Abstract
By the time of the sixteenth century invasion from Europe the Inca Empire had grown to span the Andes and coastal regions from Argentina and Chile through Bolivia and Peru to Ecuador and into southern Columbia (Fig. 2.2). The reign of the imperial Incas was relatively short, but they were preceded by many civilizations that traced back thousands of years, and the roots of Andean astronomy can largely be attributed to those ancient cultures. Celestial myths, beliefs, and knowledge developed through observations made over the centuries, passed on from one generation to the next and from one tribe to another. The Incas inherited this celestial knowledge and adapted it to their own needs. They created a strong state religion of the Sun founded upon astronomy assimilated through their conquests. Temples and shrines were built that publicly displayed many of these astronomical concepts.
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Gullberg, S.R. (2020). Evolution of An Empire. In: Astronomy of the Inca Empire. Historical & Cultural Astronomy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48366-1_2
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