A compositional analysis of pottery vessels associated with the Inca ritual of capacocha

Abstract

One of the most momentous of Inca state ceremonies was known as the capacocha. Through the sacrifice of both precious objects and select children, the capacocha served to link the capital of Cuzco to its far-flung hinterlands and the empire itself to the deities that sanctioned it. While ethnohistoric sources offer some insight into the capacocha ritual, the information is sketchy. The present study furthers our understanding of the capacocha ritual through the use of archaeological data. The compositional analysis of a sample of ceramic vessels recovered from several different capacocha burial sites around the Inca empire was conducted using instrumental neutron activation. These data are compared to results of paste analysis performed on Inca pottery from Cuzco and other parts of the empire. The results of this comparative study offer insights into the origins, movement, and connections of the children who were sacrificed in this key state ceremony. These data, in turn, help us more clearly understand the role of this important state ritual as it figured in strategies of imperial Inca statecraft.