This story was originally published on SAPIENS and appears here under a CC BY-ND 4.0 license. Just an hour’s drive from the center of Lima, Peru, is a palatial architectural complex built of rammed earth and stone. It features labyrinthine passageways, warehouses that once stored foods, and furnished rooms that an Inca emperor—the region’s 15th-century ruler—may have visited. This site, now called the Monumental Archaeological Zone Huaycán de Pariachi (ZAMHP), has been held by many peoples. Between 900 and 1450, these lands belonged to the Ichmas, an ancient society in…
