Assignment 3A

Pre-Colombian refers to the period of time prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus and the subsequent influx of European influence into Latin America and the Caribbean.

The topic I chose was the Incan Empire and the video I viewed was about Machu Picchu.
The reason I chose this topic is because my wife is Peruvian and was born there. In fact we just had some of her family visit us last week. We plan to go visit them within the next eighteen months. Here are some interesting facts I found out about this ancient culture:

The Incan Empire was the largest pre-Columbian America Empire. It dominated much of Western South America stretching from the Andean Mountain Range, east – to as far north as Southern Columbia and as far south as Northern Chile. Much of these conquest where completed by Pachacuti who was essentially a commander within the empire and after his death, his son Tupac continued the domination and expansion within the region.

The Lost City of the Incas, also known as Machu Picchu is not only one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, but it is widely accepted that this site served as a retreat to the Inca emperor, Pachacuti. The city was abandoned less than 100 years after being built due to the invasion of the Spanish army. Surprisingly that although the site was relatively close the Cusco, the capital city of the empire, the Spanish never found the site and consequently it lay left alone for centuries.


The Incas were considered to be among the most accomplished stone masons. The architecture of Machu Picchu uses a technique called Ashlar. The technique is amazing in that large stones are cut so precisely that when they fit together, there is no need for mortar to seal any cracks.

References:
http://www.machupicchu.com/History.htm

http://www.sacredland.org/world_sites_pages/M_Picchu.html

http://opa.yale.edu/opa/mpi/History-of-Machu-Picchu-Collections.pdf

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761560004/inca_empire.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inca_Empire


The reason I consider these references to be reliable is because much of the information I read I cross referenced to out resources and found them to be consistent. The only questionable item that did come up was that there was some debate over whether archaeologist considered Machu Picchu to be a retreat or a defense fortress. Based on historical events, most historians and archaeologist agree that it was a retreat for the emperor.