The Inka Empire and Its Andean Origins [Hardcover]

Craig Morris (Author), Adriana Von Hagen (Author), John Bigelow Taylor (Photographer), American Museum of Natural History (Collaborator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1993

Sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History, this illustrated history of the Inkas and their predecessors offers a fresh appraisal of a remarkable civilization. Based on recent archaeological studies, this story of the Andean people traces the development of their complex civilization from its beginnings 11,000 years ago to its culmination - the vast and powerful Inka Empire - in the 16th century. The book describes and illustrates their agricultural methods, social organization, political structure, religious beliefs, ceremonial practices, technologies and artistic expression. Their achievements include intricate weaving techniques; gold, ceramic and metalwork of stunning originality; the construction of monumental buildings at the same time as the pyramids were being built in Egypt; and early empires that rival those of the Old World in size and scope. The objects used to illustrate this volume have been photographed in the Museum of Natural History's Hall of South American Peoples, which houses the largest collection of Andean objects of any museum in the United States. Supplementing these pictures are panoramas of the spectacular and diverse land inhabited by the Inkas and the equally remarkable civilizations that preceded them.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Centered in Peru but stretching from Ecuador to Chile, the Inka (or Inca) empire, destroyed by Spaniards in 1533, was the culmination of many indigenous civilizations. This enjoyable, stunningly illustrated survey investigates those cultures, beginning with the earliest peoples believed to have crossed the land bridge over the Bering Strait 11,000 years ago. The Chinchorro people of Chile mummified their dead using techniques contemporary with ancient Egypt's similar burials. The coastal Moche built large adobe pyramids, road networks and complex irrigation systems. The Nazca invented underground aqueducts and made vast drawings of animals and geometric shapes criss-crossing the desert. Featuring 200 illustrations of extraordinary objects from Manhattan's Museum of Natural History, this chronicle explains how the Inka absorbed a set of symbols from many earlier Andean cultures and incorporated them in ceramics, architecture, textiles, metalwork and dance. Morris is a curator at the Museum, von Hagan a freelance journalist.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This work embraces a period of some 11,000 years, ranging from the ancient cultures of the Andean peoples to the zenith of Incan civilization in the 16th century, before its subsequent, rapid demise at the hands of the Spaniards. The objects chosen to illustrate the volume (ceramics, fabric, and metalwork tend to dominate) were provided by the American Museum of Natural History, and the color photography is splendid. Presenting up-to-date archaeological and anthropological scholarship, the text offers a detailed and thoroughly readable account, which, complemented by the rich illustrative work, makes for an attractive book. Highly recommended for collections emphasizing archaeology, anthropology, and Latin American studies.
- Charles E. Perry, East Central Univ., Ada, Okla.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 252 pages
• Publisher: Abbeville Pr; 1st edition (October 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558595562
• ISBN-13: 978-1558595569
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 10.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,236,648 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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