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Thursday, October 28, 2010

Photo: Inca Elite Imported Diverse "Staff" to Run Machu Picchu


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Machu Picchu, high in the Peruvian Andes, was likely built to serve as a government palace and administrative center for Inca elite in the 1400s.

Royal retainers known as yanacona were brought from the far reaches of the Inca Empire to live and work at the royal estate, according to new analysis of bodies found buried at the site.

Photograph by W. Robert Moore/NGS