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The Inca Bridges in the Huánuco Region

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Donald E. Thompson
Affiliation:
Institute Of Andean Research, Huanuco, Peru
John V. Murra
Affiliation:
Institute Of Andean Research, Huanuco, Peru

Abstract

Ethnohistorical, archaeological, and ethnological data are combined in a discussion of Inca bridges in the Huanuco area. A colonial document provides the details of how a major bridge on the Inca highway was constructed by placing a series of logs over projecting canes. The division of labor in providing the logs was described as being divided among neighboring communities, with the river itself as a significant dividing line. The section of the Inca highway in question is still in use today and the bridge still exists, apparently much the same as it was in the Colonial Period and probably in the Inca Period. Other bridges in the area are discussed from the point of view of function and maintenance and as an example of the persistence of an ancient tradition of bridge building.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1966

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