When it comes to telling the history of pre-Columbian Peru, there has traditionally been just one empire that has dominated the headlines. That is, of course, the Inca. But that mighty imperium on South America's western seaboard would reach its zenith in the 15th and 16th centuries, which leaves around two millennia where a cluster of other civilisations burned brightly before fading away in the shadows of the Andes. In many ways, these realms were every bit as sophisticated as their more celebrated
