Encyclopedia of the Incas

provided by Cuzco valley quarries such as Wacoto and Rumicollca (see
Quarrying and Stonecutting). Around these quarries, archaeologists find
unplanned settlements, possibly representing housing for quarry specialists. In
contrast, other towns within the heartland are well planned and orthogonal (built
along perpendicular axes), such as the elite settlements of Calca and the Qosqo
Ayllu sector of Ollantaytambo.
As regional populations increased, changes were made to the political
economy of Cuzco. Early Inca growth coincided with regional climatic
conditions that favored intensive irrigation agriculture. This agricultural strategy
allowed the Incas to transform the Cuzco landscape into terraced and irrigated
lands and to build storage complexes for the subsequent surplus crops (see
Storage). Storehouses in the heartland were different from those of the
provinces: they stored multiple types of products in a single structure, unlike the
specialized architecture of provincial collca, and some Cuzco storehouses were
adapted structures from pre-Inca groups, such as the Ayarmaca. The Inca also
invested in expanding the roads coming into and leaving from Cuzco and built
way stations (tambos) such as Tambo Real on the Anta plain that linked the
heartland to Chinchaysuyu, the northwestern quadrant of the empire.
In order to construct and maintain these intensified resources and monumental
architectural projects, the Inca brought in new populations. Labor specialists and
retainers were resettled throughout the region, which created a multiethnic
heartland that is only recently being studied through domestic excavations.
Bioarchaeological studies point to increased frequencies of cranial vault
modification (a trait associated with group affiliation) among human remains
from rural Cuzco, while analysis of dental enamel (strontium isotope evidence)
indicates where migrant individuals spent their early lives. Many of these
migrants were brought to Cuzco to labor on the royal estates, which served as
centers of wealth production for noble families. Underused tracts were improved
upon and uncooperative local groups lost their lands in favor of estate
development. Royal estates such as Pisac and Chinchero included elite
residences as well as temples, baths, ornamental canals, and terraces, and were
surrounded by storehouses, gardens, camelid corrals and pastures, hunting
preserves, and other resources.
The inclusion of temples at royal-estate palaces is symptomatic of the
importance the Incas placed on the sacred. Cuzco was surrounded by natural and
human-built features imbued with symbolism. The anchor of this sacred
landscape was the ceque system, a series of 42 imagined lines that emanated