Quillcas in the historic sanctuary-national archaeological park of Machu Picchu: A new line of evidence for the earliest occupancy of the middle Vilcanota Basin

López G.-T.E.; Bastante J.M. · Machu Picchu in Context: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Human Past (2022) · DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-92766-0_14

Resumen

The article examines a set of petroglyphs, which were identified in the Middle basin of the Vilcanota river in the area of the Historic Sanctuary-Machupicchu National Archaeological Park (SHM-PANM). It is argued that, due to their technomorphological characteristics, these quilcas make up a defined artifactual and diagnostic group of evidence for the SHM-PANM archaeology. Based on this consideration, the authors establish that these artifacts form part of the cultural assemblage of the earliest occupation of the area, related to the Marcavalle civilization. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022. All rights reserved.