Monumental Architecture of Late Intermediate Period Cuzco: Continuities of Ritual Reciprocity and Statecraft between the Middle and Late Horizons

Abstract

The culture history of the valley of Cuzco prior to the rise of the Incas is being revealed by twelve years of fieldwork at the site of Chokepukio. Located in the Lucre Basin at the eastern end of the valley, Chokepukio contains the only surviving monumental architecture of Late Intermediate Period Cuzco. Excavations in a series of large niched structures on the site reveals that they functioned as feasting halls. Quantities of polychrome ceramic serving and feasting vessels and high quality sumptuary goods reveal that elite individuals were involved in the rituals and feasts carried out there. The presence of elaborate water works and human burials in the halls seems to suggest that they functioned as lineage halls for feasting ancestors. The plan of the architecture and overall structure of the site together with radiocarbon dating suggests that a complex polity was centered at Chokepukio for three to four centuries between the fall of the Wari Empire and the rise of the Incas. This polity provided an essential continuity of statecraft and preserved infrastructure. The Incas’ meteoric rise was surely due to their genesis in a more politically complex environment than previously believed.