Rare Inca Tunic Unearthed in Chile

Thursday, February 16, 2023



Chile Inca Tunic(Correa-Lau et al. 2023, PLOS ONE)

WASHINGTON, D.C.—A tunic, or unku, once worn by an Inca man has been recovered from a grave in northern Chile, according to a statement released by George Washington University. Unkus were made according to specifications imposed by imperial authorities, said team member Jeffrey Splitstoser of George Washington University. This unku, however, also has features unique to the provincial region where it was found, hundreds of miles south of Cusco, the Inca capital. “It represents a study of a rare example of an excavated Inca unku tunic, whose context and technical features are providing an unprecedented understanding of imperial Inca influence in the provinces,” Splitstoser explained. Read the original scholarly article about this research in PLOS ONE. To read about knotted-string devices that the Inca used to keep records, go to "Reading an Inca Archive."

https://www.archaeology.org/news/11238-230216-chile-inca-tunic

Images drawn by the invaders:

https://static.cambridge.org/binary/version/id/urn:cambridge.org:id:binary:20210323060207062-0925:S1045663520000814:S1045663520000814_fig6.png