Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Articulating Local and State Authority in the Early Inka State

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Under the supervision of Dr. Alan L. Kolata, Steven Kosiba will analyze data collected during his excavations at Wat'a, a pre-Inka fortified settlement that the Inkas conquered and reorganized during the initial process of state formation in the Cusco area, Peru. Macrobotanical and faunal analysis will be combined with radiocarbon dates in order to investigate how changes in food consumption, processing, and storage underwrote new status distinctions and institutionalized practices of political authority as Wat'a was incorporated into the nascent Inka state. The laboratory analysis will be conducted by both Kosiba and Victor Vasquez Sanchez (Universidad Autonoma de Madrid) in the Centro de Investigaciones Arqueobiologicas y Paleoecologicas Andinas, Trujillo, Peru. Located approximately 40km from the Inka capital of Cusco, Wat'a is a large fortified and nucleated pre-Inka settlement. Kosiba's archaeological investigations at Wat'a have demonstrated that it was occupied for approximately 1000 years prior to its architectectural and institutional reorganization during the Inka period, thereby suggesting that Wat'a was an important local space for the articulation of old and new forms of political practice. This research will investigate institutional transformations in domestic and ceremonial food consumption at Wat'a by analyzing excavated macrobotanical and faunal remains from institutional (storage areas, open plazas) and household structures, from both Late Intermediate (LIP, ca. 1000 -1400AD) and Inka Period (ca. 1400-1532AD) contexts. In particular, the project examines the development of Inka period institutionalized feasting by investigating links between pre-Inka and Inka consumption practices at an important political center located within the Inka heartland. Research focusing on feasting activities is important because it investigates how, within prehistoric non-market societies, collective labor was mobilized and authority was constituted through the politicization and institutionalization of everyday practices, such as food consumption. Currently, the institutional organization of Cusco area pre-Inka polities is poorly documented. Yet, Inka transformations of local settlements can only be understood in comparison to the prior organizational structure. In this way, the intellectual merit of the research is its contribution to theories concerned with Inka state formation, and more generally, archaeological accounts of how states establish their authority, mobilize labor, and produce political subjects by selectively transforming and preserving local places and institutional practices. The broader impact of this research will be realized through its integration of research and education, as well as its commitment to the professional training of participating researchers. Results will be presented to a Peruvian and international audience through their inclusion in a new exhibit to be constructed at the CATCCO (Centro Andino de Tecnologia Tradicional y Cultural de las Comunidades de Ollantaytambo) museum in Ollantaytambo, Cusco, Peru. Data will also be made public through inclusion in a website detailing the project's findings in both English and Spanish. Moreover, the research will greatly contribute to Kosiba's doctoral dissertation, allow for the further professional training of Kosiba, and train Peruvian university students in specialized analytical techniques. In this way, the analysis will provide a unique opportunity to strengthen intellectual and cultural partnerships between archaeologists and institutions from Peru and the United States.