Inca Mummies and Ancestral Landscapes

John W. Janusek

Vanderbilt University

The Kallawaya of

Mt. Kaata, Bolivia

Vertical complementarity

Quechua: Imanaya Kasanki

The Inca empire: Tawantinsuyu, or four lands tied together

Cuzco: Navel

Inca royal dynasty: AD 1200 1533

Pachakuti: World reformer

Sapa Inca: Unique Inca

Inca society and hierarchy

Sapa Inca: Unique Inca

Capac Inca: Inca nobility

Wawa Inca: Inca by Privilege

Hatun Runa: Non-Inca who worked

the land

There were no slaves

Inca society: life paths for men and women

Inca Cosmology

Dual complementarity:

sun and moon

Centrality: Cuzco at the center of the cosmos

Inca cosmic origins: Island of the Sun, Lake Titicaca

Island of the Sun and sacred rock of Titikala: Dedicated to Inti.

Island of the Moon: dedicated to Paxi

Tiwanaku: Middle Horizon, AD 500-1100

Tiwanaku: Middle Horizon, AD 500-1100

Tiwanakus Sun Portal: the first solar deity?

Tiwanaku statuary: Inca interpret them as representing a primordial epoch

Cuzco: Feline bodily metaphors

Note the four roads

Upper (Hanan) and Lower (Hurin) Cuzco: Dual complementarity

Inca Temples: Fitted stonework

Coricancha: Gold compound

Coricancha: gold plating and gardens

Sacsaywaman

Terraced farming: Domesticating the landscape

Terracing in Moray, Colca Valley, Peru

Salt pans of Maras, Sacred Valley, Peru

Sacred valley of the Urubamba River: Setting for Inca royal estates

Pisac with its Intihuatana (tying the sun to the earth)

Yucay

Ollantaytambo

Inca urbanism and landscape: Machu Picchu

Building living rock into the built environment

Inca social categories

Camayoq: specialists

Yanacona: retainers

Mitima: colonists

Aclla: women chosen to work (e.g.,

weaving and brewing) for the state

Quipu and a Quipu Camayoq

Quipus for recording food storage and distribution

Basic Quipu construction

Aclla: women who wove, cooked, and brewed for Inti and the Inca state

Lived in acllawasi, or aclla houses A high status aclla could Become mamacona

Textiles: Weaving as an important female career

Inca ceremony: social unity

Feasting, dancing, drinking

Inca ceremony: ritual sacrifice to ensure fertility and abundance

October: Uma Raymi December: Capac Inti Raymi

June solstice: Inti Raymi

Ritual offering today

Royal mummy processions: the dead were alive in everyday life

Inca royal mummies

Huaca: sacred place, object, idol, or mummy

Ceque system: radial pathways linking huacas

Saywite monolith: lithic representation of landscape

Ceques divided Cuzco region into four suyus (Tawantinsuyu)

Ceque system organized Cuzco royal ayllus (panacas) in space and annular time

Some ceques used as sightlines for astronomical observations

Ceque system mimics Quipu system

Inca imperial expansion: split inheritance

Road networks: linked roads dating to Middle Horizon, and earlier

Tambos: sited regularly along roads; inns with amenities, shrines, etc. Chaski: messenger.

Kallankas: for local feasts and ceremonies

Mitima (foreign colonist) settlement in Copacabana, Bolivia

Capac Hucha ceremony

Why are children found buried on tops of mountains across the Andes?

Children were the ideal sacrificial offerings for very hungry, telluric forces.

Child sacrifice became a way for ambitious locals to gain prominence in the Inca realm

Mountain veneration, a millennial history: Misti, Peru

Johan Reinhard: determined to find the Ice Maiden

Mt. Copiapo, Chile

Offerings

Llullaico, Argentina

Llullaico, Argentina

Offerings and clothing

Llullaico: Duality and fulfillment

Mt. Ampato, Peru: admittedly, not an easy deal

Mt. Ampato, Peru

How was Juanita killed?

Juanita on Mount Ampato

Capac Hucha offerings

Inca politics grounded in ritual

Post-Inca Quechua traditions thrive today:

Andean geopolitics still grounded in ritual