Ancient Inca Timeline

Table of Contents

Activities marked with an * can be used with one of the transparencies at the back of the book.

Transparency Guide ...... ii–vi Introduction ...... 1 Central Andean Timeline ...... 2 Ancient Inca Timeline ...... 3 Activities * The First “Americans” ...... 4 * Ancient Inca Map ...... 5 Potatoes, Corn, Guinea Pigs, & Worms ...... 6 * The Living Dead ...... 7 * Mummy Venn Diagram ...... 8 The Great “Earthshaker” ...... 9 Before the Incas ...... 10 Before the Incas, II ...... 11 Inca Origins ...... 12 * Khipu ...... 13 *Make Your Own Khipu ...... 14 Speaking Quechua ...... 15 * Roads & Tambos ...... 16 * Land of the Four Quarters ...... 17 * The Navel of the World ...... 18 Imagining Ancient Cuzco ...... 19 How They Looked & Dressed ...... 20 Inca Fashion in Context ...... 21 * Inca Warriors ...... 22 * Bridging the Empire ...... 23 * Machu Picchu ...... 24 * Inca Weaving ...... 25 *Make Your Own Backstrap Loom ...... 26 * Llamas & Alpacas ...... 27 * Chasqui: Mountain Messengers ...... 28 *Terrace Farming ...... 29 Human Sacrifice ...... 30 Who Am I? ...... 31 Daily Life ...... 32 Atahualpa & Pizarro ...... 33 Incas Today/Review ...... 34 Then & Now ...... 35 Inca Projects ...... 36 Learn More About Incas ...... 37 Answer Key ...... 38 Transparencies ...... 1–8

Archaeologists divide pre-Columbian South America into “horizons” alternating with periods called “intermediate.”

“Horizons” are defined by one or two widely occurring artistic styles—suggesting cultural unity over a broad area. “Intermediate” periods feature cultural variety; styles of art are confined within small tribal areas.

PRECERAMIC PERIOD(?–1800 B.C.) Various local cultures.

INITIAL PERIOD (1800 B.C.–900 B.C) Shift from nomadic to more settled life. The beginning of villages, agriculture, pottery, and textile-making.

EARLY HORIZON (900 B.C.–200 B.C) Architectural advances. Chavin and Paracas cultures dominate.

EARLY INTERMEDIATE (200 B.C.–600 A.D.) A time of regional styles. Moche and Nazca cultures dominate.

MIDDLE HORIZON (500–1000 A.D.) Tiahuanaco and Huari cultures dominate.

LATE INTERMEDIATE (1000–1438 A.D.) Another period of regional styles.Chimu and Chancay cultures dominate.

LATE HORIZON (1438–1532 A.D.) The rise of the Incas.

AD 1400s The Incas living around Cuzco defeat some neighboring peoples and ally themselves with others.

AD 1438 Incas defeat the rival Chanca tribe to the north.

AD 1438–1463 King Pachacuti expands the empire through conquest.

AD 1450 The Incas build Machu Picchu.

AD 1463 King Pachacuti makes his son, Topa Inca, chief of the Inca army. Under Topa’s leadership, the Inca army extends the empire all the way to present-day Quito, Ecuador.

AD 1471 Topa Inca becomes king. During his 22-year reign, the empire expands to the south extending it’s boundaries to south-central Chile, large parts of modern Bolivia, northwest Argentina, and the southern coast of Peru.

AD 1493 Huayna Capac becomes king. Over the next two decades, he expands the empire slightly, acquiring land around the Ecuadorian-Columbian border as well as a portion of eastern Peru. Under his reign, the empire reaches its fullest extent.

AD 1525 Huayna Capac dies unexpectedly without having named an heir. Two of Huayna Capac’s sons—Huascar and Atahualpa—fight for the throne plunging the Incas into civil war.

AD 1532 Atahualpa defeats his brother and becomes king. Francisco Pizarro lands a small band of horses and men on the north coast of the Inca Empire. They travel inland, kidnap Atahualpa, and hold him for ransom. Once they acquire a room full of gold and two of silver, the Spanish strangle Atahualpa. A puppet king is installed.

AD 1537 Incas rebel against Spanish rule The timeline on the previous page places and burn their former capital city, the Incas in the larger cultural and historical Cuzco, to the ground. context of the Central Andes region. The Incas appeared suddenly in the Valley of AD 1541 Rivalry among the Spanish leads to Cuzco in the early 1200s and from the the assassination of Pizarro by one early 1400s on were the dominant culture of his countrymen. of western South America for 100 years before the arrival of the Spanish. They AD 1572 The last Inca puppet ruler, Tupac were the last of the great pre-Conquest Amaru, is executed. civilizations of the Americas—to include the Maya, and the Aztecs of Mesoamerica.

For thousands of years before the arrival of Spanish explorers in the 16th century, the Americas were inhabited by innovative peoples who migrated from Asia via Berengia—a stretch of land 1,000 miles wide and 60 miles long that once stood above sea level connecting Siberia with Alaska. These first immigrants were nomadic hunters who drifted east and south from Berengia in search of edible plants and large prey such as wooly mammoths, yaks, and antelope. Coming in waves over millennia between 30,000 and 12,000 years ago—some in small carved wooden boats and vessels made of animal skin, and some on foot—these first Americans spread throughout the Americas from Canada in the north all the way to the southern tip of what is now South America. Charred mastodon bones, fire pits, stone tools, and digging sticks discovered in the pine forests of Monte Verde, Chile suggest human settlement in the area of the future Inca empire around 13,000 B. C. Many miles north and thousands of years later, between A.D. 1150 and 1250, a small tribe of farmers moved into the area of Cuzco in present-day central Peru. It is not understood where they came from. This obscure mountain tribe spoke a language called Quechua and called their leader Sapa Inca, meaning “the only lord.” By A.D. 1400, the Incas began to dominate surrounding peoples. In less than 100 years (by the time of Columbus), they ruled the largest empire in the western world. 1. Using an atlas and as much paper as you need, trace the outline of the present-day countries involved in the early migration of the first Americans. Use arrows to show how they might have traveled from Siberia to Berengia to the Americas. As “Berengia” is now under water, what name is in its place? How else might early peoples have come to the Americas? 2. Using the map on page 5, do the following: a. Outline the boundaries of the Inca Empire in red. b. Shade the earliest Inca homeland—the area around Cuzco—in green. c. Label the large body of water that touches the land occupied by the Ancient Incas? 3. What were ancestors of the Incas seeking when they left Asia for the Americas?

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4. Incas may share the same ancestors as the Native Americans who enjoyed a Thanksgiving feast with the Pilgrims at Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621. Using another sheet of paper, explain.

5. Using the Internet or other resource, find out what ”pre-Columbian” means. Write the definition below:

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