(Great Empires of the Past)
UNCOVERING FACTUAL DATA ABOUT THE INCA EMPIRE
requires a formidable team of experts: mathematicians, archaeologists, and
historians. Mathematicians work to unravel the only concrete records left
by people of the empire, quipus, knotted strings that tabulated the Inca
population and productivity down to the last dehydrated potato. Archae-
ologists dig up ancient temples, buried cities, and shrouded mummies that
tell of a complex society. Historians delve into the chronicles of Spanish
conquistadors, priests, and government clerks, the only written records of
the Inca culture. And all must separate fact from fiction, dealing with a cul-
ture whose history is intertwined with legends of stone warriors and visits
from the gods.
The task is made more difficult because the Inca Empire had no writ-
ten language?not even hieroglyphs or pictograms?or numerical system.
The Inca civilization passed its history along by means of oral tradition.
Thus, the founding of the empire may have taken place in 1200?or not.
Dates and details of the early Inca Empire are all estimates.
The initial arrival of the Spanish in 1524 and their mania for cata-
loguing even their smallest accomplishments produced the first concrete
records of Inca life. Thus, the early period from 1200 to about 1525 pres-
ents a blend of fact and fiction, legends and daring deeds, mingled with cul-
tural pride. Historians have been frustrated in their pursuit of accuracy
because there is simply no way to separate tales of greatness from feats of
greatness.
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