Evidence for Long-Distance Transportation of Building Stones in the Inka Empire, from Cuzco, Peru to Saraguro, Ecuador

Abstract

Abstract Ethnohistorical and archaeological data suggest that a collection of more than 450 finely worked Inka building stones found near Saraguro in the southern highlands of Ecuador originated outside that region. The origin of those andesite blocks was investigated via geochemical analysis. Wavelength-dispersive X-ray fluorescence determined the concentrations of nine elements in samples from stones in the Saraguro region and in samples from known Inka andesite quarries at Cojitambo in the southern sierra of Ecuador, and at the Rumiqolqa and Huaccoto quarries near the Inka capital of Cuzco in Peru. The results show that the geochemical composition of the Saraguro stones closely matches that of the Rumiqolqa material, indicating that the Inka had these large andesite blocks moved over a distance of more than 1,600 km, the greatest known distance for the transport of large objects in the precolumbian New World. This endeavor had many implications, including reinforcing state power and ideology, and is also perceived to reflect an imperial “made-work” policy that consumed excess labor through non-utilitarian assignments. These “made-work” projects are best explained as a strategy for reinforcing state control over subject provinces, in contrast to current models of Inka economic organization that focus on efficiency in the use of labor.