Incan Artifacts

The Inca Empire existed in Peru. It ran along the Pacific coast and Andean highlands from the northern border of what is today called Ecuador to the Maule River in Chile. There were over a million people who were Inca.

The Ancient Inca built aquaducts, cities, temples, fortresses, tunnels, suspension bridges, and 2, 250 miles of roads. The Inca had a great understanding of mathematics and agriculture. They also knew about hydraulics, astronomy, architecture and military strategy.

They built huge and bizarre pyramids that still dominate the surrounding countryside; some well over a hundred feet tall. Many are so heavily eroded they look like natural hills; only close up can you see they are made up of millions of mud bricks.

Several of the pyramids, known as 'huacas', meaning sacred site in the local Indian dialect, contain rich collections of murals depicting both secular and sacred scenes from the Moche world. Others house the elaborate tombs of Moche leaders.

Inca Architecture

The archaeologist has not found any special artifact use as tool for construction. If you see the Inca architecture you will think they have use special tools to build them. But the only tools found are plumb-bobs, bubble levels, hammers, chisels, levers and other simple tools.

But nothing that could explain how they cut, polish, move and place with such perfection those huge stones. It's unbelievable how they could build such beautiful temples with such simple tools.

There were many Inca craftsmen in the Andes. They were expert architects who constructed stone walls. The artisans also made silver alpacas that show their great skills.

Inca Artifacts Pottery

The Inca craftsmen achieved a high degree of respect and honor because of their skills in arts and crafts. They sculpted pottery which featured geometric designs painted in black, red, brown, yellow, and white

Some Inca artifacts are still in use today, a good example will be the Inca vertical loom; it was use to make textiles. The Incas got their natural dyeing colors for the textiles from plants, insects and flowers. Most Peruvian artisans are still using the same colors today.

Inca Textiles

The Peruvian artisans use the Inca vertical loom to make Inca textiles only under request. It's because they need few days to do the job, plus they need a lot of material to make a textile; it's the reason of why they are so expensive. Inca weavers wove beautiful textiles from alpaca, llama, and vicuña wool and from cotton.

The Inca were very famous for their ideas of handling and working materials they used for public buildings. The Inca used stones that weighed many tons in the building. The stones were brought by labors from quarries using rollers, wedges, ropes, and inclined planes.