The Inca conquest of Cerro Azul

The Invention of Taxation in the Inka Empire

“…As argued by one of us recently (Urton 2017:20–23), the cadres of khipukamayuqs who served the Inkas should be understood as a major force for formulating and maintaining state institutions throughout the territory of Tawantinsuyu. From all we can learn about the timing of the Inka conquest of the south coast of Peru (e.g., Marcus 2017), the innovations in accounting we have examined here were occurring probably no more than a generation before the Spanish invasion of Tawantinsuyu, beginning in 1532. Inkawasi was a new kind of facility in the Inka imperial infrastructure, and as such, the management of the site stimulated new accounting procedures.…”

“…Inkawasi was a large military and storage installation built by the Inkas in the Cañete River Valley, on the south coast of Peru, 27 km upriver from where the river discharges into the Pacific Ocean (Figure 1; Hyslop 1985). The site, which stretches almost a kilometer along the south (left) bank of the river, was originally built as a military staging facility for the Inka conquest of the Huarco, a bellicose and war-like people who lived near the mouth of the Cañete River (Cieza de León 1967León [1553; Garcilaso de la Vega 1966Vega [1609; see also Marcone Flores and Areche Espinola 2015; Marcus 2017). After the conquest of the Huarco, the site was transformed into an administrative and storage complex for state agricultural production.…”