7.1 Pre-1500 African, Asian, and Mesoamerican Societies

7.1 Pre-1500 African, Asian, and Mesoamerican Societies

Prior to the European oceanic voyages of the late fifteenth century, complex civilizations flourished across Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Rather than existing in static isolation, these societies engineered sophisticated agricultural systems, established transcontinental commercial routes, and developed groundbreaking intellectual traditions. For social science educators preparing for the FTCE examination, mastering Skill 4.3 requires analyzing the socioeconomic foundations, institutional structures, and technological innovations of these non-Western societies before 1500.

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1. African Societies Before 1500

Medieval African history encompasses dynamic commercial networks, centralized imperial states in the western Sahel, cosmopolitan maritime hubs along the Indian Ocean, and specialized southern and eastern trading kingdoms.

                    TRANS-SAHARAN TRADE
  [North Africa / Mediterranean] <=== (Salt, Cloth, Books, Metalware) ===>
                           ▲
                 [Sahara Desert Caravans]
              (Camel Saddles / Oases Wells)
                           ▼
     [Sahelian Empires: Ghana, Mali, Songhai] <=== (Gold, Ivory, Slaves) ===>

The Trans-Saharan Gold-Salt Trade

The primary catalyst for state formation in the western Sahel was the trans-Saharan trade. Following the introduction of the camel (Camelus dromedarius) and the specialized Berber pack saddle to North Africa in the early centuries CE, merchants crossed the forbidding desert in organized camel caravans that rested at oasis towns.

This commercial network operated on an ecological interdependence between two essential commodities:

• Gold: Mined from alluvial deposits in the southern savanna forests of Bambuk, Bure, and Akan. It was in high demand across the Mediterranean and Islamic worlds for imperial mints and currency.
• Salt: Cut in massive slabs from dried desert lakebeds such as Taghaza. In tropical sub-Saharan ecosystems, dietary salt was biologically vital for retaining hydration and preserving meat, so valuable in southern markets that medieval observers described it trading at extraordinary prices, sometimes nearly weight for weight with gold.

By taxing goods entering and leaving their borders, Sahelian rulers accumulated enormous wealth and built expansive, cavalry-backed empires.

The Western Sudanic Empires

Three successive empires dominated the western savanna along the Niger River basin:

1. The Kingdom of Ghana (Wagadou, c. 700–1200 CE): Founded by the Soninke people between the Sahara and the headwaters of the Senegal and Niger rivers. Its capital, Koumbi Saleh, featured a dual-city layout: one sector housed the indigenous divine king and royal court, while the other housed foreign Muslim merchants, mosques, and scholars. Ghana's power rested on its monopoly over the trans-Saharan gold transit trade, earning its ruler the title "Lord of the Gold."
2. The Mali Empire (c. 1235–1600 CE): Founded by Sundiata Keita (the "Lion Prince"), celebrated in Mande oral tradition preserved by hereditary bards (griots). Sundiata unified Malinke clans following the Battle of Kirina (1235) and established imperial control over both the southern goldfields and northern caravan routes. Mali's most renowned sovereign, Mansa Musa (r. 1312–1337), made a historic pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca in 1324. Escorted by tens of thousands of retainers and camels laden with gold dust, Musa spent and distributed so much bullion in Cairo that he depressed the regional market price of gold for over a decade. Musa's lavish expedition placed Mali on European nautical charts, most famously the 1375 Catalan Atlas, which illustrated Musa seated on a throne holding a golden nugget and scepter.
3. Timbuktu as a Global Center of Scholarship: Mansa Musa transformed the commercial city of Timbuktu into an intellectual sanctuary. He commissioned Andalusian architect Abu Ishaq al-Sahili to construct the monumental Djinguereber Mosque using earthen mud-brick architecture. Timbuktu became home to the University of Sankore (Sankore Mosque), where thousands of scholars and students gathered to study Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), astronomy, mathematics, logic, and medicine. Scribes copied and preserved hundreds of thousands of Arabic and Ajami (African languages written in Arabic script) manuscripts, creating private libraries that endured for centuries.
4. The Songhai Empire (c. 1464–1591 CE): As Mali weakened, the Songhai people, based at the Niger River trading city of Gao, established imperial dominance. Sunni Ali (r. 1464–1492) utilized a mobile riverine navy of war canoes along the Niger to capture Timbuktu and the commercial center of Djenné. His successor, Askia Muhammad (Askia the Great, r. 1493–1528), seized power, standardized weights and measures, established a centralized administrative bureaucracy, appointed Islamic judges (qadis) across provinces, and used Sharia law to unify his multi-ethnic realm.

The Swahili Coast City-States

Along the eastern coast of Africa, stretching from modern-day Somalia to Mozambique, a distinct maritime culture flourished between 1000 and 1500 CE in city-states such as Kilwa, Mombasa, Zanzibar, Lamu, and Sofala.

• Monsoon Wind Dynamics: Maritime commerce relied entirely on the predictable rhythm of the Indian Ocean monsoons. Between November and February, northeast monsoon winds carried merchant vessels (dhows) from Arabia, Persia, and India southwest to the East African coast. Between April and September, southwest monsoon winds propelled ships back across the Arabian Sea.
• Trans-Regional Commerce: Swahili merchants acquired raw ivory, alluvial gold (funneled from the interior through Sofala), timber, iron, and enslaved captives, exchanging them for manufactured luxury imports: Chinese porcelain, Indian cotton textiles, glass beads, and Persian ceramics.
• Cultural and Linguistic Synthesis: Sustained commercial interaction sparked a cultural synthesis. The indigenous population spoke a Bantu tongue, which absorbed substantial Arabic vocabulary (particularly maritime, religious, and legal terminology) to produce Kiswahili (Swahili, derived from the Arabic sawāhil, meaning "coasts"). Swahili elites converted to Islam, constructing elaborate coral-stone mosques, multistory stone merchant residences, and royal palaces, exemplified by the ruins of Husuni Kubwa at Kilwa.

Southern and Eastern African Kingdoms

• Great Zimbabwe (c. 11th–15th Centuries): Situated on the southeastern plateau between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers, this Shona-speaking kingdom controlled the transit of gold from inland mines to Swahili coastal ports like Sofala. Great Zimbabwe is renowned for its monumental dry-stone architecture, built entirely without mortar. The Great Enclosure features curved granite walls exceeding thirty feet in height and a massive conical tower. Wealth was measured in cattle pastoralism and control over long-distance trade, evidenced by excavated Chinese celadon pottery, Persian faience, and carved soapstone bird sculptures representing royal ancestors.
• The Kingdom of Aksum and Medieval Ethiopia: Located in the rugged highlands of modern Ethiopia and Eritrea, Aksum flourished from the first through eighth centuries as a naval and commercial powerhouse linking the Roman Empire, the Red Sea port of Adulis, and the Indian Ocean. In the fourth century CE (c. 330 CE), King Ezana converted to Christianity, establishing the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and minting coins inscribed with the Christian cross. Aksum developed Ge'ez, an indigenous written Semitic script, and erected colossal monolithic stone stelae (obelisks) as royal funerary monuments. Following the seventh-century expansion of Islam along the Red Sea coast, Christian Ethiopia retreated into its mountain redoubts. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Zagwe dynasty constructed the eleven monolithic, subterranean rock-hewn churches of Lalibela, carved directly down into volcanic tuff.

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2. Asian Societies Before 1500

In medieval Asia, imperial China experienced administrative, economic, and technological flowerings under the Tang and Song dynasties, followed by Eurasian political consolidation under the Mongol Empire and the rise of feudal militarism in Japan.

The Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE): Cosmopolitan Golden Age

Following the reunification of China by the short-lived Sui Dynasty—which constructed the initial network of the Grand Canal linking the agricultural south with the political north—the Tang Dynasty established one of the most culturally vibrant empires in Chinese history.

• Administrative Systems: The Tang refined the centralized imperial bureaucracy through the Imperial Examination System (keju), testing candidates on Confucian classics and literary composition to staff the civil service with educated officials rather than hereditary aristocrats.
• The Equal-Field System (Juntian): To curb the political power of large landowning clans and guarantee tax revenues, the early Tang government claimed state ownership of all arable land. It redistributed parcels to peasant households based on family size and labor capacity. In return, peasants paid taxes in grain, silk, and mandatory annual corvée labor service.
• Cosmopolitan Silk Road Trade: Tang military expansion into Central Asia secured Silk Road routes, making the capital of Chang'an (modern Xi'an) the world's most populous and cosmopolitan metropolis. Chang'an welcomed Sogdian merchants, Persian Zoroastrians, Nestorian Christian monks, and Arab traders. The Tang maintained a formal tributary system, in which neighboring states (such as Silla in Korea and early Japan) recognized Chinese imperial supremacy by sending tribute missions and performing the ritual kowtow (three kneelings and nine prostrations) in exchange for trade privileges and diplomatic protection.
• Cultural Renaissance: The Tang represented the zenith of classical Chinese poetry, immortalized by the Daoist-inspired naturalist Li Bai (Li Po) and the Confucian humanist Du Fu.

The Song Dynasty (960–1279 CE): The Economic Revolution

Following the chaotic Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the Song Dynasty reunified core Chinese territories. Facing relentless military pressure from northern nomadic confederations (such as the Khitan Liao and Jurchen Jin), the Song withdrew south of the Huai River in 1127, establishing the Southern Song with its capital at Hangzhou.

Despite military vulnerabilities, the Song period witnessed an extraordinary economic and technological transformation:

1. Agricultural Revolution (Champa Rice): The introduction of drought-resistant, fast-ripening Champa rice from southern Vietnam transformed Chinese agriculture. By ripening far faster than traditional varieties, Champa rice permitted double-cropping (two harvests per year) in the warm, wet climate of the Yangtze basin. China's food supply surged, driving a population boom from roughly 50–60 million in the eighth century to over 100 million by 1100.
2. Monetary Innovations: To accommodate ballooning commercial volume and relieve shortages of heavy copper coins, Song merchants in Sichuan invented paper credit receipts. The Song government institutionalized this system, issuing jiaozi—the world's first state-sponsored paper fiat currency.
3. Technological Breakthroughs:
   • The Magnetic Compass (Luopan): Developed from early geomantic lodestone pointers into needle compasses suspended in water or mounted on pivots, enabling safe open-sea navigation away from coastlines.
   • Movable Type Printing: Invented by artisan Bi Sheng around 1040 CE using reusable ceramic characters. While logographic Chinese scripts limited its immediate commercial viability compared to woodblock printing, it drastically reduced book production costs, promoted widespread literacy, and democratized access to civil service examination texts.
   • Gunpowder Formulations: Initially discovered by Daoist alchemists seeking elixirs of immortality, Song military engineers weaponized gunpowder into incendiary fire arrows, flamethrowers, explosive fragmentation bombs, and proto-guns (fire lances).
4. Social and Intellectual Transformations:
   • Neo-Confucianism: Synthesized by philosopher Zhu Xi (1130–1200 CE), Neo-Confucianism blended traditional Confucian ethical morality with metaphysical concepts (the fundamental cosmic principle, li, and vital material force, qi) borrowed from Buddhism and Daoism. It stressed rigorous moral self-cultivation, respect for social hierarchy, strict filial piety, and absolute loyalty to the sovereign.
   • Foot-Binding (Chanzu): During the Song era, the practice of tightly wrapping young girls' feet to break the arch and prevent natural bone growth spread among the elite scholar-gentry. The resulting "three-inch golden lotus" served as a visual status symbol demonstrating that a family was wealthy enough that its women did not need to perform manual labor. It severely curtailed female physical mobility and reinforced subordinate patriarchal gender roles.

The Mongol Empire and the Pax Mongolica

In 1206, a charismatic nomadic leader named Temüjin unified the pastoral clans of the Central Asian steppes, assuming the title Genghis Khan ("Universal Ruler").

                 GENGHIS KHAN (1206)
           Unification of Nomadic Tribes
                         │
         ┌───────────────┼───────────────┬───────────────┐
         ▼               ▼               ▼               ▼
   GOLDEN HORDE      ILKHANATE       CHAGATAI       YUAN DYNASTY
     (Russia)     (Persia/MidEast) (Central Asia)  (China/Mongolia)
         │               │               │               │
         └───────────────┴───────┬───────┴───────────────┘
                                 ▼
                           PAX MONGOLICA
         - Revitalized Silk Road Commerce
         - Paiza Passports & Safe Transit
         - Yam Postal Relay Network

• Military Tactics and Organization: Mongol armies conquered Eurasia using superior equestrian mobility, composite recurve bows capable of piercing armor at long range, coordinated tactical encirclement, and psychological terror (massacring cities that resisted while sparing artisans and engineers). Genghis Khan abolished tribal allegiances, reorganizing his military along a strict decimal hierarchy: squads of 10 (arban), companies of 100 (jagun), regiments of 1,000 (mingghan), and divisions of 10,000 warriors (tumen).
• The Pax Mongolica (Mongol Peace, mid-13th to mid-14th Century): Following their sweeping conquests, the Mongols imposed political stability across Eurasia. They secured the entire length of the Silk Road under a unified legal code (the Yassa). Merchants, diplomats, and missionaries traveled freely using imperial passports (paiza)—bronze, silver, or gold tablets conferring safe passage and access to provisions.
• The Yam Postal Network: To maintain communication across thousands of miles, the Mongols operated the Yam (Örtöö) relay messenger system. Courier stations situated every 25 to 30 miles housed fresh horses, provisions, and lodging, allowing royal dispatch riders to cover up to 200 miles in a single day.
• The Four Khanates and the Yuan Dynasty: Following the death of Genghis Khan's successor Mongke, the empire fractured into four regional realms: the Golden Horde in Russia, the Ilkhanate in Persia, the Chagatai Khanate in Central Asia, and the Great Khanate in East Asia. In China, Genghis's grandson Kublai Khan founded the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368 CE), moving the imperial capital to Dadu (modern Beijing). Kublai adopted Chinese dynastic rituals but distrusted the native scholar-gentry. He dismantled the traditional civil service exams and divided society into a rigid four-tier ethnic hierarchy: Mongols at the apex, followed by non-Chinese foreigners (Semu, including Central Asian Muslims and Europeans like Venetian merchant Marco Polo), northern Chinese, and southern Chinese at the bottom.

Feudal Japan

While China remained a centralized bureaucratic empire, Japan diverged into a decentralized military feudal system in the late twelfth century, marking the end of the refined, aristocratic Heian Period (794–1185 CE).

• The Kamakura Shogunate (1185–1333 CE): Following the Genpei War, warlord Minamoto no Yoritomo defeated rival clans and was granted the title of Shogun ("barbarian-quelling generalissimo") by the emperor in 1192. Yoritomo established his military headquarters (bakufu, or tent government) at Kamakura, inaugurating seven centuries of warrior rule.
• The Feudal Hierarchy:
  • The Emperor: Replaced as political ruler; functioned purely as a sacred, ceremonial figurehead residing in Kyoto.
  • The Shogun: The supreme military commander who held real executive, military, and legislative power.
  • Daimyo: Powerful regional feudal lords who controlled vast semi-autonomous agricultural estates (shoen), commanding private warrior retinues.
  • Samurai: Elite warrior aristocrats who pledged absolute military loyalty to their daimyo in exchange for land fiefs or stipends of rice. They adhered to an unwritten warrior ethos later codified as Bushido ("the way of the warrior"), which demanded martial discipline, absolute fidelity to one's lord, personal honor, and the obligation to commit ritual disembowelment (seppuku) rather than face dishonor or capture.
• Religious Syncretism: Japanese spiritual life was characterized by a syncretic fusion of indigenous Shinto (the animistic veneration of nature spirits, or kami, and ritual purification) and Buddhism. Samurai embraced Zen Buddhism (Chan in China), which emphasized austere self-discipline, direct intuitive insight, seated meditation (zazen), and the acceptance of transience and death. Zen aesthetics shaped the minimalist Japanese rock garden (karesansui), ink wash painting (sumi-e), and the structured Japanese tea ceremony (chanoyu).

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3. Mesoamerican and Andean Societies

In the Americas, complex urban civilizations arose in absolute isolation from Old World disease environments, metallurgy, draft animals (horses, oxen), and the mechanical wheel. Relying on human labor and sophisticated ecological adaptations, indigenous peoples developed intensive agriculture, monumental civic architecture, and unique record-keeping systems.

               PRE-COLUMBIAN AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS
  ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
  │  MAYA CIVILIZATION:                                         │
  │  - Lowland raised wetland fields & terraced limestone hills │
  │  - Cenotes (natural sinkholes) for seasonal water storage   │
  ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
  │  AZTEC EMPIRE (MEXICA):                                     │
  │  - Chinampas ("floating gardens") built on Lake Texcoco     │
  │  - Canal networks providing irrigation & canoe transit      │
  ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
  │  INCA EMPIRE (TAHUANTINSUYU):                               │
  │  - Stone-retained andenes (terraces) climbing steep Andes   │
  │  - Vertical archipelago: ecological microclimates by altitude│
  └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

The Maya Civilization

Flourishing in the tropical lowlands of the Yucatán Peninsula, Guatemala, Belize, and western Honduras, Classic Maya civilization (c. 250–900 CE) achieved profound artistic, architectural, and intellectual milestones.

• Political Organization: Unlike centralized empires, the Maya were organized into a decentralized network of competing city-states—including Tikal, Calakmul, Palenque, and Copán. Each urban center was governed by a hereditary divine king (k'uhul ajaw) who acted as a religious mediator between the gods and his subjects, leading rituals atop towering stepped limestone pyramids.
• Hydraulic and Agricultural Adaptations: To support dense populations within fragile rainforest ecosystems, the Maya engineered raised agricultural beds in seasonal swamp wetlands (bajos), constructed hillside stone terraces to halt erosion, and excavated massive subterranean plaster-lined cisterns (chultuns) to capture rainfall. In the northern limestone plains of Yucatán, they accessed natural sinkholes (cenotes) that pierced subterranean aquifers.
• Intellectual and Scientific Breakthroughs:
  • Mathematics: The Maya developed a sophisticated positional vigesimal (base-20) numbering system utilizing three symbols: a shell for zero, a dot for one, and a bar for five. The invention of the mathematical zero enabled complex astronomical tracking and multi-digit computations.
  • Calendrical Cycles: Maya astronomers tracked lunar, solar, and planetary orbits with astonishing accuracy. They harmonized two primary cycles: the Tzolkin (a 260-day sacred ritual calendar pairing 13 numbers with 20 named days) and the Haab (a 365-day solar agricultural calendar consisting of 18 months of 20 days plus five unlucky transition days called Wayeb). Together, these calendars synchronized every 52 solar years into the Calendar Round. For historical recording across centuries, they devised the Long Count, which tracked elapsed days from a mythological creation date (August 11, 3114 BCE).
  • Hieroglyphic Writing: The Maya invented the most complex writing system in the pre-Columbian Americas, consisting of over 800 phonetic syllabic glyphs and logograms painted on deerskin or fig-bark paper screenfold books (codices) and carved into stone stelae and temple facades.
• The Classic Maya Collapse: Between 750 and 900 CE, the major southern lowland city-states collapsed; monumental construction ceased, urban centers were abandoned to the encroaching jungle, and dynastic lines ended. Modern archaeological research attributes this collapse to an ecological crisis: systemic deforestation and soil erosion, combined with prolonged severe megadroughts, provoked escalating inter-city warfare over scarce arable land.

The Aztec Empire (Mexica)

In the fourteenth century, the Mexica—a nomadic Nahuatl-speaking group from northern Mexico—migrated into the Valley of Mexico. In 1325, on a swampy island in Lake Texcoco, they founded their capital of Tenochtitlan, fulfilling a prophecy that they should settle where an eagle perched on a cactus devouring a serpent.

• Urban Infrastructure: Tenochtitlan grew into a metropolis of over 200,000 residents, rivaling contemporary Paris or Venice. The island city was connected to the mainland by three raised stone causeways equipped with removable wooden drawbridges. Freshwater was transported from mountain springs via a dual-channel stone aqueduct, while a massive 10-mile earthen dike constructed by Nezahualcoyotl separated the brackish eastern waters of Lake Texcoco from the fresh western lagoon.
• Chinampas Agricultural System: To feed their urban population, the Mexica perfected chinampas ("floating gardens"). Farmers constructed rectangular artificial plots in shallow lake beds by staking woven reed frames and filling them with alternating layers of decomposing lake mud, vegetation, and reeds. Willow trees (ahuejotes) were planted along the margins; their roots bound the plots to the lake floor. Chinampas were perpetually irrigated by lake water seeping through the porous soil, producing up to six or seven bountiful harvests of maize, beans, squash, and chilies annually.
• Political Hegemony and the Tributary State: In 1428, Tenochtitlan allied with the neighboring city-states of Texcoco and Tlacopan to forge the Triple Alliance. Operating as a tributary empire rather than a bureaucratic governing state, the Aztecs conquered over 400 towns across central and southern Mexico. Subjugated provinces retained their local leaders but were compelled to deliver massive regular tribute in maize, cotton textiles, jade, cacao beans, quetzal feathers, and war captives.
• Religious Cosmology and Human Sacrifice: Aztec state religion centered on the sun god and patron deity of war, Huitzilopochtli. The Mexica believed they lived under the Fifth Sun, which was in constant danger of dying, plunging the universe into eternal darkness. To nourish the sun and sustain cosmic order, the gods demanded the ultimate life force: human blood and beating hearts (chalchihuatl, "precious water"). Mass sacrifices were performed by priests atop the Templo Mayor in Tenochtitlan. To maintain a steady supply of sacrificial victims without provoking total regional collapse, the Aztecs engaged neighboring rivals in prearranged ritual conflicts known as Flower Wars (xochiyaoyotl).

The Inca Empire (Tahuantinsuyu)

High in the Andes mountains of South America, the Quechua-speaking Inca coalesced in the Valley of Cuzco. Under the visionary ninth ruler, Pachacuti (r. 1438–1471), and his successors, the Inca waged rapid conquests to forge Tahuantinsuyu ("The Realm of the Four Parts"), the largest empire in the pre-Columbian Americas, spanning 2,500 miles along the Pacific coast and Andean spine.

• Imperial Administration and Cuzco: The empire was governed by the Sapa Inca, an autocratic monarch revered as the living incarnation of the sun god, Inti. From the imperial capital of Cuzco—which was built in the shape of a puma and centered on the golden temple of the sun, the Coricancha—the empire was divided into four administrative quarters (suyus), each subdivided into provinces governed by royal governors.
• The Qhapaq Ñan (Inca Road System): To maintain communication and deploy troops across one of the world's most extreme topographies, the Inca constructed a 25,000-mile paved road network. The system featured stone staircases carved through mountain passes, paved coastal highways, and monumental suspension bridges woven from mountain ichu grass (the Q'eswachaka bridge is still rebuilt by hand each year) across yawning Andean river gorges. Messages were relayed across the empire by chasquis—trained relay runners stationed in pairs at small way-stations (chaskiwasi) every mile along the roads. Relaying messages day and night, chasquis could carry imperial dispatches across 150 miles in a single day.
• The Quipu Recording System: The Inca developed no phonetic or hieroglyphic script. Instead, they maintained state administrative, census, tax, and inventory records through the quipu (khipu). A quipu consisted of a primary horizontal cord from which hung hundreds of knotted, multi-colored subsidiary cotton or wool strings. Trained state accountants (quipucamayocs) encoded numerical data using a decimal positional system indicated by the placement and type of knots, while colors indicated specific commodities (such as llamas, maize, or soldiers).
• The Ayllu and the Mita System: The foundational social unit of Andean society was the ayllu—a kin-based village collective that held land communally and shared labor during planting and harvesting. The Inca empire functioned without commercial money, markets, or private merchant classes. Instead, the state operated a command economy based on labor obligations. While the ayllu farmed dedicated parcels of land for the sun god and the Sapa Inca, every able-bodied adult male owed the state regular, rotational labor service called the mita. Through the mita, the state mobilized millions of workers to build stone palaces, construct roads and bridges, manufacture wool textiles, serve in the imperial army, and build agricultural terraces.
• Andean Agriculture and Terracing: To cultivate food on steep Andean inclines, Inca engineers constructed massive stone-faced stepped terraces (andenes). These terraces retained mountain soil, prevented erosion, and trapped solar heat in their granite stones during the day to insulate delicate crops against freezing night temperatures. Communities utilized a "vertical archipelago" strategy, farming crops at different altitudes: maize and beans in warm valleys, potatoes and quinoa on high slopes, and pasturing herds of llamas and alpacas on the high alpine grasslands (puna). Excess tubers were freeze-dried through exposure to nocturnal frosts and daytime solar drying into chuño, which could be stored in state warehouses (qullqas) for years to prevent famine.

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Pre-Columbian American Civilizations: A Comparative Matrix