As the Incas incorporated provincial territories into their domain, the Cuzco area was transformed into a region apart from the rest of the empire. Some local groups were resettled to provincial areas, while labor colonists (mitmaqkuna) and retainers (yanakuna) were brought to the Cuzco region from across the empire. Settlement patterns for the imperial period indicate major population shifts toward areas where intensive maize production was conducted. Settlement in the imperial period is more hierarchical and regularized, but while higher-order sites have strong ties to the Inca elite, small villages and hamlets appear to have been established opportunistically at the margins of improved farmlands.
Provincial production enclaves can be contrasted in the imperial heartland with estates developed by an Inca ruler or his wife and held corporately by his descent group (Covey 2006; D’Altroy 2002:127-140; Niles 2004) (Figure 40.4). As with production enclaves, estates are concentrated in the qhichwa/quechua and ceja de montana (with specialized herding facilities in the small areas of puna grasslands near the capital). Estate construction involved impressive projects of river canalization and the construction of irrigation canals and terraces (Farrington 1983). The estates themselves exhibit different kinds of architecture and planning than have already been mentioned for urban settlements constructed in provincial regions. Juchuy Coscco and Chinchero contain large plaza spaces that are laid out without an usnu, but with a kallanka structure placed on a higher terrace occupying one side of the plaza. Other estates—for example, Pisaq, Ollantaytambo, and Machu Picchu—lack these large open spaces but have religious architecture that is not as obvious at the other sites. Valley-bottom estates at Calca and Yucay have a more orthogonal layout that is consistent with the establishment of new centrally-designed settlements in the valley.
Storage facilities are generally disembedded from the principal estate architecture and follow a different architectural layout from provincial qollqa complexes (see Bauer 2004: 96-98; Covey 2006).
Architectural differences may indicate a distinct pattern of labor organization, storage, and redistribution in the imperial heartland, where yanakuna received lands and sustenance from the Inca elite in exchange for life-long service. Despite such differences, the Cuzco region was linked to the provinces by the qhapaq nan, and tampu constructions were present as close as a day’s walk from the capital.
World History
