Two chapters, the same questions asked of both
Put two Deep Time chapters next to each other — their evidence base, the dating methods behind them, the live debates, and the questions still open.
Aztec
Lake-city agriculture, tribute economics, and codices written on both sides of conquest.
Open full chapter →Inca
Road systems, khipu record-keeping, and stonework still being reverse-engineered.
Open full chapter →Excavations in and beneath Mexico City, indigenous and colonial-era codices, Nahuatl-language texts, and Spanish accounts written by participants and their descendants.
Monumental stone architecture, the road network, khipu cord records, Spanish administrative inspections, and Andean archaeology across a vast altitudinal range.
| Method | What it constrains |
|---|---|
| Urban excavationTemplo Mayor precinct and offering deposits | Directly tests textual descriptions of ritual. Much of the city remains under a modern capital. |
| Codex analysisPictorial manuscripts and Nahuatl alphabetic texts | Preserves indigenous accounts; most surviving copies were produced under colonial conditions. |
| BioarchaeologySkeletal remains from ritual and burial contexts | Establishes practice and demography without confirming reported totals. |
| Method | What it constrains |
|---|---|
| Architectural and quarry analysisTool marks, unfinished blocks and abandoned quarry stones | Documents shaping and transport methods. Exact logistics of the largest blocks are still modelled. |
| Khipu structural studyCord, knot type, ply direction and colour in surviving khipu | Numerical content is readable. Whether narrative content is encoded remains open. |
| Colonial administrative recordsInspections and tribute assessments | Preserves detail about the Inca system through a Spanish administrative lens. |
What was the scale of human sacrifice?
Skull-rack excavation confirms the practice; Spanish-reported totals remain contested.
How coercive was the tribute empire?
Provincial evidence shows a spectrum from garrisoned control to negotiated tribute.
Do khipu encode language as well as numbers?
Some khipu resist purely numerical interpretation; no reading has been independently reproduced.
What was Machu Picchu for?
Royal estate is the leading reading, based on a colonial land document and site layout.
- How much of Tenochtitlan is recoverable beneath Mexico City?
- How did the lake hydraulic system function in detail?
- What did pre-contact population figures actually look like?
- Can khipu be read beyond accounting?
- How were labour obligations organised across the whole empire?
- How much high-altitude archaeology remains unsurveyed?