Killke culture

Killke Culture
900 AD–1200 AD
StatusCivilization
Historical eraLate Intermediate Period
• Established
900 AD
• Disestablished
1200 AD

The Killke culture occupied the South American region around Cusco, Peru, from 900 to 1200 AD, prior to the development of Incan culture in the 13th century.[1]

Killke culture flourished in highland Peru in the Late Intermediate Period around what is now Cusco. Archaeologist Oscar Rodriguez suggests that the Killke built small sections of the fortress Saksaywaman during the 12th century, prior to the Incan expansion of the site.[2]

In 2007, excavations uncovered a temple on the edge of the fortress, indicating religious as well as military use of the site.[3]

John H. Rowe first described killke ceramics. These vessels are often globular with vertical strap handles and have simple linear geometric decorations of black or black-on-red over a white or buff slip.[4]

It was the American archaeologist John Howland Rowe (1918–2004) who named the Killke culture.[5]

  1. ^ "Pre-Inca temple uncovered in Peru - CNN.com". Archived from the original on 2008-11-05. Retrieved 2008-03-16.
  2. ^ Ancient temple unearthed near Inca capital, NBC News, March 14, 2008.
  3. ^ NEWS - Comcast.net[dead link‍]
  4. ^ Rowe, John Howland, "An Introduction to the Archaeology of Cusco,Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University 27 (2); Rowe, John Howland "Inca Culture,"B.A.E. 21:200
  5. ^ See:
    • Rowe, John H. (1944). "An introduction to the archaeology of Cuzco". Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology. 27 (2): i–xii, 1–69.
    • Bauer, Brian S. (2004). Ancient Cuzco: Heartland of the Inca. Austin, Texas, USA: University of Texas Press. p. 74. ISBN 9780292792029.