Ancient Cuzco

by Brian S. Bauer

  The body of Huayna Capac disappeared from view some time after the conquest. Betanzos (1996: 190 [1557: Pt. 2, Ch. 1]), writing in 1557, specifically states that it had not been seen for many years. Sarmiento de Gamboa (1906: 112 [1572: Ch. 62]) indicates, however, that Huayna Capac’s mummy was found in a house somewhere between the center of Cuzco and Sacsayhuaman, guarded by two servants named Hualpa Titu and Sumac Yupanqui. Cobo describes the events that led to the discovery of Huayna Capac’s remains in even greater detail:

  After the Spaniards entered this land, they made every effort to discover his body, and they even resorted to violence many times, because it was widely believed that he had a great treasure and that it would be buried with his body or in the places he frequented the most during his lifetime, since this was an ancient custom among them. At last, owing to the great diligence that was taken, it was found, at the same time as the bodies of the other Incas, on the road to the fortress, in a house where the body seems to have been taken the night before; since the Spaniards were on the right track and catching up with it, the Indians who took care of it would move it to many different places; and although they took it in such a rush, unexpectedly moving it from one place to another, they always took it in the company of five or six idols, for which they showed great veneration, because they were convinced that these idols helped guard the body of the Inca. (Cobo 1979: 161–162 [1653: Bk. 12, Ch. 17])51

  Thus, like the bodies of all the other kings of Cuzco, the mummy of Huayna Capac was hunted down and found in 1559 through the tireless efforts of Polo de Ondegardo (1990: 128 [1571]).

  The Contact Period Inca Kings

  The civil war between the Inca kings Atahualpa and Huascar, and the arrival of the Spaniards, disrupted the long-term practice of Inca mummification in Cuzco. Nevertheless, the fate of the bodies of the contact period Inca kings can also be traced. Huascar was captured and killed by forces loyal to Atahualpa while the latter was being held prisoner in Cajamarca. Huascar’s body may have been cut up and thrown into the Yanamayu River (Sarmiento de Gamboa 1906: 125 [1572: Ch. 68]), or it may have been burned (Acosta 1986: 424 [1590: Bk. 6, Ch. 22]). If it was burned, the ashes may have been collected by people from Cuzco and worshiped, as was the case for Viracocha Inca and Topa Inca Yupanqui (Cobo 1979: 171 [1653: Bk. 12, Ch. 17]).

  Atahualpa was killed by Francisco Pizarro shortly after the death of Huascar. All eyewitnesses to the dramatic events at Cajamarca indicate that after Atahualpa was garroted in the plaza, his body was buried in a nearby building that the Spaniards were using as a church (Sancho 1917: 18–20 [1534: Ch. 1]; Mena 1929: 42 [1534]; Xerez 1985: 155 [1534]; Pizarro 1986: 63–64 [1571]). It is reported that Atahualpa’s body was later secretly removed from Cajamarca and carried back to Quito in a litter (Betanzos 1996: 274 [1557: Pt. 2, Ch. 26]). There are unsubstantiated reports that his skull was obtained by a French research mission (Mission de E. Senéchal de la Grange) in 1906 in Antofagasta (Chervin 1902: 700–704; 1908).

  Early Colonial Period Inca Kings

  During the period of early Spanish rule in the Andes (1531–1572), two separate lines of Inca kings developed. Paullu Inca and his son Carlos represented one line. They lived in Cuzco and cooperated with the Europeans in controlling the former Inca capital. The other line was represented by Manco Inca, who fled Cuzco in 1536 after the failed siege. Manco Inca and his three sons (Sayri Topa, Titu Cusi Yupanqui, and Tupac Amaru) conducted a forty-year campaign against the imposition of Spanish rule in the Andes.

  Although Paullu Inca died a Christian in Cuzco, members of his family took pieces of his fingernails and hair and made a bulto to worship (Cobo 1979: 176 [1653: Bk. 12, Ch. 20]). Sayri Topa also converted during his short stay in the Cuzco region after emerging from the Vilcabamba area. He left funds in his will for a chapel to be constructed on the spot of the former Coricancha (Morales 1944; Hemming 1970: 297; Hemming and Ranney 1982: 82). After his death, however, his remains were taken to Vilcabamba before they could be buried. The bodies of Manco Inca and Sayri Topa were captured in the final Spanish raid into Vilcabamba (Salazar 1867: 276–277 [1596]; Oviedo 1908: 406 [1573]; Cobo 1979: 176 [1653: Bk. 12, Ch. 20]). These mummies were buried, perhaps with Paullu, in Santo Domingo (Morales 1944; Hemming and Ranney 1982: 82). Tupac Amaru was beheaded in the plaza of Cuzco. His body was buried either in Santo Domingo or the cathedral, and his head was displayed on a pole in the city center. Since the head immediately began to attract large crowds, it was buried with the body the next day (Ocampo Conejeros 1907: 228 [1610]; Oviedo 1908: 406 [1573]; Vasco de Contreras y Valverde 1982: 174 [1649]).

  THE REMAINS OF THE QOYAS

  It is clear that the royal qoyas were also mummified at the time of their deaths, yet we know far less about them. We have specific information on only three of the Inca queens: Mama Runtucaya, Mama Anaguarque, and Mama Ocllo.

  Mama Runtucaya was the wife of Inca Viracocha. Garcilaso de la Vega (1966: 307 [1609: Pt. 1, Bk. 5, Ch. 28]) states that he saw her body in Cuzco in 1560 after it was discovered by Polo de Ondegardo. Mama Anaguarque was the principal wife of Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui. Though she is said to have been from the village of Chocco, just southwest of Cuzco, her mummy was kept in a small but elegant estate called Pumamarca, located a few kilometers northeast of the city (Cobo 1990: 67 [1653: Bk. 13, Ch. 14]; Bauer 1998: 89–90). The remains of this complex, with its fine Inca structures and adjacent garden, can still be seen today (Photo 12.3).

  PHOTO 12.3. The elegant Inca estate called Pumamarca once held the mummy of Mama Anaguarque.

  Mama Ocllo was the wife of Topa Inca Yupanqui and the mother of Huayna Capac. After her death, a statue of Mama Ocllo was placed in her house in Cuzco (Betanzos 1996: 172–173 [1557: Pt. 1, Ch. 44]), which was located near the current Hacienda of Picchu (Cobo 1990: 61 [1653: Bk. 13, Ch. 13]; Bauer 1998: 133). She was also associated with a spring in central Cuzco, and a large cornfield (near the current Cuzco airport) was dedicated to her cult (Cobo 1990: 55, 72 [1653: Bk. 13, Chs. 13 and 15]; Bauer 1998: 55, 103). Polo de Ondegardo found the body of this queen and sent it, along with the mummies of several Inca kings, to Lima (Garcilaso de la Vega 1966: 307 [1609: Pt. 1, Bk. 5, Ch. 28]; Acosta 1986: 422 [1590: Bk. 6, Ch. 22]).

  We also know that a figure of Mama Ocllo was made of gold, and that it was taken by her son, Huayna Capac, into Ecuador during his northern campaigns. Cobo reports:

  The Inca traveled with his army, not halting until he reached Tumibamba; . . . he commanded that a magnificent palace be constructed for himself and a temple for his gods, and in the temple he put a golden statue of his mother, a large number of silver dishes, and servants, both men and women. The Cañares Indians served the statue of Mama Ocllo willingly because she had given birth in that place to Guayna Capac. (Cobo 1979: 155 [1653: Bk. 12, Ch. 16])52

  This figure of Mama Ocllo held considerable influence in the region. In a famous event, Huayna Capac sent this statue of his dead mother, along with its Cañari oracle, to speak with the leaders of a nearby area. A revolt was averted when, after extensive negotiations, the statue offered the leaders additional food and supplies (Cabello de Valboa 1951: 374 [1586: Pt. 3, Ch. 22]; Murúa 1962: 92 [ca. 1615: Ch. 34]). This golden figure, as well as the figures of many other qoyas, may have met their final fate in the Spanish forges as Pizarro and his men took control of Cuzco. Sancho visited the house where much of the Cuzco gold was stored before it was melted down. He provides the following description:

  . . . among other very sightly things were four sheep in fine gold and very large, and ten or twelve figures of women of the size of the women of that land, all of fine gold and as beautiful and well made as if they were alive. These they held in as much veneration as if they had been the rulers of all the world, and alive [as well], and they dressed them in beautiful and very fine clothing, and they adored them as Goddesses, and gave them food and talked with them as if they were women of flesh. (Sancho 1917: 128–129 [1534]; emphasis added)53

  Since there
are no additional eyewitness accounts of the statues of the qoyas after the Spaniards entered Cuzco, it is possible that the ten to twelve statues that Sancho saw represented the various Inca queens who ruled the empire before the arrival of the Europeans.

  Polo de Ondegardo, Viceroy Hurtado de Mendoza, and the Fate of the Inca Mummies

  As noted above, when Polo de Ondegardo became corregidor of Cuzco, he immediately began a systematic search for the mummified remains of the Inca kings that were hidden in the region (Hampe 1982). With astonishing success, Polo de Ondegardo soon found in Cuzco the mummies (or representations) of all eleven Inca kings said to have ruled Cuzco before the arrival of the Spaniards, and an unknown number of Inca queens.

  Polo de Ondegardo saved several individuals for the viceroy to see. Garcilaso de la Vega, who was himself a descendant of royal blood from Topa Inca Yupanqui, provides a remarkable description of these mummies.54 Just before he left Peru for Spain, in the year 1560, Garcilaso de la Vega visited the house of Polo de Ondegardo, where he was shown a group of embalmed Inca kings and queens. He describes in vivid detail this encounter with his mummified ancestors:

  When I was to come to Spain, I visited the house of Licentiate Polo Ondegardo, a native of Salamanca who was corregidor of the city, to kiss his hand and take leave of him before departing. Among other favors he showed me, he said: “As you are going to Spain, come into this room, and you shall see some of your ancestors whom I have exhumed: that will give you something to talk about when you get there.” In the room I found five bodies of Inca rulers, three males and two females. The Indians said that one of them was this Inca Viracocha: it certainly corresponded to his great age and had hair as white as snow. The second was said to be the great Túpac Inca Yupanqui, the great-grandson of Viracocha Inca. The third was Huaina Cápac, the son of Túpac Inca Yupanqui and great-great-grandson of Viracocha. The last two bodies could be seen to be of younger men: they had white hairs but fewer than those of Viracocha. One of the women was Queen Mama Runtu, the wife of Inca Viracocha. The other was Coya Mama Ocllo, mother of Huaina Cápac, and it seems probable that the Indians buried husband and wife together as they had lived. The bodies were perfectly preserved without the loss of a hair of the head or brow or an eyelash. They were dressed as they had been in life, with llautus on their heads but no other ornaments or royal insignia. They were buried in a sitting position, in a posture often assumed by Indian men and women: their hands were crossed across their breast, the left over the right, and their eyes lowered, as if looking at the ground. . . .

  I remember having touched one of the fingers of Huaina Cápac, which seemed like that of a wooden statue, it was so hard and stiff. The bodies weighed so little that any Indian could carry them in his arms or his back from house to house, wherever gentlemen asked to see them. They were carried wrapped in white sheets, and the Indians knelt in the streets and squares and bowed with tears and groans as they passed. Many Spaniards took off their caps, since they were royal bodies, and the Indians were more grateful than they could express for this attention. (Garcilaso de la Vega 1966: 306–308 [1609: Pt. 1, Bk. 5, Ch. 29])55

  In the above, Garcilaso de la Vega states that he saw five mummies in Cuzco in the house of Polo de Ondegardo: three males and two females. He indicates that the eldest male, who is described as having “hair as white as snow,” was Viracocha Inca, and that the two younger men were Topa Inca Yupanqui and Huayna Capac. The women are reported to be Mama Runtu and Mama Ocllo.

  Unfortunately, given information provided by other writers concerning the fates of the royal mummies, Garcilaso de la Vega’s recounting of the kings that he saw in Cuzco is problematic. For example, although various sources indicate that Gonzalo Pizarro burned the mummy of Viracocha Inca, Garcilaso de la Vega claims that the mummy of Viracocha Inca was among those that Polo de Ondegardo showed him.56 Likewise, it is widely believed that Atahualpa’s generals burned Topa Inca Yupanqui’s mummy when they invaded Cuzco in 1533.57 Yet Garcilaso de la Vega states he saw Topa Inca Yupanqui’s mummy in Polo de Ondegardo’s house. These contradictions suggest that at the time of his writing, Garcilaso de la Vega did not remember correctly the individuals he saw so long ago in his native land.58

  Soon after Garcilaso de la Vega visited the house of Polo de Ondegardo, the mummies were sent to Viceroy Hurtado de Mendoza in Lima. They were then placed on public display within the confines of the Hospital of San Andrés (Hampe 1982). Although a large number of people must have seen the deceased kings in Lima, only two write about them. In 1590, nearly twenty years after the mummies were confiscated, Acosta provides a short account of the deceased kings and their condition in Lima. Contrary to Garcilaso de la Vega, Acosta (1986: 423 [1590: Bk. 6, Ch. 21]) suggests that one of the bodies was that of Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui:59

  The body [of Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui] was so complete and well preserved with certain rosin, that it seemed to be alive. His eyes were made of gold cloth, so well set, that one did not miss the natural ones, and he had on his head a blow that he gained in a certain war. He was gray and had a full head of hair, as if he died the same day, although it was more than sixty or eighty years since he had died. This body, with those of other Inca, was sent by the above mentioned Polo to the city of Lima, on the command of the Viceroy Marquis of Cañete. This was very necessary in order to eradicate the idolatry of Cuzco. Many Spaniards have seen his body, with the other ones, in the Hospital of San Andrés, although they are now poorly preserved and in decay.60 (Translation by author)

  The gray-haired mummy that Acosta identified as being Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui is in all certainty the same mummy that Garcilaso de la Vega suggests was Viracocha Inca. Acosta provides an intriguing observation that supports his identification of this mummy as being that of Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui. Acosta notes that the gray-haired mummy had a scar on his head that he received during a war. This wound may have been the result of a battle with the Acos (Sarmiento de Gamboa 1906: 74 [1572: Ch. 35]) or an assassination attempt (Sarmiento de Gamboa 1906: 71–72 [1572: Ch. 34]; Santa Cruz Pachacuti Yamqui Salcamayhua 1950 [ca. 1613]; Cabello de Valboa 1951: 300 [1586: Bk. 3, Ch. 14]; Rostworowski 1999: 33). It lends support to the belief that the gray-haired mummy seen by Acosta in the Hospital of San Andrés was that of the famous ninth Inca, Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, and not that of his father, Viracocha Inca, as suggested by Garcilaso de la Vega.

  Acosta (1986: 424 [1590: Bk. 5, Ch. 22]) also indicates that one of the other male mummies that he saw in Lima was that of Huayna Capac and a female mummy was that of his mother, Mama Ocllo:61

  His [Huayna Capac’s] mother was much esteemed. She was called Mama Ocllo. Polo sent her corpus and that of Huayna Capac, well embalmed and cured, to Lima . . .62

  It is logical that Viceroy Hurtado de Mendoza placed the mummies of the Inca kings in the Hospital of San Andrés, because he was a major benefactor of it (Hampe 1982: 412). In addition, since the hospital was for the Spanish citizens of Lima, the mummies would have been placed on “public” display for the Spanish citizenry while at the same time kept out of sight of the native population.

  Antonio de la Calancha (1981: 219 [1638: Bk. 1, Ch. 15])” writing in Lima almost eighty years after the royal mummies were found by Polo de Ondegardo, confirms that several of the Inca were sent to the Hospital of San Andrés (Hampe 1982). He also notes that the jar that contained the ashes of Viracocha Inca, who had been burned by Gonzalo Pizarro, was also sent to Lima.

  . . . and seizing the treasure, he [Gonzalo Pizarro] burned the body [of Viracocha Inca]. The Indians collected the ashes and put them in a small jar that they worshiped. Licenciado Polo sent those ashes and other bodies to Lima in the time of the first Marquis de Cañete. They are in a corral in the Hospital of San Andrés.63 (Translation by author)

  A few pages further on, Calancha (1981: 212 [1638: Bk. 1, Ch. 15]), like Acosta, indicates that the body of Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui was among those that Polo de Ondegardo sent to San Andrés.

  From the
writings of Acosta and Calancha, it seems likely that the bodies of Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, Huayna Capac, and Mama Ocllo were among those sent to Lima. But were there others, and if so, who were they? A little-known document provides additional information on the names of the royal mummies who were on display in the Hospital of San Andrés. In January 1572, during Polo de Ondegardo’s second term as corregidor of Cuzco, Viceroy Toledo ordered the production of four large cloths on which the history of the Inca kings was painted. Upon completion, these cloths were shown to a group of individuals who represented the eleven panacas of Cuzco for verification. Afterward the cloths were also shown to a small group of highly respected Spaniards for their approval. Within the documents produced during these extraordinary meetings, the royal secretary, Alvaro Ruiz de Navamuel (1882: 256–257 [1572]), notes the fact that years earlier Polo de Ondegardo had found the royal mummies:

  Twelve or thirteen years ago, he [Polo de Ondegardo] offered with much diligence and by various means, to discover the bodies [of the Inca kings] to end the damage [of idolatry]. And indeed he found most of them, those of the ayllu of Hanan Cuzco as well as those of Hurin Cuzco. Some of them were embalmed and as fresh as when they died. Four of them were Huayna Capac and Amaru Topa Inca and Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui Inca64 and the mother of Huayna Capac, who is called Mama Ocllo. The other ones he found enclosed in some copper boxes.65 These he secretly buried. With them he discovered the ashes of the body of Topa Inca Yupanqui [sic Viracocha Inca], conserved in a small jar wrapped in rich clothes and with his insignias, because Juan [sic Gonzalo] Pizarro had burned this body . . . he also found with the bodies the guacas and main idols of the countries that each one had conquered, which were also notable nuisances in the conversion of these natives.66 (Translation by author)