Southeast Inka Frontiers

“An important contribution to the study of ancient empires and processes of imperial expansion through an in-depth study of the southeastern Inka frontier in current-day Bolivia.”—Elizabeth N. Arkush, author of Hillforts of the Ancient Andes: Colla Warfare, Society, and Landscape

Imperial frontiers are a fascinating stage for studying the interactions of people, institutions, and their environments. In one of the first books to explore the Inka frontier through archaeology, Sonia Alconini examines part of present-day Bolivia that was once a territory at the edge of the Inka empire. Along this frontier, one of the New World’s most powerful polities came into repeated conflict with tropical lowland groups that it could never subject to its rule.

Using extensive field research, Alconini explores the multifaceted socioeconomic processes that transpired in the frontier region. Her unprecedented study shows how the Inka empire exercised control over vast expanses of land and peoples in a territory located hundreds of miles away from the capital city of Cusco, and how people on the frontier navigated the cultural and environmental divide that separated the Andes and the Amazon.