Storage and community management of agricultural surplus in the south-central andes (13th-16th centuries)

We analyze changes in surplus management and agricultural production generated by the integration of the Western Valleys with Tawantinsuyu, based on an analysis of the storage infrastructure in three settlements in the Lluta and Azapa valleys. By examining the construction techniques, spatial organization, contents, and chronology of these architectures, we explore the technology of underground storage in the valleys and discuss the development of a community management system rooted in a process of productive intensification. We suggest that during the Late Intermediate Period, community storage in these settlements began in public spaces, as part of a local agricultural production management system, mostly of maize but supplemented with beans, tubers, and fish, driven mainly by populations living in the valleys and foothills. These local systems, centralization, and productive specialization around maize reached a peak during the Late period, because of the Inca political intervention, in parallel with the establishment of state storage systems in the foothills.