The late imperial site of Inca-Caranqui, northern highland Ecuador: at the end of empire

Resumen

This article reports on recent investigations at the late imperial site of Inca-Caranqui located at the northernmost edge of Tawantinsuyu. The interdisciplinary research conducted at this site since 2008 has been aimed at exploring the role of imperial architecture as a material strategy of Inca statecraft and the extent to which such strategies may have evolved as a function of time and distance from the imperial capital of Cuzco. Investigations at the site have involved the use of a variety of methodological techniques as well as controlled excavations and ethnohistoric research. An overview of the ethnohistoric context of the site together with some of the preliminary results of our fieldwork are presented in this article.