The famous Inca city of Machu Picchu was apparently built earlier than previously thought. So far, researchers have dated the construction of Machu Picchu, initiated by the Inca ruler Pachacuti, to the period around 1440 to 1450. New radiocarbon dating of the bones of some early inhabitants of the Inca city now suggest that Machu Picchu was already completed around 1420. The reports recorded by the Spanish conquerors are therefore less precise than previously assumed.
The Inca city of Machu Picchu is considered a miracle of human architecture and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983. The buildings, made of massive stone blocks that are almost seamlessly joined together, fit perfectly into the terrain of the almost inaccessible mountain ridge in the Peruvian Andes. Even the Spaniards initially overlooked this city, hidden at an altitude of 2,450 meters, when they conquered the region.
Discrepancies in the Inca chronology
When it came to dating the Inca city and its construction, archaeologists have so far primarily orientated themselves on the historical records of the Spanish conquerors, including above all the chronicle of Cabello de Balboa created in 1586. After this, Machu Picchu was one of the royal settlements of the Inca ruler Pachacuti. This seized power in 1438 and gradually conquered a large part of the central Andean region, including the Urubamba Valley, over which Machu Picchu lay. To cement his victory, Pachacuti is said to have commissioned the construction of the mountain settlement between 1440 and 1450.
In the meantime, however, the radiocarbon dates of some other Inca sites raise doubts about the chronological sequences established on the basis of Spanish traditions. For Machu Picchu, however, reliable dates have not yet been found. “The lack of such radiocarbon measurements was also related to the widespread opinion of many archaeologists that such analyzes were superfluous because the Spanish records made it possible to date Inca sites such as Machu Picchu,” explain Richard Burger of Yale University and his colleagues.
Machu Picchu was finished as early as 1420
To clarify the discrepancies, archaeologists have now used accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dating (AMS) to date the remains of 26 Incas buried in Machu Picchu. “The dead buried in the grave caves of Machu Picchu show few characteristics of hard physical labor such as agriculture or construction,” report Burger and his team. They therefore assume that these dead belonged to the palace servants who looked after the Inca rulers and the elites of Cuzco during their stay and who looked after the property in their absence. But that also means that these people probably only came to the mountain after the Inca city was completed.
The dates indicated that the dead had died and were buried between 1420 and 1530. According to the archaeologists, the palace of Machu Picchu must have been finished and inhabited as early as 1420. However, this contradicts the current chronicle of the Inca and the ruler Pachacuti: If he did not take power until 1438, he cannot have finished Machu Picchu by 1420. “Pachacuti’s accession to the throne and his conquests must therefore be brought forward at least two decades,” state Burger and his colleagues. “This also agrees with the conclusions of other Inca researchers based on radiocarbon dating from Cuzco.”
According to archaeologists, the Inca chronicle must therefore be corrected, at least in this respect. “Our results indicate that the view of the development of the Inca empire, which was previously based primarily on colonial records, needs to be revised,” says Burger. “Modern radiocarbon methods provide a better basis than historical reports to understand the chronology of the Incas.”
Source: Yale University; Professional article: Antiquity, doi: 10.15184 / aqy.2021.99