Silva Collins, Gabriel 2019 Anthropology Thesis Title: Making the Mountains: Inca Statehood on the Huchuy Qosqo Roads Advisor: Antonia Foias Advisor is Co-author: None of the above Second Advisor: Released: release now Authenticated User Access: No Contains Copyrighted Material: No MAKING THE MOUNTAINS: Inca Statehood on the Huchuy Qosqo Roads by GABRIEL SILVA COLLINS Antonia Foias, Advisor A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Anthropology WILLIAMS COLLEGE Williamstown, Massachusetts May 19, 2019 Introduction Peru is famous for its Pre-Hispanic archaeological sites: places like Machu Picchu, the Nazca lines, and the city of Chan Chan. Ranging from the earliest cities in the Americas to Inca metropolises, millennia of urban human history along the Andes have left large and striking sites scattered across the country. But cities and monuments do not exist in solitude. Peru’s ancient sites are connected by a vast circulatory system of roads that connected every corner of the country, and thousands of square miles beyond its current borders. The Inca road system, or Qhapaq Ñan, is particularly famous; thousands of miles of trails linked the empire from modern- day Colombia to central Chile, crossing some of the world’s tallest mountain ranges and driest deserts. The Inca state recognized the importance of its road system, and dotted the trails with rest stops, granaries, and religious shrines. Inca roads even served directly religious purposes in pilgrimages and a system of ritual pathways that divided the empire (Ogburn 2010). This project contributes to scholarly knowledge about the Inca and Pre-Hispanic Andean civilizations by studying the roads which stitched together the Inca state. It involves an initial survey of a small section of understudied Inca road between three of the empire’s most important sites. The project adds to the study of functional and ideological roles of Inca road systems in uniting an empire that stretched over vast distances and extreme environments. The project’s focus area includes two roads that lead to the site of Huchuy Qosqo, the former palace of the Emperor Viracocha located above the Sacred Valley. One road begins from Tambomachay, a site near the Inca capital of Cusco, while the other begins from Taucca, a town adjacent to the royal Inca estate Chinchero. The Qorikocha basin and surrounding mountains, located to the east of the Tambomachay – Huchuy Qosqo trail, is another important area that Silva Collins, 2 sheds light on Inca integration strategies in the area. In order to provide more context about the area, research also involved examining a road between Chinchero and the Sacred Valley town of Urquillos, along with the sacred mountain Pitusiray. By mapping and studying archaeological remains along these trails and their endpoints, this project studies Inca imperial strategies in the empire’s heartland which were likely precursors to the later techniques that enabled radical expansion. The trails’ location near Cusco increases their value as windows into the functions of Inca roads. The fact that the road has not already been surveyed is a significant gap in archeological knowledge of the Cusco Valley and Inca archaeology. Various types of structures which shed light upon multiple aspects of Inca society and imperialism exist on the Huchuy Qosqo roads: quarries, wak’a sacred spaces, terraces, canals, and more. Finally, the arrangement of sacred space in the Huchuy Qosqo area informs how the Inca state utilized religious ideology to reinforce its imperial power. Background The Inca Empire was the largest state in the Pre-Hispanic Americas, and one of the largest empires in the world at its height in the early 1500s. Spanning the Andes from Colombia to central Chile, the centralized Inca state was ruled by a divine emperor from Cusco, the capital city. Inca expansionism through the 15th century rapidly brought hundreds of different ethnicities, cultures, and polities under Cusco’s rule (Stanish 2001). In order to maintain control over their empire, the Inca constructed a vast road network and infrastructural system of administrative centers, storehouses, military fortifications, and agricultural terraces. State religion was dominated by the deities Viracocha and Inti; respectively, the creator of the universe and the sun. Humans were considered descendants of Inti. The emperor (Sapa Inca) was Silva Collins, 3 considered a deity on earth (Fuerst 2018). After a civil war and several devastating smallpox epidemics, the empire was conquered by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro, his soldiers, and indigenous Andeans who rose up in rebellion against the Inca. The Incas’ last attempts to control Cusco and their former empire ended in 1536, and the final Inca state based in Vilcabamba was overcome in 1572 (Bauer, Halac-Higashimori, & Cantarutti 2016). Cusco and Huchuy Qosqo As the capital of the Inca Empire, Cusco was the largest and most important city. Up to 150,000 people lived in Cusco, which was the religious, political, administrative, and ideological center of the empire. (Stanish 2003) The Inca called their state “Tawantinsuyu,” which translates as “The Land of Four Quarters.” These four regions met in Cusco itself, thus making the city the literal epicenter of the entire empire’s organizational structure. Cusco was divided into upper (hanan) and lower (hurin) halves that were then bisected again to create the four quarters. Qorikancha, the Temple of the Sun, was the most important building in the Inca Empire and located in Cusco. Along with a large population of immigrants, representative populations of each group that the Inca conquered were forcibly relocated to Cusco, along with skilled artisans and individuals from around the empire (Ibid.). The Huchuy Qosqo trail enters Cusco through Sacsayhuaman, a fortress that guarded the city, and Qenqo, a religious space of wak’a shrines carved out of living stone. In addition to its defensive purposes, Sacsayhuaman was a monument to Inca imperial power and power projection; the largest stones in the site weigh hundreds of thousands of pounds, and its walls were painstakingly constructed without any mortar (Ogburn 2004). Qenqo, on the other hand, is a large field of rock outcroppings that the Inca carved into symbolic shapes and figures. Living stone sculptures are a common feature of Inca art, and had several roles, including marking Silva Collins, 4 places for special events, positioning idols and statues, astronomic observation, and cosmological organization (Christie 2006). The area around Sacsayhuaman and Qenqo was the main entrance to Cusco. Huchuy Qosqo, or “Little Cusco,” is one of the few Inca archaeological sites that has been definitively identified as an emperor’s royal estate. The site’s palatial residence was known as Caquia Xaquixaguana, and belonged to the emperor Viracocha Inca (Bauer and Rodriguez 2007). Viracocha was the eighth emperor in the traditional Inca dynastic sequence. He was also the father of Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, the ruler who would accelerate Inca expansionism to form the dominant state that the empire became. During the emperor’s lifetime, it was used as a safe point of retreat from a threatening enemy army when even Cusco itself was in danger (Ibid.). The site would also have held significant importance after Viracocha’s death in 1438. Inca emperors’ bodies were mummified and considered magically powerful after death, and Huchuy Qosqo was Viracocha’s burial site that still held an active entourage of servants for the mummy until Viracocha’s body was burned by the Spanish. Viracocha’s mummy in Caquia Xaquixaguana was accompanied by a symbolic “brother-statue” (Van de Guchte 1996). Wak’as Wak’as is a general term for sacred objects and space in Andean religion and cosmology. Dozens of types of wak’as were prevalent throughout the Andes, ranging from small piles of sacred stones to mountain-sized buildings such as Huaca Pucllana that still rise over modern-day Lima. These shrines and sacred spaces or objects were sometimes considered active forces with distinct personalities, and individuals sometimes spoke to wak’as in order to ask for advice and information. Wak’as could also be distinctive natural features, such as rock outcroppings, flat areas, rivers, and mountains. Amongst the Inca, these sacred places were often distinguished by Silva Collins, 5 carvings or sculptures made into living rock. Wak’as were given offerings such as coca leaf, corn and herbs. Especially important sites were offered human sacrifices, along with valuable offerings such as rare metals (Niles 1987). The Ceque System One of the most important and least understood aspects of Inca state ideology was the ceque system. Firsthand Inca and Spanish accounts, along with archaeological evidence, suggest that more than 40 spiritual lines of vital power were considered to radiate from Qorikancha, Cusco’s Temple of the Sun. These lines were related to astronomic observations and helped define the Inca empire’s organization into different regions. Although Spanish colonial authorities attempted to compile a list of the ceque lines, their accounts are uncertain and not reliable as accurate descriptions of the ceque system. These powerful lines were marked with at least 328 wak’as. Specific kin groups (ayllus and panacas) were responsible for providing offerings to wak’as along the ceque lines. Andean Pilgrimage Extended pilgrimages have been a feature of Andean