R. Alan Covey
Professor — Ph.D., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Contact
- E-mail: r.alan.covey@austin.utexas.edu
- Phone: (512) 232-2084
- Office: RLP 4.406
- Campus Mail Code: C3200
Interests
Archaeology, ethnohistory, Andes, Inca empire, early Colonial Peru, archaeological theory
Biography
My research addresses the development and organization of ancient empires, with particular focus on the Incas of Andean South America. When the first Spaniards arrived in highland Peru in the early 1530s, they described Inca territory as densely populated, cosmopolitan, wealthy, and dominated by nobles living in the city of Cuzco. By the end of the sixteenth century, the region had been utterly transformed by some of the same forces that shape our world today: epidemic disease, religious intolerance, and race-based inequality. I conduct archaeological surveys and excavations to collect data on the rise and fall of the Incas, and work extensively in archives in Peru and Europe to construct a richer understanding of the impact of early modern European expansion in the Andean world. This work helps to understand particular forms of Andean social organization and how they have developed from the time of colonization to the present.