Offers an authoritative and up-to-date survey of the cultural evolution of Peru from the appearance of the first inhabitants around 10,000 BC to the arrival of the Spanish in 1534. The book is divided chronologically into three main parts that examine in turn the highland and lowland zones in the Preceramic and Initial periods; the development of complex sociey at Chavín, Tiwanaku and Huari and in the Moche and Nazca cultures; and the culmination of this process. the pan-Andean empire of the Incas. A fourth, concluding section deals with the often neglected tropical forest region of Peru and its formative influence on the evolution of Andean culture.