History, Calendar and Skylore of the Incas at the Time of the Spanish Conquest

This book provides a significantly expanded translation of the author's Pachap vnancha: El calendario metropolitano del Estado Inca, this book is the culmination of several decades of research on Andean calendar-astronomical systems and their role in the ceremonial, economic and political aspects of the region's pre-Hispanic societies. The study presents a reconstruction of the state calendar used in Inca Tahuantinsuyu for purposes of programming, coordination and control of various social activities on an imperial scale. It focuses on the technical and chronological aspects of the Inca metropolitan calendar and attempts to correlate it with the Julian calendar in the final period of the Inca State, between 1500 and 1572 AD. This reconstruction may allow for a more precise investigation of the cyclical activities of Tahuantinsuyu society and outline a scheme of temporal references for works on the history of the Inca State. Online supplementary resources will convert dates between Julian and Inca calendars.