With continuing National Science Foundation support, Dr. Gordon McEwan and his colleagues will conduct an additional field season of excavation at the site of Chokepukio which is located in the Valley of Cuzco in highland Peru. The capital of the Inca empire was located as Cuzco and the goal of Dr. McEwan's research is to trace the origins and development of this early state. Chokepukio covers a low hill and adjacent region. Based on the distribution of architectural and ceramic remains it extends over approximately one square kilometer. Dominating Chokepukio is a series of huge enclosures which cover the crest of the hill in the center of the site. The buildings are, in prehistoric terms, truly enormous - the largest enclosure measuring 60 by 80 meters. Many of the walls are preserved to a height of 10 to 12 meters. Associated with these structures are large numbers of small and moderate-sized houses. Based on his previous work at the site, Dr. McEwan knows that the buildings were constructed during the Wari period, likely occupied during the ca. 500 year interval between the fall of the Wari and the rise of the Inca empires and continued to be used during the Inca period. Thus they span the interval when the Inca stated developed and will permit insight into the relationship between Inca and Wari peoples. Based on ethnohistoric data archaeologists know that Inca public buildings were designed to make symbolic statements about social organization and therefore through their analysis it is possible to gain insight into how this prehistoric society functioned. It appears that the same use of architecture held true in Wari times. In his excavation, Dr. McEwan will expose several buildings and analyze both architectural form and the artifacts recovered with this reconstructive goal in mind. Since the Inca empire was a functioning entity when the first Spanish explorers arrived and written descriptions of it exist, the final stages of the Inca are well known. However the Inca lacked writing and relatively little is understood about the origins and development of this entity. What is particularly intriguing are the similarities between the preceding Wari and Inca empires. Although they appear to share architectural features in common, they are separated by approximately 500 years in time and it is difficult to understand how one may play a role in the rise of the other. Since Chokepukio spans this entire interval, the site has the potential to shed light on this question. This research is important for several reasons. It will provide data of interest to many archaeologists. It will shed new light on one of the largest pre-Columbian states in the New World and increase our understanding of how social complexity arises.
