Killke Culture of the Cusco Valley and Inca Precursors

Timeline

1. 900–1200Cusco Valley · CuscoThe Killke culture was distributed around present-day Cusco from about 900–1200 CE, predating the development of 13th-century Inca culture. Its pottery mostly consists of round-bellied vessels with vertical strap handles, decorated with black or black-and-red geometric patterns. Archaeologically it is treated as the direct precursor of Inca material culture in the Cusco Valley, but specific kings or a 1200 CE founding ceremony cannot be reconstructed from it.
2. c. 1200–1250Cusco · CuscoAndean oral traditions name Manco Capac (and the legend of the Ayar brothers) as founders of Cusco. The English Wikipedia 'Inca Empire' article records the Inca as a pastoral people around Cusco in the 12th century and relays that the Kingdom of Cusco formed in the early 13th century. Such lineages are memories compiled in the colonial period and cannot be treated as archaeological events of 1200 CE. Empire-level expansion only came after Pachacuti in 1438.