Ancient Inca –
Land & History
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Overview
• Geography
• Prehistory
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Chavin
Moche
Nazca
Middle Kingdoms
Chimor
• Inca
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Inca Empire
• Peru
– parts of Ecuador, Bolivia,
Argentina
• Pacific Ocean
– Cold Humboldt current,
nutrient rich
• Land: 3 regions
– Coastal desert, arid plateau
– Andes ranges of mountains
• Altiplano 8000 to 11500 feet,
regular rainfall, fertile valleys
– Eastern slope, Amazon lowlands
(“montanas”)
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Prehistory
• Earliest humans
– 15,000 BP
– Hunter-gatherers using lithic
technology
– Prey: cameloid species (llama,
alpaca, vicuna)
• Earliest cultivated crops
– 10,000 BP
• First agriculture
– 8,000 BP
• First monumental
architecture & irrigation
systems 4700 BP
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vicuna
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Initial Period
• Begins with introduction
of pottery 1800 – 800 BC
• Ceremonial architecture
includes circular sunken
courts & U-shaped temple
complexes
• Sites: Cerro Sechin,
Sechin Alto, Kotosh
Sechin
Alto
Kotosh
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Chavin
Raimondi Stone
• Empire throughout central
Andes 1000 – 200 BC
• Principal city: Chavin de
Huantar
• Sophisticated textiles,
ceramics, stone sculpture,
leadership
• Old Temple: El Lanzon,
• New Temple: Raimondi stone
& Tello obelisk
• Religious cult of jaguar
deity
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Tello obelisk
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El Lanzon
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Moche
• Centred at Moche River
– 1 – 700 AD
• Architecture of mud
brick & stone
• Sites:
Lord of Sipan
– Cerro Blanco on Rio Moche
with Pyramids of Sun, Moon
– Sipan in Lambayeque Valley:
burial chamber discovered
intact in 1987 by Alva
• Contained royal warrior
and priest who died
around A.D. 300
• gold grave goods
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Moche pyramid frieze
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Court of Sipan
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Moche Pottery
• Forms:
– stirrup spout, portrait, anthropomorphic
• Themes
Stirrup
spout
– Painted scenes of Moche life
– Religion
• Cults of warrior-priest, dead
• Music, ritual, human sacrifice
– Warfare
• battle scenes, capture of prisoners
– Economy
• trade goods, agricultural plants
– Erotic
• Variety of sexual activity
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Nazca
• Nazca lines seen from air in
1926
– straight lines, rectangles, animals
& fish
– Lines of power: ritual paths
• Culture 200 BC – 600 AD
– Similar to Paracas Culture: textile,
pottery designs
– Intensive farming, irrigation
– Loosely knit empire
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Middle Kingdoms
Tiwanaku
• Tiwanaku (Tiahuanaco)
– AD 600- 1000
– Aymara people south side Lake
Titicaca
– based on agriculture, herding,
fishing
• City 60,000 people
• Pyramids, sunken temples
• Huari (Wari)
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–
–
–
AD 300 – 800
Quechua military empire
capital city near Ayacucho
Irrigation, roads, military garrisons
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Huari
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Tiwanaku
Huari
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Chimor
Chan Chan
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•
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AD 800 – 1400
Capital city: Chan Chan in Rio Moche Valley
– 9 sq. miles
• centre of craft production, wealth
– 9 palace complexes
• temples, cemeteries, reservoirs, rooms
• living quarters for king & nobility
– Barrios outside palace walls
• Work & living space for artisans & labourers
Chimu Empire
– 600 miles along coast
– Achievements in irrigation, metalwork, textiles,
and maritime trade
Legacy
– Conquered by Inca
– Transferred craftsmen, wealth to Cuzco
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adobe friezes
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First Seven Emperors
Inca Origins
1 Manco Capac
2 Sinchi Roca
3 Lioque Yupanqui
4 Maya Capac
5 Capac Yupanqui
6 Inka Roca
7 Yahuar Huaca
• Creation story
– Viracocha rose from Lake Titicaca,
created the Inca, Manco Capac, & sun
god, Inti
– Legend: Manco Capac led his people
from Titicaca to Valley of Cuzco
• First Seven Rulers
– 1st Emperor: Manco Capac
• Founded Cuzco circa AD 1100
– 7th Emperor: Yahuar Huaca
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Pachacutec
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•
Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui (AD 1438 - 1471)
– 9th Emperor, son of Viracocha (8th Inca emperor),
– founder of Inca Empire
Achievements
– Military conquest
• Defended Cuzco against Chanca invasion
• Conquered Aymara , confederation of tribes north of
Cuzco, except Chimu
• Ruled from Titicaca to Cajamarca
– Inca imperial system
• Rebuilding & enlarging of Cuzco: temples, palaces
• Agricultural terracing and irrigation systems
• Relocation system for native peoples
• Mutual gift giving with local chiefs
• Worship of Inti, the sun
• Established Quechua as language of empire
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The Last Conquerors
Tupac Yupanqui
• Tupac Yupanqui
– AD 1471- 1493
– conquered from northern Ecuador to central Chile
– Established
• Population census
• Decimal system of administration
• mamaconas
• Huayna Capac
– AD 1493 - 1525
– empire reached its maximum limits
– Conquest of Quito
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Huayna Capac
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The Spanish
Conquest
•
•
Francisco
Pizarro
Civil war over disputed succession of Inca
– Atahualpa and Huascar, sons of Huayna
Capac
Francisco Pizarro AD 1532
– 3rd expedition with 106 soldiers and 62
horses
– Met Atahualpa in city of Cajamarca.
• Formal procession of welcome
– Arrested Inca leader, extracted ransom in
gold
– Attacked and defeated Inca army
• Steel, cannon, cavalry were advantages
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Spanish Colony
• Defeat of the Inca
– Executed Atalhualpa
– Marched on Cuzco
– Defeated Atahualpa’s northern army
• Spanish colonial administration
– Set up puppet emperor Manco Inca
– Colonial system of governors
• Similar to system in Mexico
– Disease reduced native populations
– Spanish missionaries arrived to convert natives
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BP
BP when placed after a number (as in 2500 BP) means "years Before
the Present". Archaeologists generally use this to refer to dates that
were obtained through the radiocarbon method, although not
exclusively.
The advantage to using BP is it avoids the Prehistory whole
philosophical debate about whether in this multicultural world of ours
it is better to use A.D. and B.C., which are explicit references to
Christianity, or to use C.E. (Common Era) and B.C.E. (Before the
Common Era), which still, after all, use an approximation of Jesus
Christ's birth year as a starting point.
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Cerro Sechín
Cerro Sechín, pre-Columbian temple site in the present-day Casma
Valley, of the north central coast of Peru, known for its unusual large
stone sculptures. These carvings are in a style unlike anything else
reported in Peru. The Cerro Sechín temple and sculptures
presumably are quite early, although whether they are pre-Chavín
(before c. 900 bc) is uncertain. The Cerro Sechín carvings have been
executed by deep-line incisions on relatively unfinished stone slabs.
Most of the figures represent humans, perhaps dead or sacrificed
persons.
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Sechin Alto
The archaeological site called Sechin Alto is home to the largest pre-Columbian
monument in Peru.
The Sechin complex in the Casma Valley was the capital of a pre-Incan culture located
on the northwest coast of Peru, occupied between approximately 1,800-900 BC.
The significance of these early dates means that it preceded the much better known site
of Chavin de Huantar by nearly a thousand years rather than visa versa as had been
thought previously.
The site is remarkable for its enormous mound, the largest of its time period,
measuring some 990 feet long, by 825 feet wide by 145 feet tall. The mound was faced
with granite blocks, some weighing over 2 tons. Sechin Alto's great size may represent a
1000 year building span.
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Kotosh
Kotosh is an archaeological site near Huánuco (Peru) containing a
temple of the Late Archaic period. The site gave name to the Kotosh
Religious Tradition, which existed in Peru in 2300—1200 BCE, i.e.
in the Late Archaic period. Kotosh people cultivated crops, used
marine resources, built permanent settlements and multistoreyed
ceremonial buildings
The image of crossed arms is characteristic for the Kotosh temple
iconography. Kotosh also contains artifacts of later origin, mostly
belonging to Chavín culture.
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Lanzón
The Lanzón is the colloquial name for the most important statue of the central deity of the
ancient Chavín culture of the central highlands of Peru. The Chavín religion was the first
major religious and cultural movement in the Andes mountains, flourishing between 900
and 200 BCE. The Lanzón takes its name from the Spanish word for "lance," an allusion to
the shape of the sculpture.
The Lanzón is housed in the central cruciform chamber of a labyrinthine series of
underground passages in the Old Temple of the ceremonial and religious center of Chavín
de Huantar. Devotees would be led into the maze of pitch-black tunnels, eventually coming
face to face with the sculpture's snarling mouth and upturned eyes. The worshipers'
disorientation, in addition to the hallucinogenic effects of the San Pedro cactus they were
given before entering, only heightened the visual and psychological impact of the sculpture.
The central image of the Lanzon functions as axis mundi, or pivot linking the heavens,
earth and underworld. Position within the building also suggests centrality of image.
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Anthropomorphic
Anthropomorphism, or personification, is attribution of
human form or other characteristics to anything other than
a human being. Examples include depicting deities with
human form and ascribing human emotions or motives to
forces of nature, such as hurricanes or earthquakes.
Anthropomorphism has ancient roots as a literary device in
storytelling, and also in art. Most cultures have traditional
fables with anthropomorphised animals, who can stand or
talk as if human, as characters.
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Sipán
• Sipán is a Moche archaeological site in northern Peru that is famous
for the tomb of El Señor de Sipán (Lord of Sipán), excavated by
Walter Alva and his wife Susana Meneses beginning in 1987. The
tomb of the Lord of Sipan has been dated to around 100 AD. The
site, where fourteen tombs have been discovered, is considered to
be one of the most important archaeological discoveries in the last
30 years, because the main tomb was found intact and undisturbed
by thieves. Tombs have been found also in Sipán's Huaca Rajada, an
area near Chiclayo. Many huaca have been found that contain burial
goods of Moche jewelry, masks, and art.
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Court of Sipan
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Dr. Walter Alva and his colleagues built the Museo Tumbas Reales de Sipán, which opened in 2002 in
Lambayeque, Peru; 485 miles north of Lima.
The Lord of Sipán, is a royal warrior and priest who died around A.D. 300.
The tombs of 13 individuals were excavated at Sipán. “This discovery revolutionized Moche studies the way
that the discovery of King Tut changed Egyptian studies”, Alva says, “We understood suddenly that the
people we’d seen in drawings – and their ceremonies, their rituals – were real”.
The Tomb Of Sipan is close to the Town of Sipan, 35 kilometres from Chiclayo, in the Archaeological
Compound of Huaca Rajada. The Archaeological Site has two truncated pyramids, buildings wherein the Tomb
of the Lord of Sipan, the Tomb of the Priest, and that of the Old Lord of Sipan, were found together.
The ancient ruler of the Valleys of the North must have exercised his dominion in the year 250 D.C.
approximately, and his authority extended to the military, religious and civil ambits. The builders of the
Citadel of the Lord of Sipan were the Mochicas, who established themselves in the Region of La Libertad,
to later extend towards the Valleys of Lambayeque, Chicama, Moche, Virú, Santa and Nepeña, over an area
of 6500 square kilometres. It is thought that the Compound contained nearly 15 thousand inhabitants,
including professionals such as potters, goldsmiths, and weavers.
Death did not mean the end for the Mochicas. In their belief, they would continue living in another spiritual
plane with their same obligations or privileges as in this world. Thus, their rulers were buried with provisions
and goods to use in the afterlife. The discovery of this tomb allows us to know more about these burial
rituals.
The Lord of Sipan died at an age of about 40 years and other than arthritis, he was in good health. His
height was of 5 foot 6 inchest, which was considered to be tall during his time, and his bodily structure
shows that he did little physical labor.
The Old Lord of Sipan, buried in the first construction stage of the funerary platform, must have been the
most ancient ruler of the Valley.
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The Lines of Nazca Peru
• In the Peruvian Desert, about 200 miles south of Lima,
there lies a plain between the Inca and Nazca
(sometimes also spelled Nasca) Valleys. Across this
plain, in an area measuring 37 miles long and 1-mile
wide, is an assortment of perfectly-straight lines, many
running parallel, others intersecting, forming a grand
geometric form. In and around the lines there are also
trapezoidal zones, strange symbols, and pictures of
birds and beasts all etched on a giant scale that can
only be appreciated from the sky.
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Tiwanaku: Spiritual and Political Centre
of the Tiwanaku Culture
• The city of Tiwanaku, capital of a powerful pre-Hispanic empire
that dominated a large area of the southern Andes and beyond,
reached its apogee between 500 and 900 AD. Its monumental
remains testify to the cultural and political significance of this
civilisation, which is distinct from any of the other pre-Hispanic
empires of the Americas.
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Huari
•
Huari, also spelled Wari, archaeological site located in the central highland
region of present-day Peru that gives its name to an Andean civilization of
the central and northern highlands of the Middle Horizon (c. ad 600–1000).
Huari is closely linked in its art style to the monuments of the great site
of Tiwanaku, located on Lake Titicaca in northwestern Bolivia. Huari was
probably the centre of a militaristic empire that dominated much of the
Peruvian highlands and coast during the earlier part of the Middle Horizon.
Its influences are seen especially in the Late Nazca (Ica) culture of the
southern coast and at Pachacamac on the central coast. The most
distinctive decorative motif on Huari pottery is the Doorway God, a
stylized, anthropomorphic figure often represented in front view with a
rectangular face and rayed headdress.
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Viracocha
•
Viracocha is the great creator god in the pre-Inca and Inca mythology in the
Andes region of South America. Full name and some spelling alternatives are
Wiracocha,[1] Apu Qun Tiqsi Wiraqutra, and Con-Tici (also spelled Kon-Tiki)
Viracocha. Viracocha was one of the most important deities in the Inca
pantheon and seen as the creator of all things, or the substance from which
all things are created, and intimately associated with the sea.[2] Viracocha
created the universe, sun, moon, and stars, time (by commanding the sun to
move over the sky)[3] and civilization itself. Viracocha was worshipped as god
of the sun and of storms. He was represented as wearing the sun for a
crown, with thunderbolts in his hands, and tears descending from his eyes as
rain.
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Chimor
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Chimor (also Kingdom of Chimor) was the political grouping of the Chimú culture that ruled the
northern coast of Peru, beginning around 850 and ending around 1470. Chimor was the largest
kingdom in the Late Intermediate period, encompassing 1000 km of coastline. The greatest surviving
ruin of this civilization is the city of Chan Chan located 4 km northwest of the modern Trujillo, Peru.
Chimu Piece, Imperial Epoch, 1300–1532 Larco Museum Collection
Late Intermediate Period Cultures
The Chimú grew out of the remnants of the Moche culture. The first valleys seem to have joined
forces willingly, but Sican was acquired through conquest. They also were significantly influenced by
the Cajamarca and the Wari. According to legend, the capital Chan Chan was founded by Taycanamo,
who arrived in the area by sea.
Chimor was the last kingdom that had any chance of stopping the Inca Empire. But the Inca
conquest began in the 1470s by Topa Inca Yupanqui, defeating the emperor and descendant of
Tacaynamo, Minchancaman, and was nearly complete when Huayna Capac assumed the throne in 1493
AD.
Chimú ceramics are all black. It is also known for its exquisite and intricate metal-working, and one
of the most advanced of pre-Columbian times.
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