Archaeology Magazine - November/December 1984 - 36

tance were entrusted only to their own lineage. They
were aided by Indians from Atacama and Thema
as guides (from whom, as we have said, they had news
of the kingdom of Chile). At every two leagues
[ten kilometers] they sent messages of what they
discovered, because such was necessary for them
to be provisioned.The discoverers went with precaution and it was great and difficult work in those
deserts. They left signs where they passed so as not
to lose the road when they returned and so those
who followed knew where they went. Thus they went,
going and coming like ants, bringing messages of
discovery and carrying the needed supplies. With
this diligent work they penetrated the 80 leagues of
unpopulated zone between [San Pedro de] Atacama
and Copayapu [Copiapo] which is a small but well
"
populated province. . . .
Garcilaso de la Vega's account suggests that the
building of the Inca road was a major state enterprise, and that an archaeological survey of it might
locate numerous sites and a well-marked route. The
expedition found precisely that.
One of the major successes of the expedition was
the creation of a map (see page 37 ) of all the explored
Inca road- amounting to a total of 108 kilometers.
The road is indicated by a single line. Sites on the
road are represented by circles. A broken line
identifies short sections of the road that were never
surveyed because the vehicles were required to detour areas of extensive volcanic stone, steep inclines,
or very broken terrain.
Thirteen archaeological sites are indicated on
the map. There is evidence that these sites were built
and/or used by the Inca Empire. The expedition
found other sites which are small (one to four subcircular structures) and could not be dated explicitly
by their architecture or surface artifacts. These
sites are not shown on the map, but are all located
between sites MR and HB.
The Inca road studied by the expedition passed
through three oases: Peine, Tilomonte and Puquios.
A small human population (shown by black circles)
lives at the Peine and Tilomonte oases. Puquios, with
very little water, is abandoned. Of all the archaeological sites discovered, none has a water source
except for the Peine tampu and the Puquios site.
The Inca road has a different appearance in
different locations. In general the road is identified
as a set of nearly parallel footpaths which have a
combined width varying from five to 20 meters. These
paths may be firmly or faintly etched in the sandy
or rocky desert surface. In certain places the route is
only barely discernible. The road's present appearance as a set of paths probably does not reflect its
original physical condition. In a number of places
the road can be observed in its pristine state. It consists of a three-meter- wide route cleared of stones.
The three-meter construction can be observed for
small lengths along the entire route. In most places
its fragile form has been destroyed by foot travelers
who have traversed the road since the fall of the Inca
Empire when the maintenance of the road ceased.
Since then, the Conquest expeditions of Almagro and
Valdivia and other travelers of the early Spanish
Colonial period have passed over the road; their feet
and hooves have destroyed the original three-meter
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archaeology

route, leaving the set of nearly parallel footpaths.
One unique aspect of the road is the frequent
presence of stone piles on one or both sides. The stone
piles, often found in pairs, are usually separated
by about 20 meters with the road passing between
them. It is probable that they are the "signs"
mentioned by Garcilaso de la Vega. These signs were
"left where they passed so as not to lose the road
when they returned and so those who followed knew
where they went." Generally the stone piles are
heaps about half a meter high and a meter wide. In
a few places the piles were found to be meter-high
round "columns," probably their original form before
most of them collapsed into simple piles.
In general the Inca road is a relatively straight
construction, with minor curves of up to five or ten
degrees to avoid particularly high or low points. It
is apparent that a major tactic of the road engineering was to connect oases, without which no travelers could have survived. For this reason the Inca
road chose to cross the high Atacama near mountains and volcanos where there are oases that derive
their water from the snowy peaks. The lower region
of the Atacama near the Pacific coast has no such
oases and was therefore unattractive. The Inca road
changes direction at the Tilomonte oasis from a
north-south to a northeast-southwest
trajectory.
This direction change orients the southern part
of the road toward the Copiapó Valley more than 300
kilometers farther south. The road does not assume a northeast-southwest
direction farther north
(though that would have been a more direct trajectory
from San Pedro de Atacama across the desert to
Copiapo) because this would have required passing
over the Atacama Salt Field wasteland and avoiding the oases to its east.

The Atacama Desert expedition mapped, photographed and noted the location of numerous sites
along the route. At several it was possible to make
collections of surface artifacts. The sites fall into
two distinct categories which are defined on the basis
of the construction of their walls: 1 ) Sub-rectangular
sites- sites with rectangular or nearly rectangular
structures, with walls 50 to 80 centimeters in width,
composed of double rows of stones. 2) Sub-circular
sites- sites with circular, semi-circular or commashaped structures never more than four meters in diameter. The walls are formed of a single row of
stones.
The category of sub-rectangular sites is easily
separated into two subdivisions: tampu , or Inca roadside lodgings and storage areas of several rectangular rooms, and single structure units which could have
been used by chaski, Inca state messenger-runners.
The expedition discovered two (possibly three)
tampu . They are the Peine tampu, the Meteorite
tampu and possibly the Puquios Site. The Puquios
Site has been almost completely destroyed, and the
architectural remains do not confirm that it was
a tampu . Early written sources about the Inca Empire
describe the Inca roads as being lined with roadside lodgings and storage areas which were separated

Archaeology Magazine - November/December 1984

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - November/December 1984