Encyclopedia of the Incas

Cuzco, for example, was a large group consolidated as Incas by Privilege. Their
possible center, Ak’awillay, continued to be occupied in the imperial period. In
contrast, the Ayarmaca polity of Maras and Chinchero and their possible capital
at the large site of Yunkaray experienced a different relationship with rival
Cuzco. They abandoned their territory after generations of struggle with the
Incas and were resettled into several villages around the heartland, while their
homeland was largely converted into royal estates.
In the Urubamba valley, the Cuyo ethnic group and others lived at higher
elevations prior to Inca incorporation. The Cuyo slowly abandoned their
principal site of Muyuch’urqu for the new site of Pucara Pantillijlla in the
Chongo basin and gradually moved down in elevation toward the valley bottom
under the Incas, perhaps to be nearer to farmlands to fulfill tribute obligations. In
the Chit’apampa basin, political groups that were capable of coordinating labor
lived on defensible ridges and hilltops prior to the Incas. Upon incorporation in
the late Killke period, the Incas built administrative structures at some of these
settlements before a longer-lasting transition to lower elevations and more
dispersed, valley-bottom settlements was carried out. Around the Urubamba
valley, state and noble construction projects fueled by tribute labor transformed
the landscape, parts of the river were canalized to create imposing terracing
projects, and populations shifted toward a large royal estate at Pisac.
During the Killke and early Inca period, settlements in the Cuzco basin
increased in number and size and began to form a metropolitan capital. As some
groups resisted Inca rule in rural Cuzco, conflict increased, a trend that is
corroborated by skeletal trauma evidence. The growing Inca polity found
advantages over its neighbors and emerged as the most powerful player in the
Cuzco region. By AD 1400, the Inca produced standardized, imperial style
architecture and ceramics. The Cuzco basin filled up with new villages, hamlets,
royal estates, and an influx of migrant laborers attached to the state and the
nobility. Sacsahuaman, a large fortified site also used for major ritual events,
was constructed around a Killke complex northwest of the city.