Inca Mountaintop Shrines and Glaciers in the High Andes

JGA 3.1 (2016) 59–78 Journal of Glacial Archaeology ISSN (print) 2050-3393 https://doi.org/10.1558/jga.34465 Journal of Glacial Archaeology ISSN (print) 2050-3407 Inca Mountaintop Shrines and Glaciers in the High Andes Constanza Ceruti Universidad Católica de Salta [email protected] This paper offers a summary of several years of high altitude archaeological investigations that I have undertaken in the South American Andes, focusing on the strategies used by the Inca civilization to choose Andean peaks for the construction of mountaintop shrines that are the highest archaeological sites in the world. Selected mountains were used as places of pilgrimage in the context of sacrifices and offerings performed five centuries ago during state-sponsored ceremonies called capacochas. Diverse attributes could have been involved in the selection of the mountains to be crowned with imperial summit shrines. Archaeological examples are from Andean mountains above 5,000 meters in elevation, where I have been conducting high-altitude explora- tions on more than one hundred peaks since 1996. The evidence from archaeological surveys is contrasted with ethnographic data and references from ethno-historical sources. Attributes such as the altitude of the mountains and their visibility, as well as the accessibility of the summits, are taken into consideration in the analysis, ponder- ing the strategies used by the Incas to cope with glaciers climbs, active volcanoes and snowcapped peaks. Introduction Mountains are universally considered sacred. For an entity to be perceived as sacred or numinous, it has to show aspects that are, on the one hand, appealing and fascinat- ing, as well as attributes that are considered threatening or dangerous (Otto 1988). In their majesty and beauty, glacial mountains and snow-capped peaks fascinate observers, and cause a particular feeling of exaltation in those who can climb them to their summits. At the same time, mountains are feared for the dangerous thunder and snowstorms, the hurricane winds and the volcanic eruptions. These ambivalent qualities turn Andean mountains into sacred entities that are object of traditional religious adoration. Keywords: Inca Empire, high altitude archaeology, glaciers, mountaintop shrines © Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2018, Office 415, The Workstation, 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield, S1 2BX 60 Constanza Ceruti The Inca Empire started expanding along the western mountains of South America about 1438 AD, and reached the highest level of socio-political organization in the history of Andean civilizations, prior to the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in 1532. The state of “the four regions of the sun” (or Tawantinsuyu, as it was known in Quechua) spread from its capital in the Peruvian Sierras northwards to southern Colombia and southwards to the Bolivian highlands, central Chile and northwest Argentina. In a span of less than a century the Incas built dozens of administrative centres and fortresses, thousands of kilometres of stone-paved roads and nearly two hundred mountaintop shrines on snow-capped Andean peaks over 5000 meters in elevation. The Inca ceremonial shrines built on the highest summits of the Andes are a unique phenomenon in the history of mankind. There are no mountaintop sanctuaries in the Himalayas, where the sacred mountains are worshiped by circumambulation and the ascent to the most sacred summits remains ritually forbidden (Bernbaum 1990, 7–13). In the volcanoes of Mexico, the Aztec shrines are often located on the slopes of the mountains, at lower elevations, and they lack the architectural complexities of their Andean counterparts (cf. Montero García 2004). The Incas were the first to dare climb the highest summits of the Andes, facing the extreme high-altitude envi- ronment and overcoming the psychological barrier of fear that the colossal summits inspired amidst the ancient Andean inhabitants (Reinhard 1983). Sacrificial victims and Inca style offerings made their way to the most sacred summits of the Andes during state sponsored ceremonies of capacocha, elaborate religious mechanism of social and political control. A first step in the capacocha ceremony involved the convergence of selected victims and sumptuary items from all over the Inca territory into Cusco, the capital of the Inca Empire. Subsequently, these offerings were taken in processions towards the mountains in the periphery of the empire, where they were destined to be sacrificed and buried (cf. Duviols 1976). Commemoration of important moments in the life of the Inca emperor, propitiation of the fertility of the crops and the success at war, appeasing of natural catastrophes as well as the preventive expiation of faults to reestablish the cosmic equilibrium, were among the ideological justifications for the sacrifices and offerings performed on the high Andes by the Incas (cf. Betanzos 1996). The processions towards the chosen mountains served to underline the sacredness of Andean geography as well as to consolidate the domination on the new territories conquered by the Incas. This paper deals with diverse attributes involved in the selection of the sacred mountains to be crowned with Inca summit shrines. Variables such as altitude, accessibility, visibility, presence of snow and volcanic activity will be discussed in the analysis, based on evidences from archaeological surveys, ethnographic data and references from ethno-historical sources. History of field investigations From the high Peruvian sierra down to the monumental peaks of central Argentina, the Inca mountaintop shrines sat atop volcanoes and snowcapped peaks, contribut- ing to the sacredness of the geography of the Andes. Those shrines built on the high- © Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2018 Inca Mountaintop Shrines and Glaciers in the High Andes 61 est mountains were occasionally consecrated as ceremonial places for offerings, and exceptionally, for human sacrifices. High altitude archaeology reveals the complexities of mountaintop burials in the Inca civilization. In the volcanoes of southern Peru, four human bodies were recovered from the glacial peak of mount Ampato (Reinhard 1996, 1997); three burials were excavated on the heights of mount Pichu Picchu (Linares Málaga 1966 and Rein- hard 1998), and one female individual was recovered from the snowcapped massif of Sara-Sara (Reinhard 1998). In 1998 I collaborated with American anthropologist Johan Reinhard in the discovery and recovery of a group of six sacrificial victims and offerings found at an elevation of 5,822 m, inside the crater of the active volcano Misti, overlooking the city of Arequipa (Ceruti 2013b; Reinhard and Ceruti 2010). More than a hundred Andean mountains with sanctuaries on their peaks have been surveyed by high altitude archaeologists in northern Argentina (see Ceruti 1999, 2006, 2008a and 2014b; Reinhard and Ceruti 2005 and 2010). Mount Quehuar (6.130 m) has a monumental aboveground ceremonial platform near the summit and a circular structure that was the burial site of a sacrificed Inca girl (Reinhard and Ceruti 2006). Unfortunately, the site on mount Quehuar was looted by treasure hunters in the 1970s, causing the destruction of the burial site and a partial collapse of the architecture. Mount Chañi, with its granite peaks soaring almost 6,000 m, was also chosen for the construction of a mountaintop site and the sacrifice and burial of an infant, whose body was extracted in 1905 (Ceruti 2001b and 2007). From the summit of mount Chuscha (5,512 m), treasure hunters in the early XXth century extracted the mummy of a young woman with textiles of typical Inca style (Schobinger 2004). Rising in the heart of the Puna highlands, Llullaillaco has an impressive ceremonial complex built on its slopes and summit (6,739 m). A young maiden and two infants were sacrificed to the gods by the Inca priests during a ceremony ofcapacocha (cf. Ceruti 2003a; Reinhard y Ceruti 2010). The Inca frozen bodies from Llullaillaco, discovered by Johan Reinhard and myself during a scientific expedition conducted in 1999, have been analyzed as objects of dedication (Ceruti 2004a), as well as objects of bioarchaeological research (Ceruti 2014a). I coordinated interdisciplinary studies on these ice mummies in collaboration with local and international scientists, including radiological evaluations by conventional X-rays and CT scans (Previgliano et al. 2003, 2005) and dental studies. D.N.A. and hair analysis were also performed in cooperation with academic institutions in the United States and Europe (cf. Wilson et al. 2007 and 2013). The material offerings associated to the Llullaillaco mountaintop burials have been described and studied extensively in terms of their social use and symbolic meaning (Ceruti 2003a; Bray et al. 2005). In the Andes of central Argentina, rescue missions were undertaken by archae- ologist Juan Schobinger after the partial accidental exposure of two mummies. One was an adult male, found at 6.100 m near the summit of mount El Toro (Schobinger 1966) and the other, a seven year old boy buried at the base of a secondary summit of the Aconcagua massif (Schobinger 2001) (Figure 1). In Chilean territory, treasure hunters excavated the burial of a male infant at 5.400 m, on the heights of mount El Plomo (Mostny 1957). Two sacrificed female individuals buried together with distinc- © Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2018 62 Constanza Ceruti Figure 1 Map of the central Andes with selected Inca mountaintop shrines marked (Adapted from Reinhard and Ceruti 2010, courtesy of National Geographic Society). © Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2018 Inca Mountaintop Shrines and Glaciers in the High Andes 63 tive Inca offerings were accidentally exposed by workers during the construction of a road on the summit of mount Esmeralda, on the coastal town of Iquique (Checura Jeria 1977; Besom 2013). Material evidences of the pre-Columbian use of Andean summits during Inca ritu- als are mainly found on the mountains located in the ancient territories of Cuntisuyu and Collasuyu, the western and southern provinces of the Inca Empire, which in the XVI century included the Andean territories of southern Peru, Bolivia, northern Chile and northwestern Argentina.

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