The ceque system of Cusco, the ancient capital of the Inca empire, was perhaps the most complex indigenous ritual system in the pre-Columbian Americas. From a center known as the Coricancha (Golden Enclosure) or the Temple of the Sun, a system of 328 huacas (shrines) arranged along 42 ceques (lines) radiated out toward the mountains surrounding the city. This elaborate network, maintained by ayllus (kin groups) that made offerings to the shrines in their area, organized the city both temporally and spiritually.

From 1990 to 1995, Brian Bauer directed a major project to document the ceque system of Cusco. In this book, he synthesizes extensive archaeological survey work with archival research into the Inca social groups of the Cusco region, their land holdings, and the positions of the shrines to offer a comprehensive, empirical description of the ceque system. Moving well beyond previous interpretations, Bauer constructs a convincing model of the system's physical form and its relation to the social, political, and territorial organization of Cusco.

• List of Illustrations and Tables
• Preface
• 1. Introduction
  • The Shrines and Ceques of Cusco
  • The Organization of Cusco and the Ceque System
  • Studies of the Cusco Ceque System
• 2. The Original Ceque System Manuscript
  • The Date of the Original Ceque System Manuscript
  • Sixteenth-Century Writings on the Cusco Ceque System
• 3. Huacas
  • The Huacas of the Cusco Ceque System
  • Identifying Huacas: A Research Method
• 4. The Social Organization of Cusco and Its Ceque System
  • Collana, Payan, Cayao
  • Kings, Ayllus, and Ceques
• 5. The Huacas and Ceques of Chinchaysuyu
• 6. The Huacas and Ceques of Antisuyu
• 7. The Huacas and Ceques of Collasuyu
• 8. The Huacas and Ceques of Cuntisuyu
• 9. Albornoz and the Cusco Ceque System
  • Albornoz and the Huacas of Chinchaysuyu
• 10. Systems of Huacas and Ceques: Past and Present
  • Evidence of Other Inca Ceques
  • Possible Evidence of Pre-Inca Ceques: The Nazca Lines
  • Modern Ritual Lines in the Andes
• 11. An Overview of the Cusco Ceque System
• Appendix 1: Rowe’s (1980) and Zuidema’s (1964) Numbering Systems for the Cusco Ceque System
• Appendix 2: Account of the shrines of Cuzco (Bernabé Cobo, Historia del Nuevo Mundo, ms. 1653, Book Thirteen, Chapters 13–16). English translation by John H. Rowe
• Appendix 3: Suggested Glosses of Huaca Names by Margot Beyersdorff
• Notes
• Glossary of Aymara, English, Spanish, and Quechua Terms
• Bibliography
• Archival Sources
• Printed Sources
• General Index
• Index of Huaca Names
• Index of Ceques