Encyclopedia of the Incas

is now lost. The original source of information on the ceque system was a quipu
(knotted-string accounting device), presumably now lost as well, on which the
identities of the ceques and huacas were recorded in the knot record. The
account in the Cobo chronicle contains the names and ranks—in a three-tiered
hierarchical arrangement (collana—high, payan—middle, and cayao—low)—of
the ceques as well as the names and usually some information about each of the
328 or 350 huacas, the sacred places that made up the ceque system. Much of
the information on the huacas pertains to the sacrifices that were offered at each
one of these sites in a round of ceremonies and rituals that constituted the annual
ritual calendar in the Inca capital.
There is some question about the nature of the ceque lines—whether they were
straight or crooked, with some lines even crossing over others. Statements from
some of the Spanish chroniclers who were familiar with the uses of the system
especially for ritual purposes suggest that the lines were perfectly straight, a
circumstance that would accord well with data suggesting that Inca astronomers
may have viewed the rise or set of astronomical bodies along certain of the
ceques. Nevertheless, from his exhaustive ethnohistorical and on-the-ground
research, archaeologist Brian Bauer concluded that virtually none of the ceques
ran straight through the valley. The difference between these two interpretations
may, however, be a false problem. For just as a map of a subway system may
show the routes to be a network of straight lines while travel on the cars through
the twisting tunnels follows anything but straight lines, so the ceque system may
have been conceived of and talked about as a system of straight lines, whereas
tracing any given line through the valley would produce a crooked line.
The different social and political groups that occupied one or another of the
four suyus within the city and valley of Cuzco were related to particular ceques.
These associations were critical features in defining the ritual and political
organization of the Inca capital. Much research has been devoted to analyzing
the various Colonial accounts detailing, often in contradictory ways, how the
total system of spatial coordinates, temporal periodicities, and sociopolitical
groupings was organized.
Beyond its manifestation in Cuzco, one Spanish chronicler states that there
were more than 100 towns in the empire that were organized by ceque system–
like arrangements of lines. Archaeologists have on occasion attempted to
identify ceque system organizations in Inca archaeological sites, such as at
Huánuco Pampa in the north-central highlands of Peru and Incahuasi, on Peru’s
south-central coast. Finally, we have evidence of ceque lines that went for great