Expert: Ralph Salier - 5/16/2005

Question
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Followup To
Question -
Dear Dr. or Mr. Salier,
  Has anyone been able to date this city with any certainty? Could it have been built in a relatively short time? Is there any indication it was inhabited and abandoned more than once? Any info you could give would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,
Reg Reid
Answer -
Hi Reg,

Machu Picchu was an Incan strong hold.  It took quite a while for it to be build but like any of the Incan cities was well concieved and had conscript labor for its construction.  The city was lived in and was probably the last hold out for the Incans after the Spanish arrived.   The City has been reliably dated by C14 dating.  

The city was occupied and the terraces all around the city indicated that food was grown here rather continuously which verifies that it was occupied.  Once abandoned, it was "lost",   There are several good books about Machu Picchu.  There is also a relatively recent article in National Geographic and another in Archaeology.  There is also a comprehensive report out fairly soon on the work done by Archaeologists over the last 20 years.

Followup question:
  Is there anywhere I can go on the net to get a non-mystical explanation of how the Incans produced their remarkable massive stonework and got it to fit together so well? Thank you for your help.

Answer
Reg, I'm not sure if the first answer went through properly.  But the short answer is probably yes.  The problem is weeding through all of the junk.  Try going to some of the archaeolgical web sites and then from there to Machu Picchu.  Or put in "archaeology of  Peru" in google or perhaps archaeology of the Inca.  Then sift through the listings on Google.

I'm sorry I', not much help.  I generally rely on books when it comes to the meat and potatoes of archaeology.