ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK OF

PIKILLAQTA

A partial view of the archaeological site Pikillaqta.

The archaeological complex of Pikillaqta is an archaeological site consisting of
the remains of an ancient Peruvian, pre-Incan city. It is located in the district of
Lucre, Quispicanchi province, in the department of Cusco. It is situated about 30
km south east of the city of Cusco at 3,250 metres above sea level. Located in the
Lucre river basin, Pikillaqta covers an area of approximately 50 hectares.
It was one of the most important administrative centres for the Wari (or Huari)
culture, between the VI and IX centuries, and represents the excellence of Wari
urban planning. Some experts argue that the site remained in force until the time of
the Incas, but these theories have not been corroborated.
Etymology of the name
Pikillaqta is a compound Quechua word: piki, chigger (kind of flea), and llaqta,
town. That translates to "town of fleas", but piki in Quechua, speaking
metaphorically, alludes to something tiny, therefore it could mean "town of fleas" or
"small town".
Archaeological studies
The first person to make a detailed plan of Pikillaqta was Luis A. Pardo in 1937. In
1959 Emilio Harth-Terr conducted a surface survey of the site which he
considered to be Inca in origin; its role would have been a huge storage centre as
part of the administrative workings of the Inca Empire.

John Rowe was the first to point out the Wari affiliation of the enclosure, based on
the architectural similarities with the city of Wari (Huari) in Ayacucho. Further
studies, such as those of William Sanders (1960) and Gordon F. McEwan (1980),
leave no doubt concerning a dense human occupation on the site during the period
of the Middle Horizon. The findings of turquoise figurines (25-45 mm) that
unmistakably represent the Tiahuanaco - Wari style as well as pottery from the
same culture, further corroborate the origin of Pikillaqta as Wari.
Chronology
The site was constructed in the late decades of the VI century and ceased
functioning around the IX century, during the beginning of the collapse of the Wari
Empire. However, the occupation was intense, and uninterrupted for about 150
years.
Architectural remains

View of one sector of Pikillaqta.

The remains of Pikillaqta give the impression that the city was urbanistically well
planned, conforming to the classic Wari design with a very harmonious and almost
perfect geometrical plan. They include the basic rectangular and square shapes of
buildings, courts and squares. The buildings are constructed of uncut stone and
clay mortar, separated by straight streets and surrounded by walls up to 12M high,
which made the site look like fortification sets. In total the site includes some 700
buildings, 200 courts and 508 storage rooms or qolcas (which some consider
housing) among other structures.
In some sectors the walls are covered with plaster. There is also evidence that
many buildings were two or three stories (floors). All this gives the impression that
its inhabitants were in many aspects a very well developed culture. It is estimated
that Pikillaqta housed a population of ten thousand people.
There stands a walled area on the North West side of the site with 508 nearly
identical circular enclosures, each about 4M and with a single access. These are

assumed to have been storage rooms or qolcas, although another hypothesis

(MacEwan) suggests that they were housing for military garrisons or temporary
workers.
Wari administrative centre

View of one of the streets of Pikillaqta.

Like other administrative centres of the Wari, Pikillaqta is situated at a key point
within the Wari Empire. Pikillaqta had a double function, one, as a ceremonial
centre, and secondly, as a residence for rulers, priests and workers of various
specialist services.
Pikillaqta, along with Choquepuquio, which is in the same area of Cusco, was
probably the southern administrative centre of the Wari occupation in the Central
Andes of Peru. In a South-Easterly direction, and less than 2km from the centre of
Pikillaqta is the Rumicolca aqueduct, which is also of Wari origin, but later, in Inca
times, the aqueduct was altered and the site was modified with carved and
polished stones.
Pikillaqta was constructed in a strategic place that controlled three valleys: South
lies the upper Vilcanota valley, in the North-East lays the lower middle Vilcanota
valley, and to the North-West lays the valley of Quispicanchis. The latter two
territories were producers of corn.
In Pikillaqta they would have stored agricultural produce for redistribution, possibly
similar to that implemented in the Inca Empire. Indeed, it is not wrong to say that
the Incas adopted models and structures from the Wari, if you consider that the
Andean civilization was a single unit, with minor changes throughout its three
continuous millennia of development.

CONCLUSIONS
Pikillaqta, as part of the Wari nation, provides important information that is
necessary to decrypt data like the reasons for its shape, the functions that each
sector harboured, the technology that worked, and the social and political patterns
defining the forms and urban contexts.
The distribution of enclosures, the hierarchical positioning and size of spaces with
respect to each other, and the apparent zoning of areas and enclosures suggest
specialized functions that reveal urban planning following pre-established norms
and standards regulated within the Wari culture.
Targeted archaeological works provide specific information that is necessary to
interrelate with macro-level data for a comprehensive approach to understanding
the cultural set, taking into account Wari interrelationships with both the natural and
cultural surrounding area and within their infrastructure.