Books on the Ancient Incas

The Sacred Landscape of the Inca is a large-format book and an examination of the complexities of the Cusco ceque system, the highly geometrical ordering system by which the Inca structured their social, economic, and religious lives.

Narrative Threads is a terrific collection of articles edited by Jeffrey Quilter and Gary Urton on translating the ancient Inka communication system called the quipu.

Mummies and Mortuary Monuments, by William Isbell, investigates the origins of the Inca social and political system called the ayllu.

Reading Inca History by Catherine Julien takes an unusual run at addressing the issue of the historical Inca, examining the reports from 16th and 17th Spanish narratives with an eye toward finding the hidden similarities in the texts, to ascertain their reliability and squeeze out what may just be a representation of the Inca way of life.