Incas Radiocarbon

The basic chronology of Inca imperial expansion in Andean South America derives from historical accounts from the Spanish Colonial era, but several issues with this traditional chronology have arisen in recent decades. Advances in radiocarbon dating and calibration now give us some ability to refine or rebuild the chronology, and guidelines for obtaining the most useful dates are discussed. Dates recently obtained from the site of Chamical in the southern highlands of Ecuador are evaluated according to those guidelines, and they suggest Inca expansion to the north began one to two decades earlier than allowed in the traditional chronology. The chronology of Inca expansion presented in the Spanish chronicles is called into question by these and other dates, and by a reconsideration of the nature of sources of Inca history utilized by Spanish writers. Evidence suggests a primary Inca form of recording provincial conquests resulted in lists that were ordered geographically. However, those records were interpreted by colonial writers as being chronologically ordered, which led to written histories of Inca expansion that are not consistent with the actual historical sequence of events. As a result, the preferred approach to building a chronology of Inca expansion should be based on radiocarbon dates, with historical sources used to supplement rather than structure the timeline.

The chronology of the Inca conquest of Northwest Argentina has been questioned in
recent years since the obtaining of new radiocarbon dates. In the Quebrada de Humahuaca is
suggested that the Inca occupation started within the time span ranging from 1410 to 1430
AD. From new radiocarbon dates obtained at Juella archaeological site, within a context that
brings us to the Regional Developments Period (1250-1450 AD), we meditate about how this
process of conquest could have been. A process that involved the complete emptying of the
settlement and the partial abandonment of others. Also will present the spatial changes
imposed by the Incas in the region, which included the remodeling of local villages, the
construction of a new production landscape and the relocation of populations.

"The opening and closing of spaces has been extensively documented at an ethnographic level in the Andes. At the archaeological level however, we have numerous examples of the first type and not many testimonies of abandon of a particular enclosure or settlement. In Juella, Quebrada de Humahuaca, Jujuy, we have a unique context that includes the closure of a door, a burial of an unborn in the occupation floor, and the intentional burial of some objects. In the context of an occupation restricted to the Regional Developments Period, we consider that the material found and analyzed here is related to rituals and ceremonies of the closure and symbolic death of this space. From radiocarbon dates obtained from this particular event and its relationship to the overall site context, we believe that this event not only had to do with the abandonment of the structure, but is closely related to the site as a whole, and to the time of the Inca conquest of the region as well.
Las ceremonias de apertura y cierre de espacios han sido ampliamente documentados a nivel etnográfico en el mundo andino. A nivel arqueológico sin embargo, contamos con numerosos ejemplos del primer tipo y no tantos que testimonien el abandono de un determinado recinto o asentamiento. En trabajos realizados en Juella, Quebrada de Humahuaca, Jujuy, nos encontramos ante un singular contexto que incluye el tapiado de una puerta, la inhumación sobre el piso de ocupación de un nonato y el entierro intencional de algunos objetos. Consideramos, en el marco de una ocupación restringida al Período de Desarrollos Regionales, que la materialidad hallada, y aquí analizada, se encuentra relacionada con rituales y ceremonias ligadas al cierre y a la muerte simbólica de este espacio. A partir de la obtención de diversos fechados radiocarbónicos, que incluyen uno de este evento particular, y su relación con el contexto general del sitio, pensamos que este acontecimiento no solo tuvo que ver con el abandono del recinto, sino que se encuentra íntimamente ligado con el del sitio en su totalidad, al tiempo que este último se relaciona con la conquista inkaica de la región."