Architecture there reflects Inca architecture, signified by smoothed 'pillowed face' sandstone walls, double and trible jambs, and body-sized niches. The structures include an enclosed plaza, and a line of rectangular rooms, perhaps administrative in function. A concentration of grinding stones was identified near where archaeologists believe the processing and storage of chicha corn beer was established.
Two other Inca installations are located near the main complex, El Pedregal and Inkarry Moqo. Ceramic vessels discovered in the ruins of these sites indicate that only a small percentage of Inca-style pottery was shipped from Cuzco, and most made at the site. However, the local Yampara people did not use Inca ceramics at all, and a mixed format pottery was not much of a success either.
Yampara elite households apparently held onto the elite status throughout the Inca occupation, and many elite Inca elite goods--such as copper bells and shell ornaments--have been found there.
Excavations at Oroncota have been conducted by the University of Pittsburgh.
Sources
Alconini, Sonia in press Dis-embedded centers and architecture of power in the fringes of the Inka empire: New perspectives on territorial and hegemonic strategies of domination. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology in press.
This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.
