Encyclopedia of the Incas

located some 50–80 kilometers (30–50 miles) from the urban core.
Archaeological surveys and excavations have revealed that the Inca transitioned
from just one of many competing groups to the most politically powerful entity
in the central Andean highlands.
As the Inca state developed, dramatic changes occurred between the^ eleventh
and^ sixteenth centuries. Archaeologists use Killke pottery, a pre-imperial ceramic
type, to identify early Inca sites and to reconstruct the relationships the Cuzco
Incas had with their Incas by Privilege neighbors. While Killke pottery was
probably produced within Cuzco, early Inca rivals created contemporaneous
types, including the Lucre ceramic style of the Pinahua and Mohina ethnic
groups to the east and the Colcha style of the Chillque group to the south. Where
Killke pottery is recovered, archaeologists argue that the early Incas had
extended their territorial control or created alliances with neighboring groups.
Another indicator of the transition to Inca rule is architecture, as pre-Inca sites
are marked by a preponderance of small, circular domestic structures. The Inca
constructed well-planned, rectangular buildings and enclosures to administer
these sites in the later periods, while Inca households resided mostly in
rectangular configurations as well.
During the Killke period, Inca rivals developed several nucleated, large
villages around the Cuzco region. South of Cuzco in Paruro, however, a different
pattern dominated. Several ethnic groups lived in undefended, scattered, small
agricultural villages that did not change significantly with Inca incorporation. In
Lucre and Huaro to the southeast, however, the Huari of Ayacucho had
previously established a highly visible colony at Pikillacta and other sites around
the sixth century, though it declined by AD 1000 (see Chronology, Pre-Inca).
After that time, nearby Chokepuquio—occupied since the Huari era—grew
nearly as large as the early settlement of Cuzco. As the head of a complex
political group, possibly the Pinahua ethnic group, Chokepuquio competed with
Cuzco. After AD 1000, Cuzco felt so threatened by these neighbors that it made
the Oropesa basin a buffer zone between Cuzco and Lucre. A void was left
between Inca-controlled and Pinahua-controlled territories, with the exception of
the fortified site of Pucara Tipón. When Lucre finally fell under Inca dominion,
the ruler Viracocha Inca, Pachakuti’s father, developed Tipón into a royal estate
and populated the zone with laborers to support newly improved agricultural
lands.
North of Cuzco, the Incas allied with some groups, while those settled across
the Vilcanota River were incorporated later. The Anta ethnic group northwest of