Alba Menéndez Pereda is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Interdepartmental Archaeology Program
housed within the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles.
She received her bachelor’s degree (B.A.) in archaeology from Durham University, and
completed her master’s (M.Phil.) at the University of Cambridge with a focus on the archaeology
of the Indigenous Americas. Alba has participated in numerous archaeological research projects
spanning various cultures and time periods, for which she has conducted fieldwork in England,
Italy, Spain, and Peru as part of university-affiliated and cultural resource management teams.
Alba’s ongoing doctoral research is based in the former heartland of the Inca Empire in South
America where she studies Inca conceptions, materialization, and expression of sacredness. As a
committed proponent of public archaeological engagement and accessibility, she organizes
public lecture series focused on Andean material and visual cultures, and creates educational
content for digital outreach initiatives.

Project Summary
Alba’s research is focused on Inca conceptions of the sacred, their materialization and expression
through the built environment and material culture, and their reification through multisensorial
embodied experiences as part of ritual performances sponsored by the state. Ultimately, she aims
to discern what set imperial Inca sacred sites apart from other examples of elite architecture built
at the height of the empire (approximately 1440–1532 C.E.) in the Inca heartland. With the
support of the AIA-OC grant, Alba seeks to shed light on the users of the religious complex of
the Coricancha which is located in the former Inca imperial capital of Cuzco. To do so, she will
work at archives and museums in the city analyzing documentary evidence and archaeological
legacy collections that were excavated within and around the Inca temple. This data will serve as
a window into the ordinary and extraordinary activities that took place within the ceremonial
precinct and its surroundings, as well as the individuals—male and female religious specialists
and support personnel—who were responsible for the running of the temple and the performance
of sacred ceremonies.

Zoom link for lecture:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86848702905?pwd=QTRwNkJBR2p2azRWQm9sNFBnK09jUT09