These comparisons indicate production and consumption patterns similar to some of those laid out through chronicle and archival documents in the early Colonial period (16th to 17th c. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of artifacts provided a database for assessing production and consumption by household and as a site on the whole. Through horizontal excavation of six laborer households, a storehouse, and pottery workshop, I analyzed domestic economy and production to reconstruct the royal estate economy and its relation to the larger imperial political economy. Research on estate labor and administration was conducted via archaeological excavation at the site of Cheqoq in Maras, Cuzco, Peru and contextualized within recent regional studies. While previous archaeological, ethnohistorical, and architectural investigations of the estate have limited their approaches to just the palace complex and monumental sites, this project takes a new perspective by examining a production enclave and retainer settlement located seven kilometers from the nearest palace complex. This evaluation is contextualized by a wealth of recent regional survey and archival research. In order to assess the role of the royal estate within the Inka political economy, this dissertation evaluates two aspects of the estate: 1) the organization of production of subsistence and craft goods on estate lands and 2) the domestic economies of non-elite laborers and intermediate elite administrators living on the estate.

Such an undertaking is vital to modeling the role of factionalism in imperial development and consolidation, especially in empires where noble economies claimed significant portions of resources and labor. While Inka researchers enjoy a vast historical background relevant to these processes, archaeologists have not yet sought the material evidence for the royal estate economy’s operation and organization.

Noble factions built palaces, intensified agricultural resources, and re-settled provincial and local populations as estate retainers. CE) and transformed much of their heartland region into productive royal estates.

The Inkas developed the largest native empire in the Americas (ca.

Ornate baths forge of empires