Inca Mapocho

Abstract

An old discussion which started in the late 70`s is retaken regarding the Tawantinsuyu occupation in the MapochoValley and the characteristics it may have had, which vary from an ethno historical perspective that visualizes the area with serious structural voids regarding the introduced political organization, thus a weak, incomplete and late domination, to a more archeological vision that acknowledges the presence of the majority of the classic Inca institutions and the existence of a main administrative center. The debate continues, in very similar terms, but an early historical reference to the existence of a "big tambo which is next to the square of this city" is added to the discussion, the problem lies in determining if this building was constructed by the Inca contingent or the Spanish.

The current investigation aims to, from an interdisciplinary point of view, systematize the archeological, ethno historical, historical and sacred geography evidence and incorporate new information, with the objective of enriching the discussion and responding in a more documented way to the questions mentioned earlier. It is concluded that an urban center of Tawantinsuyu may have existed, under the old quarter of the city of Santiago, from which inca pathways came out in different directions and whose subsistence base was the hidro-agriculture and the gold and silver mining. It`s believed that the infrastructure of this building would have been used by Pedro de Valdivia to found the city of Santiago, in the beginning of 1540.