Pikillaqta[1] (Quechua piki flea, llaqta a place (village, town, community, country, nation), "flea place", also spelled Piki Llacta, Pikillacta, Piquillacta, Piquillaqta) is a large Wari culture archaeological site 20 kilometres (12 mi) east of Cusco in the Quispicanchi Province.

Pikillaqta is located 3,200 meters above sea level in the Lucre Basin of the eastern Valley of Cusco, an area characterized by grassy hills mixed with rock and sand.

Temperature ranges between 60 degrees Fahrenheit in the warmest months, but easily reaches freezing in colder seasons.

The history of workers and excavations at Pikillaqta is almost a century old and wrought with superficial, expedient assessments.

Luis Valcarcel was the first to study Pikillaqta archaeologically—in 1927—but only found two green-stoned figurines and did not publish his findings until years later.

William Sanders assessed architectural surface remains and further subdivided the site in the 1960s, but ultimately only searched two buildings.

This work included digging test pits, trenches, and excavating around Pikillaqta's central plaza.

Maize was an important crop, farmed by the people of Pikillaqta as a major source of food through substantial irrigation systems.

In one unit of the trash middens two grinding stones were found and these were rare finds because of the scarcity surface evidence.

Middens of Pikillaqta contain over 5000 bones, most of which belonged to camelids, guinea pigs, and other small rodents.

[citation needed] At around A.D. 650, the Wari erected Pikillaqta, a huge fortified complex covering 25 hectares (250,000 square meters) south of the Cusco valley.

Pikillaqta was garrisoned and all five entrances to the valley accessible from the altiplano were heavily fortified (McEwan 1996:169).

There was a large patio or plaza in the middle of the complex that probably was the center of the administrative rituals and religious practices.

Rulers and their kin would come together and feast and drink, and with the capacity of the patio, Pikillaqta could hold a ceremony for people from other Wari settlements.

There were four chambers included in the small conjoint rooms and one contained a large stone that the Wari couldn't move.

People of higher power and prestige would have been needed to watch over and control the events and ceremonies of the large-scale site.

Evidence form other Wari sites would insist that elites or leaders would have held everything in check and working order.

These showed divine power and at the end of the rays animals, like pumas and condors, were attached along with maize.

Other stones, gemstones, and minerals were exchanged around the area and according to Anita Cook Pikillaqta may have been the center of the big trade network.

The male was aged 35–45, and his skull displayed evidence of a healed fracture from blow to face, cranium deformation, and gum disease.

In sector 1, two excavations showed that the interior walls of the structure were not plastered with clay or white gypsum.

In sector 3 Unit 34 showed little amount of completion; the building was full of sterile soil, the walls were unfinished, the floor was not laid, and the offerings in there were not placed in the corners.

The sealing of a number of key doorways occurred so unwanted visitors would have trouble entering some structures.

McEwan believed after they left, local people wanted to destroy the site and set it ablaze.

McEwan believed they were trying to expand their control and eventually the splitting of the Wari led to the end of the reign of the empire.

2001 Pikallacta, Huaro and the greater Cuzco region: new interpretations of Wari occupation in the southern highlands.