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The Incas and Their Ancestors: The Archaeology of Peru
In 1532, when Pizarro conquered Peru, the Inca realm was one of the largest empires on earth, graced by gold masterpieces, towns with great palaces and temples, and an impressive network of roads. But this glittering culture only obscured the rich and diverse civilizations that had preceded Chavin, Moche, Nazca, Tiwanaku, Huari, and Chimu. Described as a "masterly study" and an "outstanding volume" on its first publication, The Incas and Their Ancestors quickly established itself as the best general introduction to the cultures and civilizations of ancient Peru.
Now this classic text has been fully updated for the revised edition. New discoveries over the last decade are integrated throughout. The occupation of Peru's desert coast can now be traced back to 12,000 BC and ensuing maritime adaptations are examined in early littoral societies that mummified their dead and others that were mound builders. The spread of Andean agriculture is related to fresh data on climate, and protracted drought is identified as a recurrent contributor to the rise and fall of civilizations in the Cordillera. The results of recent excavations enliven understanding of coastal Moche and Nazca societies and the ancient highland states of Huari and Tiwanaku. Architectural models accompanying burials provide fresh interpretations of the palaces of imperial Chan Chan, while the origins of the Incas are given new clarity by a spate of modern research on America's largest native empire. 225 black-and-white illustrations
Now this classic text has been fully updated for the revised edition. New discoveries over the last decade are integrated throughout. The occupation of Peru's desert coast can now be traced back to 12,000 BC and ensuing maritime adaptations are examined in early littoral societies that mummified their dead and others that were mound builders. The spread of Andean agriculture is related to fresh data on climate, and protracted drought is identified as a recurrent contributor to the rise and fall of civilizations in the Cordillera. The results of recent excavations enliven understanding of coastal Moche and Nazca societies and the ancient highland states of Huari and Tiwanaku. Architectural models accompanying burials provide fresh interpretations of the palaces of imperial Chan Chan, while the origins of the Incas are given new clarity by a spate of modern research on America's largest native empire. 225 black-and-white illustrations
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First published January 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 26, 2022
I greatly enjoyed this very systematic book on the pre-historical cultures that existed in the territory of Incan Empire (1438-1532). It provides an admirable description of the ceramics, buildings, irrigation works, textiles, and mummies found by archeologists at multiple sites throughout the region. Unfortunately the new excavations of the last 20 years make this work hopelessly out of date and I would advise most GR members to shop for something more current. Nonetheless I am giving it four stars for the admirable way that presented what was known at the time of its publication in 2001.
Moseley begins the book by first explaining how that the natural environment defined and severely limited the possibilities for the indigenous societies. Rainfalls were meager and highly erratic. The soil was of inferior quality and the choice of crops was effectively dictated by elevation.
Moseley next describes the Incan empire (1438 to 1532 AD) that was destroyed primarily by European small pox and to a lesser degree by Pizarro's conquistadors during the last 20 years of its existence. This is the weakest chapter in the book as Moseley presents his conclusions without bothering to explain whether they are based on texts written by the Spanish, archeological findings or hypotheses based on anthropological theory. Ultimately this matters little as the focus and true strength of the work lies in its examination of the pre-Incan cultures. Moseley's main points on the Incan empire are that it was the first one to unify the region politically and that it had been less than 100 years old at the time of arrival of the Spanish.
Moseley then follows with chapters based on the on archeological findings for the following eras: the Pre-Ceramic (2000 BC t0 1800 BC), the Early Horizon (1800 BC to 200 BC), the Early Intermediate (200 BC to 600 AD), the Middle Horizon (600 AD to 1100 AD), and the Late Intermediate (1100 to 1430 AD). For each era, he carefully describes the evolution in ceramics, textiles, monuments, temples, agricultural structures, buildings, and urban design noting the variations in nine different regions. There are no historical records for any of these periods and Moseley refrains from make hypotheses based on anthropological series.
Moseley's selection of photographs and drawings support his text very well. A major problem for me was that are footnotes so that reader cannot determine for on a page by page basis what the sources that Moseley draws on.
"The Incas and their ancestors" was a fine book for its day. It is however no longer current and most readers would likely prefer a work that covers the archeological studies of the 21st century.
Moseley begins the book by first explaining how that the natural environment defined and severely limited the possibilities for the indigenous societies. Rainfalls were meager and highly erratic. The soil was of inferior quality and the choice of crops was effectively dictated by elevation.
Moseley next describes the Incan empire (1438 to 1532 AD) that was destroyed primarily by European small pox and to a lesser degree by Pizarro's conquistadors during the last 20 years of its existence. This is the weakest chapter in the book as Moseley presents his conclusions without bothering to explain whether they are based on texts written by the Spanish, archeological findings or hypotheses based on anthropological theory. Ultimately this matters little as the focus and true strength of the work lies in its examination of the pre-Incan cultures. Moseley's main points on the Incan empire are that it was the first one to unify the region politically and that it had been less than 100 years old at the time of arrival of the Spanish.
Moseley then follows with chapters based on the on archeological findings for the following eras: the Pre-Ceramic (2000 BC t0 1800 BC), the Early Horizon (1800 BC to 200 BC), the Early Intermediate (200 BC to 600 AD), the Middle Horizon (600 AD to 1100 AD), and the Late Intermediate (1100 to 1430 AD). For each era, he carefully describes the evolution in ceramics, textiles, monuments, temples, agricultural structures, buildings, and urban design noting the variations in nine different regions. There are no historical records for any of these periods and Moseley refrains from make hypotheses based on anthropological series.
Moseley's selection of photographs and drawings support his text very well. A major problem for me was that are footnotes so that reader cannot determine for on a page by page basis what the sources that Moseley draws on.
"The Incas and their ancestors" was a fine book for its day. It is however no longer current and most readers would likely prefer a work that covers the archeological studies of the 21st century.
August 23, 2014
Other reviewers have pointed out that the title is a misnomer, for there is very little about Inca here … yet in that truth resides the value of its archeology, for what Moseley does (in excruciating detail) is document the fact that the century or so of Inca civilization was but a skin overlaying millennia of cultural development.
Powerfully brought home by this book is the fact that in Andean civilization The Past, which until the electronic age it seems to me, erased itself pretty well, all by itself—was abetted to near perfection by the efforts of both Inca and Spanish, in their separate ways. The self-aggrandizing Inca (and here, I refer to the Inca elite mythologizing themselves into godhood) had much to do with this, engineering the mythic perception that the gods somehow created them mere generations before the Spanish and catastrophe. In a culture without writing the past can be easily abolished, and so it was—systematically—in the origin myths decreed by Cuzco … these mythologies largely believed, and transcribed, by the Spaniards. And although it is true that the astonishing expansion of the Inca (who built arguably the largest empire of their time) took place no more than four or five generations, their culture itself was an epiphenomenon built on the shoulders of past civilizations.
So, the Inca (i.e. the ruling Inca—wanting to spring, in a South American version of Athena, right from godhood) refashioned their origin and history. And the Spaniards, in their general blindness to all cultures not their own and their all consuming greed, were unthinking collaborators. Looting, breaking into temples and tombs, they melted everything precious that was meltable into ingots sent to fuel the religious wars of Charles V. At Cerro Blanco, capital of the Moche, where huge adobe platforms were built to elevate temples and bury the noble dead, the task of despoilment was so great that the Spaniards diverted a river to sluice through this monument in an huge, sad version of panning for gold. Succeeding centuries of looters perfected the Spaniards’ titanic task.
Massive as many of the ruins of these cultures are, very little remains to flesh out what led to the Inca Empire, and the Inca themselves. Some textiles. Some gold and silver artifacts not found and melted down. Much more pottery than that, much of it shards. And ruin after silent, violated ruin, some unbelievably huge, mostly stone (sometimes adobe), unable truly to divulge the fascination of the past…. The archeologist, and reader, is left with mere conjecture. For example, the fact that ruins are frequently divided into moieties, or halves (Cuzco is an example) leads Moseley to speculate that the Inca society may have been headed by two rulers … a fascinating but unprovable inference, which would throw totally new light on the fact that the Inca empire was undergoing civil war at the time of Pizarro's invasion.
Bottom line: Though I found this tome sporadically fascinating in my current quest to “know” the Inca, the detail gets to be too much of a muchness. Recommended mostly for Incaphiles.
Powerfully brought home by this book is the fact that in Andean civilization The Past, which until the electronic age it seems to me, erased itself pretty well, all by itself—was abetted to near perfection by the efforts of both Inca and Spanish, in their separate ways. The self-aggrandizing Inca (and here, I refer to the Inca elite mythologizing themselves into godhood) had much to do with this, engineering the mythic perception that the gods somehow created them mere generations before the Spanish and catastrophe. In a culture without writing the past can be easily abolished, and so it was—systematically—in the origin myths decreed by Cuzco … these mythologies largely believed, and transcribed, by the Spaniards. And although it is true that the astonishing expansion of the Inca (who built arguably the largest empire of their time) took place no more than four or five generations, their culture itself was an epiphenomenon built on the shoulders of past civilizations.
So, the Inca (i.e. the ruling Inca—wanting to spring, in a South American version of Athena, right from godhood) refashioned their origin and history. And the Spaniards, in their general blindness to all cultures not their own and their all consuming greed, were unthinking collaborators. Looting, breaking into temples and tombs, they melted everything precious that was meltable into ingots sent to fuel the religious wars of Charles V. At Cerro Blanco, capital of the Moche, where huge adobe platforms were built to elevate temples and bury the noble dead, the task of despoilment was so great that the Spaniards diverted a river to sluice through this monument in an huge, sad version of panning for gold. Succeeding centuries of looters perfected the Spaniards’ titanic task.
Massive as many of the ruins of these cultures are, very little remains to flesh out what led to the Inca Empire, and the Inca themselves. Some textiles. Some gold and silver artifacts not found and melted down. Much more pottery than that, much of it shards. And ruin after silent, violated ruin, some unbelievably huge, mostly stone (sometimes adobe), unable truly to divulge the fascination of the past…. The archeologist, and reader, is left with mere conjecture. For example, the fact that ruins are frequently divided into moieties, or halves (Cuzco is an example) leads Moseley to speculate that the Inca society may have been headed by two rulers … a fascinating but unprovable inference, which would throw totally new light on the fact that the Inca empire was undergoing civil war at the time of Pizarro's invasion.
Bottom line: Though I found this tome sporadically fascinating in my current quest to “know” the Inca, the detail gets to be too much of a muchness. Recommended mostly for Incaphiles.
September 5, 2017
Rapporto archeologico?
Tutto sommato, malgrado l'uso dei font a sproposito e l'impaginazione che in più di qualche caso mi fa aggrottare le sopracciglia, è un testo interessante. Sembra un resoconto archeologico. Spesso difficile da seguire se, a quelli come me, non interessa per niente conoscere il dettaglio del fatto in sé (gruppo X posizionato nel posto Y sulle Ande), e questo è il motivo per cui preferisco i lavori, al contrario, di un Fagan. Piacevolissimo comunque quando si dilunga nel riportare particolari delle società antiche.
Tutto sommato, malgrado l'uso dei font a sproposito e l'impaginazione che in più di qualche caso mi fa aggrottare le sopracciglia, è un testo interessante. Sembra un resoconto archeologico. Spesso difficile da seguire se, a quelli come me, non interessa per niente conoscere il dettaglio del fatto in sé (gruppo X posizionato nel posto Y sulle Ande), e questo è il motivo per cui preferisco i lavori, al contrario, di un Fagan. Piacevolissimo comunque quando si dilunga nel riportare particolari delle società antiche.
January 7, 2023
Ho letteralmente divorato questo libro... pur di togliermelo davanti agli occhi celermente e per sempre!
Senza nulla togliere alla civiltà Inca e a tutte le altre popolazioni andine protagoniste di questo tomo, io credo che un libro divulgativo non possa e non debba essere scritto così.
Capisco che, quando studi popolazioni che non conoscevano la scrittura, tutto ciò che ti rimane è interpretare il passato tramite rilevamenti archeologici di natura architettonica e geologica etc etc... Ma voi, cari Michael Moseley e Newton & Compton, non potete presentarmi questo come un libro che mi parla dell'Impero Inca e poi parlarne per 30 pagine su 300.
Per carità, capisco anche il fatto che bisogna parlare delle altre civiltà sottomesse all'impero e come e da dove queste si sono evolute, ma mi ammazzi il piacere della lettura se per ogni metro quadrato di territorio andino - e per ogni civiltà - tu mi ripeti esattamente le stesse informazioni. Cioè, posso sopportarlo per un po', ma se mi descrivi in successione edificio per edificio, mattone per mattone, tessuto per tessuto, raccolto per raccolto, patata per patata etc etc di OGNI essere vivente che abbia calcato quei suoli dal 10.000 A.C. al 1.500 ca D.C., forse non hai presente cosa voglia dire "sintesi", "leggibilità" e "piacere della lettura".
Se poi la Newton & Compton e il Mattino (questa è una serie uscita col Mattino di Napoli), quando hanno pensato di pubblicare libri sulla storia delle antiche civiltà, non avendo a disposizione nulla di meglio sugli Inca, hanno creduto opportuno infilarci dentro la prima cosa che parlasse di quel territorio, senza curarsi della leggibilità e senza rendersi conto che, magari, un simile testo non è da rivolgere al pubblico ma ai ricercatori di archeologia/architettura/storia dell'arte... allora è un altro paio di maniche. Anzi no! Ci vorrebbe più serietà, quando si cura un progetto simile.
Perché poi, tra l'altro, l'edizione contiene diversi errori di battitura e la spiacevole mancanza della "D" eufonica. Immagino che persino gli editor, data la pesantezza, non abbiano ritenuto opportuno leggerle ulteriormente il libro. Tra l'altro non è la prima volta che leggendo un libro di Newton & Compton non riscontro la presenza di ed - ad - od... evidentemente la D non gli piace.
E mi dispiace, che finito un libro sul grande impero di Tahuantinsuyu, come gli Inca chiamavano il loro stato ("Terra dei Quattro Cantoni"), l'unica cosa che io voglia comunicare al mondo sia la mia frustrazione.
Avrei voluto raccontare degli Inca, così come ho fatto, di altre civiltà (anche precolombiane)... Ma no. Leggetevelo, se ne avete il coraggio! XD
O, meglio, procuratevi un libro scritto meglio, su quest'argomento.
Senza nulla togliere alla civiltà Inca e a tutte le altre popolazioni andine protagoniste di questo tomo, io credo che un libro divulgativo non possa e non debba essere scritto così.
Capisco che, quando studi popolazioni che non conoscevano la scrittura, tutto ciò che ti rimane è interpretare il passato tramite rilevamenti archeologici di natura architettonica e geologica etc etc... Ma voi, cari Michael Moseley e Newton & Compton, non potete presentarmi questo come un libro che mi parla dell'Impero Inca e poi parlarne per 30 pagine su 300.
Per carità, capisco anche il fatto che bisogna parlare delle altre civiltà sottomesse all'impero e come e da dove queste si sono evolute, ma mi ammazzi il piacere della lettura se per ogni metro quadrato di territorio andino - e per ogni civiltà - tu mi ripeti esattamente le stesse informazioni. Cioè, posso sopportarlo per un po', ma se mi descrivi in successione edificio per edificio, mattone per mattone, tessuto per tessuto, raccolto per raccolto, patata per patata etc etc di OGNI essere vivente che abbia calcato quei suoli dal 10.000 A.C. al 1.500 ca D.C., forse non hai presente cosa voglia dire "sintesi", "leggibilità" e "piacere della lettura".
Se poi la Newton & Compton e il Mattino (questa è una serie uscita col Mattino di Napoli), quando hanno pensato di pubblicare libri sulla storia delle antiche civiltà, non avendo a disposizione nulla di meglio sugli Inca, hanno creduto opportuno infilarci dentro la prima cosa che parlasse di quel territorio, senza curarsi della leggibilità e senza rendersi conto che, magari, un simile testo non è da rivolgere al pubblico ma ai ricercatori di archeologia/architettura/storia dell'arte... allora è un altro paio di maniche. Anzi no! Ci vorrebbe più serietà, quando si cura un progetto simile.
Perché poi, tra l'altro, l'edizione contiene diversi errori di battitura e la spiacevole mancanza della "D" eufonica. Immagino che persino gli editor, data la pesantezza, non abbiano ritenuto opportuno leggerle ulteriormente il libro. Tra l'altro non è la prima volta che leggendo un libro di Newton & Compton non riscontro la presenza di ed - ad - od... evidentemente la D non gli piace.
E mi dispiace, che finito un libro sul grande impero di Tahuantinsuyu, come gli Inca chiamavano il loro stato ("Terra dei Quattro Cantoni"), l'unica cosa che io voglia comunicare al mondo sia la mia frustrazione.
Avrei voluto raccontare degli Inca, così come ho fatto, di altre civiltà (anche precolombiane)... Ma no. Leggetevelo, se ne avete il coraggio! XD
O, meglio, procuratevi un libro scritto meglio, su quest'argomento.
June 15, 2021
Mostly about pre-Inca societies, which is what I was hoping for!
April 20, 2008
Still hanging around my table. The title is misleading as there is little about the Incas, and, when all is said and done, little about the earlier populations/cultures that preceded it. I have to give it 4 stars for so little of this content is actually mainstream published. I have lived briefly in Peru and two of the first things I noted when there was the lack of bookstores and the lack of books in homes.
March 28, 2008
Textbook
April 8, 2008
General information about the Inca civilization. details about the geografic conditions, agriculrure tecniches and empier organization. explanation about their cosmology and religion.
July 28, 2011
It's very good.
March 15, 2012
Really interesting book. Great illustrations and pictures, and good for college-level learning. I would recommend.
August 23, 2016
Probably outdated by now, but extremely thorough synthesis of an amazing amount of material - clearly organized, engagingly described, and very informative.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews