The Cities of the Ancient Andes

The largest empire of pre-Columbian America was toppled in under a decade by a handful of Spanish invaders who looted the fabled riches of its greatest city, Cuzco, and severed its 15,000 mile system of roads. But this Inca empire was only the final link in a chain of urban development stretching back to 2500 B.C. How did cities evolve in the ancient Andes? What were they like to live in and work in? Who built them, and how do we know? In ancient Peru and Bolivia the stark juxtapositions of parched desert, rugged mountain valleys, high and windswept plateaux, and tropical foothills gave birth to a series of cultures with religious and economic values a world away from our own. Tracing the oscillation of cultural leadership between desert and highlands, the authors show how village settlements gave way to religious centers, how these developed into cities, and how city states became empires. Vignettes of the lives of individuals--the leader of a llama caravan (the truck-driver of Chavin times), a delivery boy in the city of Chan Chan, and an Inca sacrificial victim among them--vividly supplement the archaeological narrative and help convey the importance of ceremony in Andean life. Discussions of topics as varied as acoustics at Chavin de Huintar, hydrology in the Nazca valley, the Sacrifice Ceremony in Lambayeque, and sacred geography in Tiwanaku are complemented by the latest evidence from archaeological excavations throughout the Andes.