Archaeology in the Andean countries is a living science which has to do not only with the past, but also with the present and with the future.—Philip A. Means, Ancient Civilizations of the Andes Lane walked out of Blantyre House in Kent on a sunny Friday in January last year. He had mixed feelings as he was driven away from the category D jail. There was relief that his ordeal had come to an end, but also a sense of guilt for the friends he was leaving behind. Underlying it all, there was an anger that won’t go away.

Robert Magill was murdered near his home in Chorleywood, Hertfordshire, on 13 October 1994, as he was walking his dog, Oscar. In 1996, Kevin Lane was convicted of shooting him in what was seen as a contract killing, and for 16 years he has been protesting his innocence.Lane didn’t have to join a gang; he has respect in the anarchic hinterlands of organised crime, a respect earned in a manner he now regrets. At school in Harefield, Middlesex, found himself defending his older brother, Sean, who was getting teased by friends because of a head brace he had to wear after a serious accident. Lane, it turned out, could throw a punch. Several of them, in fact, at high speed. It is a gift that has got him into trouble – and out of it – throughout his life. The case against Lane, who was arrested three months after the murder, was based on one piece of forensic evidence found in the car, and several coincidences. Some of these cultural expressions are pure invention, with this invented material culture of the Inca being used to justify modern identity politics. A case in point is that of the supposed Inca flag – the wiphala. This pixelated rainbow-coloured pattern is increasingly used by indigenous groups, and others, as a sign of self-identification. In particular, the Movimiento de Unidad Plurinacional Pachakutik – Nuevo País (Pachakutik Plurinational

In 2005, Vincent was convicted of another shooting described in court as a “thoroughly planned, ruthless and brutally executed assassination”. Smith was convicted alongside him as his getaway driver. That was similar, then, in many ways to the murder of Magill. Could Vincent have been responsible for both? Armed with this new information, Lane urged the court of appeal to look at his case again. It took him 10 years to get a hearing in court. When the TV presenter Jill Dando was shot on the doorstep of her home in Fulham in April 1999, Lane's name cropped up again. At the time, detectives wanted advice from expert hitmen. Newspapers said they turned to Lane to ask whether Dando's murderer was the work of a professional. Twenty years in jail enhanced rather than diminished this reputation. “There is a lot of bullying and intimidation. I hated to see it going on. I didn’t care who it was, or how big they were. It’s a strange thing, but the only fear I have ever felt is the fear of losing. The embarrassment of it.” The question ‘how lost are the Incas?’ brings with it, then, a deeper query, which dwells at the heart of this book: why the Incas? Why were they, in particular, the apex of South American civilization? What factors seem to have predestined them for glory, and how did they maintain power once they achieved it? Indeed, many beguiled travellers of the past and modern tourists alike look at the extremes of climate, altitude and landscape of the Central Andean highlands and wonder how anyone could have eked a livelihood, much less forge an empire, in these seemingly austere and harsh lands. Yet the fact remains that the same region that formed the core of the Inca Empire had previously been the location of the Huari and Tiahuanaco empires, based respectively in modern-day southern Peru and northern Bolivia, and earlier even than these, the northern Peruvian highlands were home to the widespread religious cult of Chavín. Indeed, while the coastal regions of the Central Andes were home to equally spectacular pre-Hispanic civilizations such as the Nazca, Moche and the Chimor, the area of expansive empires in the Andes was always the highlands. Coastal cultures tended to stay on the coast with only brief forays into the highlands; while alternatively, the highland Chavín, Huari, Tiahuanaco and the Inca encompassed from the coast to the tropical forests.

What has Kevin Lane said?

From their mythical origins to astonishing feats of engineering, an expertly informed reassessment of one of the great empires of the Americas: the Inca. Archeology helps fill in the gaps, especially when it comes to the structure of the empire, its roots in other ancient peoples of the region, and its economic and technologic capacities. It can tell us, for instance, about a method of preserving potatoes that involves taking them to high altitude, stomping on them, letting them freeze overnight, and repeating the process. Or about the suspension bridge technology that the Incans employed centuries before it was developed in Europe.

Beautifully illustrated, this book examines the mythical origins and history of the Inca, including their economy, society, technology, and beliefs. Kevin Lane reconsiders previous theories while proposing new interpretations concerning the timeline of Inca expansion, their political organization, and the role of women in their society while showcasing how their legacy endures today. Lane is short for a bouncer - 5ft 11in - but those who worked for him say he was one of the best in the business. "There are advantages in being my size. When you approach a man who is 6ft 6in and ask him to calm down, he's not likely to feel threatened. Lane insists they jumped to the wrong conclusion. He says he couldn't return to the UK using his real passport because he was in trouble with the Spanish police over a brawl in a restaurant called The Steak House. However, again he didn't tell detectives about the fight. In the book, Lane quotes everyone from Voltaire to Hunter S Thompson to Juvenal and is also revealing on the state of prisons today.The victim … Robert Magill, who was shot dead as he walked his dog in a Hertfordshire beauty spot. Photograph: PA/EMPICS Sports Photo Agency It is understood the MoJ has concerns that "threat to life" operations take up a substantial amount of police time and deprive forces of the ability to take their own decisions about where to allocate resources. Mr Raab has suggested scrapping threat-to-life notices required by the Osman ruling in his proposed Bill of Rights, although there are reports it could be shelved by the government.

Nobody from the Dando team came to see me," he says. "It was rubbish, like most of the stuff that has been in the papers. Being wrongly convicted of one was bad enough. Then, overnight, I became a multiple murderer." He was released in 2015 but returned to jail last year after his arrest on a common assault charge unconnected to the case. A parole hearing is due in March. Some who crossed Lane learned the hard way. He and two others kidnapped a man they suspected of stealing pounds 100,000 worth of electrical equipment. "We put a car on his legs and threw him in the Grand Union Canal. But we weren't going to kill him! We just roughed him up a bit." For that assault, Lane spent 14 months in prison - his only term before the Magill murder. He has told the Guardian that there are people inside jail who are trying to shut him up – permanently. But he won't be deterred. One force reported that up to 75% of all threat-to-life notices may be issued to serious criminals or gangs, he added.Within hours of the shooting the names of two men, Roger Vincent and David Smith, were being spoken of as those responsible. In 1998, the Osman family successfully argued in the European Court of Human Rights that the Met Police had breached Mr Osman's right to life because it had all the information it needed to deal with the threat. After his conviction, stories appeared in the tabloids saying Lane was a contract killer who detectives called "the executioner". To detectives, who had launched a huge investigation, his trip to the north-east pointed to his involvement in the murder. Lane's decision not to tell them about the call hardly helped. Nor did he tell them that his mother had also been threatened by a motorcycle rider who appeared at her front door one morning, warning her and Kevin to keep quiet. The following year Vincent and Lane were charged with the murder but Vincent was acquitted at the subsequent trial.