Ancient Cuzco

by Brian S. Bauer

  PHOTO 11.14. The Dominican church above the famous curved Inca wall before the 1950 earthquake (Courtesy of Library of Congress, photograph number 2424; gift of Carroll Greenough)

  PHOTO 11.15. Collapsed end of Dominican church above the famous curved Inca wall after the 1950 earthquake (Courtesy of Fototeca Andina–Centro Bartolomé de Las Casas; photograph by Antonio Mendoza, 1950)

  PHOTO 11.16. The rebuilt end of the Dominican church in 1998

  PHOTO 11.17. Interior structures of the Coricancha during reconstruction. During the course of this restoration project, priority was given to exposing and reconstructing the Inca remains at the site. (Courtesy of Fototeca Andina—Centro Bartolomé de Las Casas; photograph by Oscar Ladrón de Guevara, 1958)

  On May 21, 1950, Cuzco was again hit by a devastating earthquake (Photo 11.12), and this one flattened much of the city and caused parts of the Dominican church and monastery to collapse (Photos 11.13–11.17). UNESCO conducted a survey of the city to evaluate the damage done to its colonial and Inca monuments (Kubler 1952). The reconstruction of the badly damaged Santo Domingo monastery started in 1956. During the course of this restoration project, priority was given to exposing and reconstructing the Inca remains at the site. As a result of the controversial project, much of the colonial monastery was removed and various parts of the Inca complex were restored.28

  Archaeological excavations within the plaza of the monastery and in the triangular terrace area beside the church were also conducted following the 1950 earthquake. Small patches of a cobblestone floor were found within the courtyard area (Ladrón de Guevara 1967). The excavations also revealed the wall foundations of the buildings that once stood on the southern and northern sides of the courtyard (Béjar Navarro 1990). Based on these findings, Rowe’s 1944 map, and their own extensive research at the site, Gasparini and Margolies illustrate what the Coricancha might have looked like during Inca times (Map 11.1 and Figure 11.4).29

  The Coricancha and Inca Astronomy

  Because the Coricancha was the central sanctuary of the solar cult in Cuzco, it has long been speculated that solar observations were made from it. Particular interest has been placed on the east-facing wall of the courtyard, since the earliest accounts of the complex suggest that parts of its façade were covered with gold. Nevertheless, no clear solar alignments have been found there. It is possible that most of the important public solar observations were made, instead, from a plaza such as the Haucaypata (Bauer and Dearborn 1995; Dearborn et al. 1998).

  Anthony Aveni and Tom Zuidema have found, however, that the walkway between the two eastward-facing structures in the Coricancha (Buildings A and B on Map 11.1) has an azimuth of 66°44′ or slightly more than 20′ north of the position where the Pleiades rose in AD 1500. From this, Zuidema (1982: 214) suggests that the heliacal rise of the Pleiades was observed from this area. This is not an unreasonable suggestion, as it is widely noted that the Inca were interested in the Pleiades (Duviols 1986: 151; Cobo 1990: 30 [1653: Bk. 13, Ch. 6]; Bauer and Dearborn 1995) and that they held an important feast related to the Pleiades near the time of Corpus Christi (Avendaño 1904: 381 [1617]; Arriaga 1968: 213 [1621: Ch. 5]).

  The Coricancha as the Center of the Empire

  The city of Cuzco was conceptually divided by the Inca into two halves, or moieties. Like other moiety systems worldwide, Andean moieties are expressed in terms of ranked pairs such as male:female or right:left (Bauer 1992a: 124–139; Gelles 1995). In the Quechua-speaking sectors of the Andes, these pairs are most frequently called Hanansaya (upper division) and Hurinsaya (lower division). For example, Cobo writes:

  The Incas made the same division throughout all of their kingdom that they had made in dividing Cuzco into Hanan Cuzco and Hurin Cuzco. Thus they divided each town and cacicazgo [ethnic group] into two parts, known as the upper district and the lower district, or the superior part or faction and the inferior; and even though these names denote inequality between these two groups, nevertheless, there was none, . . . (Cobo 1979: 195 [1653: Bk. 12, Ch. 24])30

  In the case of Cuzco, the Coricancha was at the junction of the two parts. Downstream from the Coricancha was Hurin Cuzco, and the area upstream was called Hanan Cuzco.

  MAP 11.1. Map of the Coricancha (Gasparini and Margolies 1980: 224; courtesy of Luise Margolies and Graziano Gasparini)

  FIGURE 11.4. Gasparini and Margolies (1980: 229) illustrate what the Coricancha might have looked like during Inca times. (Courtesy of Luise Margolies and Graziano Gasparini)

  Both of the Cuzco moieties were, in turn, further divided in half. These four quarters, or suyus (divisions), radiated from the Coricancha as the center of the Inca world (Cobo 1990: 51 [1653: Bk. 12, Ch. 13]; Betanzos 1996: 71 [1557: Pt. 1, Ch. 16]; Bauer 1998). The indigenous name for the Inca Empire, Tawantinsuyu (the four parts together), was derived from the four great spatial divisions that together made up the realm. The Hanansaya quarters, consisting of the regions to the northwest and northeast of Cuzco, were called Chinchaysuyu and Antisuyu respectively. The Hurinsaya division included the two southern quarters: Collasuyu to the southeast and Cuntisuyu to the southwest. The Inca Empire was seen as the sum of these four parts, and for the Inca, the Coricancha marked its center.

  The Coricancha and the Shrines of the Cuzco Ceque System

  The spatial organization of Cuzco and the Inca Empire is discussed in a number of chronicles, and there is general agreement on its broadest moiety and suyu divisions. However, Cobo’s work goes further and describes a related but vastly more complex Inca partitioning system (Cobo 1990: 51–84 [1653: Bk. 13, Chs. 13–16]). In addition to the moieties of Cuzco (Hanansaya and Hurinsaya) and the quarters of the valley (Chinchaysuyu, Antisuyu, Collasuyu, and Cuntisuyu), Cobo states that the Cuzco region was further partitioned by forty-two abstract lines, or ceques, that radiated out, like spokes of a wheel, from the Coricancha (Zuidema 1964; Bauer 1998). The course of these lines was defined by the location of hundreds of sacred objects, or huacas, situated in and around the city of Cuzco:

  From the Temple of the Sun, as from the center, there went out certain lines which the Indians call ceques; they formed four parts corresponding to the four royal roads which went out from Cuzco. On each one of those ceques were arranged in order the guacas and shrines which there were in Cuzco and its region, like stations of holy places, the veneration of which was common to all. (Cobo 1990: 51 [1653: Bk. 13, Ch. 13])31

  In the course of his account, which was taken from a lost 1559 manuscript written by Polo de Ondegardo, Cobo describes the ceques contained in each of the four suyus, as well as the individual shrines that formed the organizational lines (Bauer 1998: 13–22).

  Cobo’s description of the Cuzco ceque system is divided into four chapters; each characterizing the ceques and the huacas in a specific suyu. The shrines along each ceque are presented according to their relative distance from the Temple of the Sun. The first shrine of a ceque is generally within the city of Cuzco, often in or near the Coricancha. The last shrine of a ceque is always outside the city, frequently near or just beyond the border of the Cuzco Valley. A second, much abbreviated list of the shrines in the area of Chinchaysuyu was recorded by Albornoz (1984 [ca. 1582]). Albornoz’s account provides additional information on some of the shrines described by Cobo and introduces several additional ones as well (Bauer 1998: 135–142).

  Because of the large-scale destruction that has occurred in the area of the Coricancha, the precise location of most of the shrines that were once in or near it cannot be determined (Table 11.1 and Table 11.2). Nevertheless, the position of a few of the shrines can be identified and are worthy of commentary. For example, a large and important stone called Sabaraura, which was thought to be a petrified warrior, was situated where the belvedere of Santo Domingo was constructed, and just below it, at the base of the complex, was a spring called Pilcopuquio.

  Furthermore, there were several plazas in or near the complex that held important shrines. One shrine called Guara
cince32 was located near the Coricancha and was dedicated to the prevention of earthquakes. Cobo writes:

  [Ch-2:1] The first guaca was called Guaracince, which was in the square of the Temple of the Sun; this square was called Chuquipampa (it means “plain of gold”). It was a bit of flat ground which was there, where they said that the earthquake was formed. At it they made sacrifices so that it would not quake, and they were very solemn ones, because when the earth quaked children were killed, and ordinarily sheep and clothing were burned and gold and silver were buried. (Cobo 1990: 54 [1654: Bk. 13, Ch. 13])33

  The plaza in which this shrine was located may well have been the small open area north of the Coricancha.34 Garcilaso de la Vega (1966: 424 [1609: Pt. 1, Bk. 7, Ch. 9]) calls this plaza Intipata, which he translates as “square of the Sun”35 and suggests that only those who were Inca of Royal Blood could cross it and enter the Coricancha (see Map 10.2).

  A second plaza area described by Cobo was the courtyard that still survives within the Dominican monastery:

  [Cu-5: 1] The first they named Caritampucancha. It was a small square which is now inside the monastery of Santo Domingo, which they held to be the first place where Manco Capac settled on the site of Cuzco when he came out of Tampu. Children were offered to it along with everything else. (Cobo 1990: 80 [1653: Bk. 13, Ch. 16])36

  Near the Coricancha there was also a stone brazier37 in which offerings to the Sun were burned.

  [Ch. 3: 1] The first was named Nina, which was a brazier made of a stone where the fire for sacrifices was lit, and they could not take it from anywhere else. It was next to the Temple of the Sun; it was held in great veneration, and solemn sacrifices were made to it. (Cobo 1990: 55 [1654: Bk. 13, Ch. 13])38

  It is worth noting that elsewhere in his chronicle Cobo describes the use of the stone brazier during the offering of food to the Sun:

  The women who resided in the temple of Cuzco were in charge of lighting and stirring the fire that burned in the temple for the sacrifices. This fire was not fed with ordinary wood but with a very special kind of carefully carved and painted wood. The cook got up early every day to cook the food for the Sun and his attendants. As the Sun appeared on the horizon and struck with its rays at the Punchao, which was a golden image of the Sun placed so that as the Sun came up its light would bathe the image, the women offered the Sun this food that they had prepared, burning it with special solemnity and songs. (Cobo 1990: 174 [1653: Bk. 13, Ch. 37])39

  This brazier must have been a prominent feature of Inca Cuzco, since it is further described by Murúa, Montesinos, and Polo de Ondegardo. From the latter of these writers we learn that a special red wood that was carved and at times painted was placed in this fire, and that the wood was brought from hundreds of kilometers away by the Chincha, who were located on the coast of Peru (Polo de Ondegardo 1990: 100–101 [1571]).40

  PHOTO 11.18. Santo Domingo and the curved wall of the Coricancha in 1998

  TABLE 11.1. Shrines listed by Cobo (1990 (1653]) as located in or near the Coricancha

  TABLE 11.2. Shrines listed by Albornoz (1984 [CA. 1582]) as located in or near the Coricancha

  Summary and Discussion

  The importance of the Coricancha cannot be underestimated. The Inca Empire was seen as being composed of four great geopolitical quarters that radiated out from this complex. For the Inca, the Coricancha marked the central and most sacred spot in the universe (Photo 11.18).

  Excavations by Rowe (1944) in the patio of the Dominican theological school to the southeast of the Dominican monastery found large quantities of Killke pottery. These findings are supported by a number of separate archaeological excavations that have been conducted in and around the Coricancha over the past several decades by Cuzco archaeologists, including Luis Barreda Murillo, Arminda Gibaja Oviedo, Alfredo Valencia Zegarra, and most recently, Raymundo Béjar Navarro. These researchers have each recovered exceptionally high quality Killke ceramics, further documenting that the special character of the site extends back before the establishment of the Inca Empire. Furthermore, excavations in the areas surrounding the complex have revealed Killke Period architectural remains, indicating that even during that time the shrine area was surrounded by buildings and plazas (González Corrales 1984; San Roman Luna 2003).

  Because of its great wealth, the Coricancha was sacked by the Spaniards even before they had established a secure rule over the Andes. Nevertheless, we know something about the organization of the complex and the activities that occurred within its confines from the various Spaniards who saw it during or just after the conquest. The Coricancha comprised a group of buildings dedicated to various deities. The stones for much of the complex were brought from the quarry of Rumicolca, some 35 kilometers from the city, just beyond the site of Pikillacta (Hunt 1990).

  By far the most important idol held within the complex was the highly venerated gold image of the Sun called Punchao (sunlight), which by the end of the empire had become almost synonymous with Inca rule. Various early colonial writers state that the image was in the shape of a man (Molina 1989 [ca. 1575]; Sarmiento de Gamboa 1906 [1572]). Likewise, we are told that the Coricancha housed the silver image of the Moon, which was in the form of a woman (Molina 1989 [ca. 1575]; Garcilaso de la Vega 1966 [1609]). These were, without a doubt, among the most sacred idols of the late prehispanic Andean world.

  In the division of Spanish Cuzco, Juan Pizarro gained control of the Coricancha (Rowe 1944: 40; Hemming and Ranney 1982: 82). After his death during the siege of Cuzco, it was bequeathed to the Dominicans, who immediately established the first Christian order within Cuzco. The Coricancha, which like so much of Cuzco was damaged in the siege, was then slowly transformed from the center of the Inca world to the focal point of a powerful Christian institution. By the time of the 1650 earthquake, many of its buildings had been destroyed and new colonial edifices had been erected. In the years following the earthquake, the monastery was again remodeled, and it reached its height of power during the eighteenth century. But by the mid-nineteenth century, like most of Cuzco’s religious institutions, the Dominican order had fallen on hard times (Burns 1999).

  Squier lived for a week in the complex in 1865. His study has been followed by many others, most notably that by Rowe (1944), who spent several months studying the Coricancha and who produced the definitive work on its history. A few years after Rowe concluded his fieldwork another earthquake racked Cuzco, and parts of the complex collapsed again. In the reconstruction that followed, many of its colonial features were demolished in an effort to expose the underlying Inca buildings at the site. Today one sees an uneasy combination of Inca buildings, reduced colonial architecture, and modern scaffoldings.

  Although much of the Inca complex has been lost, including what was the original House of the Sun, what remains still astonishes visitors. The great exterior walls and curved western corner of the Coricancha are world famous for their craftsmanship. Inside, the remains of four buildings constructed with superb stonework can be seen on either side of a plaza. One can only wonder what the complex would have looked like at the height of the Inca Empire, when it was complete and parts of its façades were covered with gold.

  CHAPTER 12

  The Mummies of the Royal Inca

  THE INCA MUMMIFIED their dead kings, and several times a year these mummies were assembled, in order of their reigns, in the plaza of Cuzco for all to see. During the rest of the year, they gave and sought private audiences in their Cuzco palaces or in nearby royal estates. In the words of one early eyewitness, “it was customary for the dead to visit one another, and they held great dances and debaucheries, and sometimes the dead went to the house of the living, and sometimes the living came to the house of the dead.”1 Speaking through oracles and attended by servants, the ancient kings of Cuzco counseled the living and attempted to protect and extend the resources of their descendants. In this chapter, we turn from discussions of the development of the Inca state and the physical organization of Cuzco
to explore this unusual worldview in which deceased rulers continued to play critical roles in the social and political organization of the capital generations after their death.2

  Polo de Ondegardo and the Inca Mummies

  In 1558, Juan Polo de Ondegardo, was appointed corregidor (chief magistrate) of Cuzco by Viceroy Andrés Hurtado de Mendoza, Marqués de Cañete.3 He soon received orders from the viceroy and the archbishop of Lima, Jerónimo de Loaysa, to investigate the history and ritual practices of the Inca. To this end, Polo de Ondegardo brought together various officials and priests who had held offices in the empire at its height, a little more than thirty years earlier. They were questioned about their own experiences in Cuzco as well as about the empire as a whole (Cobo 1979: 99 [1653: Bk. 12, Ch. 2]). Polo de Ondegardo’s findings were sent to Lima, accompanied by several of the royal Inca mummies.

  Although various Spaniards had already conducted inquiries into the history and religion of the Inca, and there would be many more to follow, Polo de Ondegardo’s investigation was one of the largest and best organized.4 Cobo hints at the massiveness of Polo de Ondegardo’s investigation when describing the “sorcerers” of the Inca:

  . . . in his account the Licentiate Polo de Ondegardo tells that on the basis of the inquiry made by the Indian mayors in the city of Cuzco on his orders, just from among the inhabitants of that city there were four hundred seventy-five men and women who had no other occupation. Each of them was brought before him with the instruments that they used. (Cobo 1990: 161–162 [1653: Bk. 13, Ch. 34])5

  Polo de Ondegardo’s report circulated widely and had a significant impact on various governmental and religious leaders. Unfortunately, his report, one of the most important documents produced during the early Colonial Period, is now lost. We do, however, know some of the information that it contained, because several later writers incorporated parts of it into their own reports. Cobo, who came to possess a signed copy of the report some ninety years after it was sent to the archbishop of Lima, tells of its importance and impact: