier Archaeobotany of Cerro del Inga, Chile 15 mitmaqkuna in the vicinity of the site. It is suggested they were the ones growing quinoa, probably an introduced plant to the region. However, the identification of quinoa in storerooms at the summit of the site could suggest it was also for the consumption of the individuals in charge. Was it a status food given to the elevated kurakas, or food grown for a foreigner who was more accustomed to it than the local foods? While these questions cannot be answered here, they become hypotheses that could be testedwithadditionalresearch.Regardless,theresearchalsosuggeststhat quinoa was grown to alter the landscape as another strategy of assimilation for the Inkas. It shows how plants can be used as representative of both political aggression and resistance. Acuto (chapter 5) notes how the inhabitants of the northern Calchaquí Valley in Argentina also differentially accepted Inka material culture as an act of resistance. This chapter also provides new information about the Inkas at the very margins of their empire. The evidence indicates that the Inkas deliberately co-opted this site, fortified it against possible attack, and used it as a visual symbol of their control. The ceramic evidence from different areas of the site corroborates the reuse of the site by the Inkas. Similar locations for other Inka sites along the road network in the south suggest this strategy was common. This kind of research indicates how archaeobotany can contribute to finer lines of analysis that are presented elsewhere in this volume (see chapter 8 for a bioarchaeological contribution). Applying analytical techniques more typically used in other regions of the world to Inka studies will increase our knowledge of the varying forms of interaction between the Inkas and their subject people. Introduction One key concern of this volume is the assessment of new scales of analysis in order to better understand the nature of Inka provincialism (see chapter 1). One finer scale of analysis that has been added to South American archaeology in the last decade is archaeobotany. The analysis of plant remains systematically collected by water flotation of soil samples was developed in the U.S. Midwest in the 1980s and has gradually been adopted in other regions. South American archaeologists were relatively hesitant to adopt water flotation techniques, either because sites contained un- 16 rossen, planella, and stehberg usually good plant preservation (such as Peruvian coastal sites) or large architectural sites did not invite the finer excavation and special sample extraction techniques that were necessary. The first author traveled to Chile in 1993 to teach archaeobotany, including the construction and use of a flotation tank and laboratory analysis , compilation of comparative collections, and controlled carbonization studies to understand shrinkage and deformation that archaeological plant materials experience. The second and third authors had already conducted several field seasons of excavation at Cerro del Inga, located in the Cachapoal Valley in central Chile, 95 kilometers south of present-day Santiago. The site was already recognized as the southernmost known Inka military installation. The goals of the research were varied: to determine whether small circular stone features were, as suspected, the remainsof qollqas,and to seewhether plant remainscouldberecoveredand identifiedthroughwaterflotation,sincenonehadbeenpreviouslynoticed...