Inca ancestors in the Cuzco basin

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Small Quechua-speaking communities in the Cuzco valley of the Andes were consolidating, according to later Inca oral tradition, under early chieftains whose names would be remembered as the first Sapa Incas. The Inca state that would conquer the Andes three centuries later was in its infancy. These early communities competed for control of the valley's limited agricultural terraces and irrigation channels, building the political skills that would later serve an empire.