Verónica I. Williams

Inka Rule in the Northern Calchaquí Valley, Argentina

Abstract Inka rule in the northern Calchaquí Valley in NW Argentina employed a varied strategy that drew the regions societies into the empire in the 15th century A.C. Surface survey, site mapping, and excavation, combined with review of historical documents, show that the Inkas applied measures designed to ensure security, intensify production of agropastoral and mineral resources, introduce state ideology, administer state activities, and establish cultural relations with compliant subjects. Because the Inkas tailored their approaches to the sociopolitical and natural circumstances of each region, imperial rule resulted in two different kinds of occupations: a discrete set of state installations in the north and a mixed, state-local occupation in the mid-valley.

Corrigendum to "New Data on Food Consumption in Pre-Hispanic Populations from Northwest Argentina (Ca. 1000-1550 A.D.): The Contribution of Carbon and Nitrogen Isotopic Composition of Human Bones"

We present data on carbon and nitrogen isotopic composition of human bones from Tolombon (Calchaqui Valley, Salta) and Esquina de Huajra (Quebrada de Humahuaca, Jujuy) sites located in Northwest Argentina (NWA). Both are complex archaeological residential settlements ascribed to the Regional Development Period (ca. 900–1430 A.D.), the Inca Period (ca. 1430–1536 A.D.), and the Early Colonial Period (ca. 1536–1600 A.D.). Twelve samples of human bones were collected and analyzed, including remains from individuals of both sexes and different ages at death. We also present the carbon and nitrogen isotopic composition of modern plants from nearby areas in order to start building an isotopic ecology of the area and compile available information on food consumption from different lines of evidence. The isotopic results obtained reveal the consumption of C4 plants, which for the area are maize and amaranth, combined with animal proteins. The integration of these results with the broader database was useful to discuss the political and economical implications of the findings, especially in the context of this area under the Inca domination.

Areas periféricas y nucleares: contextos de interacciones sociales complejas y multidireccionales

Se propone que las relaciones sociales entre areas nucleares o areas culturales centrales, escenarios de formaciones sociales de gran escala y las zonas extranucleares (semiperiferias, periferias y ultraperiferias) fueron complejas y no pueden ser descritas y explicadas con los paradigmas unilineales y unidireccionales del neoevolucionismo. La realidad de la region andina antigua y moderna muestra una gran variabilidad en los grados de negociacion, aceptacion, resistencia y tolerancia entre ambos sistemas sociales (centro y periferia). Por otro lado, las propias sociedades locales muestran variados procesos de cambio y continuidad, influenciados no solo por la gran diversidad ecologica, en terminos de produccion y predictibilidad, sino tambien por los propios intereses sociales de las comunidades y sus lideres a traves del tiempo

Regional Dynamics in the High Quebradas of the Valle Calchaquí Medio (Salta, Argentina) Between the Eleventh and Early Seventeenth Centuries

For the Northwestern Argentina (NWA) between AD 1000 and 1430, the proposed situation encompasses the existence of a state of political fragmentation, conflict situations, and the emergence of hierarchies materialized in the presence of defensive settlements or pukaras, iconography, war paraphernalia, and evidences of trauma on human remains, always considering the climatic changes that occurred in the Andes starting in the thirteenth century as one of the causes. The archaeological information from the high ravines of Valle Calchaqui Medio (VCM) located in the current province of Salta, NWA between eleventh and seventeenth centuries, allowed us to hypothesize a continuity in the occupation of this space following logics and practices from pre-Hispanic times which were linked to the subsistence and social reproduction, such as seasonal and altitudinal management.

Abran kancha... Una variante de recinto perimetral compuesto en el noroeste argentino

El objetivo de este trabajo es compartir el estado del conocimiento de un tipo arquitectonico inca especial que registramos en distintas areas del Noroeste Argentino y del Area Andina Centrosur y que se aparta ligeramente de la kancha en damero regularizado. Se encuentran a lo largo de los caminos estatales y se asocian a sitios de distinta funcionalidad como tampus, centros administrativos o areas agricolas. La busqueda bibliografica permitio conocer que estructuras similares –aunque de menores dimensiones– fueron construidas en otros sitios del Tawantinsuyu; por lo tanto, sugerimos que responde a un patron arquitectonico preestablecido que debio cumplir alguna funcion o “proposito especifico” para el Estado. En este trabajo describimos las distintas estructuras registradas y planteamos y analizamos diferentes hipotesis acerca de las posibles funciones que pudieron haber tenido en base a datos arqueologicos y fuentes documentales.