Encyclopedia of the Incas

are interspersed among larger, heavily fortified, permanently occupied forts with
stockpiles of slingstones.
While some forts were highly defensive, at others, ceremonial and
administrative priorities largely dictated site layout. Indeed, Inca forts did more
than defend routes into Inca territory; they were strategically placed nodes for
exchange and gift giving, where interaction with frontier populations could be
managed and ritualized. Features such as ushnus and plazas, along with feasting
debris, suggest that some large Inca forts served as secure embassies for
ceremonial diplomacy and the dissemination of imperial goods and mores to
(semi-) independent native groups, and that ceremonial sectors were often an
integral part of fort function. For instance, Incallacta in Bolivia, protected by a
parapeted zigzag wall with baffled entrances, offered elaborate facilities for
ceremonial performance, including a huge plaza with an ushnu and one of the
largest callancas in the empire.
Thus, Inca military construction was expedient and flexible, since frontiers
were dynamic and variable. Often occupied for only a short time, forts were
abandoned once they outlived their usefulness. Inca forts on the eastern frontier
were overrun by hostile Guaraní people shortly before the Spanish arrival, then
recaptured and strengthened by the Incas. Some sites securely known to have
been Inca military bases, such as Incahuasi in the Cañete valley on Peru’s central
coast, are not fortified at all. That is not to mention the important military
functions of unfortified provincial centers in the interior, such as Huánuco
Pampa.
All this suggests that categories of “fortification” and “fort” do more to serve
archaeological convenience than to capture Inca realities. This is particularly
evident at high-status royal and ceremonial sites in the Cuzco heartland that
cannot comfortably be called “forts,” but nonetheless demonstrate a concern for
barring dangerous and unwanted people. Thick walls, such as the massive
perimeter at Cacha, blocked local populations from entering Inca precincts. Sites
converted from old fortified outposts, like the royal estate at Tipón, retained a
defensible design. New royal estates, such as Pisac, Ollantaytambo, and Machu
Picchu, incorporated defensive and exclusive elements: ridgetop locations, high
walls and steep terraces, condor’s-eye vantages, and tight control points. Above
all, the magnificent ceremonial complex and fortress of Sacsahuaman above
Cuzco was highly defensive: massive zigzag walls provided salients for flanking
fire, and the bottom course of masonry blocks was too enormous to be scaled.
The complex saw action in the 1536 siege of Cuzco (as did Ollantaytambo early