this approach on grounds that it promoted an early date for Inca expansion that
did not conform to the most reliable chronicles, or the archaeological evidence
of Inca provincial rule. Rowe advocated an approach to Inca chronology that
echoes Prescott: using dates from Cabello Valboa, but only for the rulers from
the final century before the conquest. Rowe corrected the calculation errors for
rulers from Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui forward, treating them as historical and
describing earlier rulers as “legendary” and “mythical.”
Rowe’s short chronology has been influential as the source of most recent Inca
date sequences. Some historicist treatments of the Inca imperial century have
attempted to refine the chronology of the last three emperors using details from
life histories of individual rulers, as Susan Niles does for the reign of Huayna
Capac. Many Inca scholars take a more skeptical approach, identifying the
political aspects of the Colonial construction of Inca histories. Given the
existence of multiple sequences that allege to have Inca quipus and noble
testimony as their sources, many scholars worry that the chronicle dates do not
represent an accurate or relevant way for representing the Inca past. Tom
Zuidema has suggested that myth and Colonial-era factionalism influenced the
production of the entire Inca dynastic narrative.
Rowe advocated a new Inca chronology just before the advent of radiocarbon
dating, which offers new potential for reconstructing aspects of Inca chronology.
Radiocarbon “dates” are not calendar dates, but instead calibrated ranges,
usually several decades long, of the probable age of organic materials.
Archaeology does not date events well, but radiocarbon dating has provided
valuable perspectives on the timing of early Inca state expansion and the first
imperial campaigns. Archaeological dates have been useful for placing the Incas
in a broader prehistoric cultural sequence, but their degree of precision has yet to
offer a strong challenge to Rowe’s short chronology.
Further Reading
Cabello Valboa, Miguel. Miscelánea antártica, una historia del Perú antiguo. Edited by Luis E. Valcárcel.
Lima: Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Instituto de Etnología, 1951 [1586].
Covey, R. Alan. “Chronology, Succession, and Sovereignty: The Politics of Inka Historiography and Its
Modern Interpretation.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 48, no. 1: 166–99, 2006.
———. How the Incas Built Their Heartland: State Formation and the Innovation of Imperial Strategies in
the Sacred Valley, Peru. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006.
Guaman Poma de Ayala, Felipe. The First New Chronicle and Good Government. Translated by Roland
Hamilton. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2009 [1615].
Julien, Catherine J. Reading Inca History. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2000.
Means, Philip Ainsworth. Ancient Civilizations of the Andes. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1931.