For hundreds of years, until the The Inca civilization, like other ancient Andean groups, practiced artificial mummification as a way of honoring their ancestors and preserving the connection between present and past. The most important Inca mummies, including those of their emperors, were treated as A career army officer, he led the military coup overthrowing the Allende government in , establishing himself at the head of the ensuing military regime. In he enacted a constitution giving Che Guevara was a prominent communist figure in the Cuban Revolution who went on to become a guerrilla leader in South America.
Executed by the Bolivian army in , he has since been regarded as a martyred hero by generations of leftists worldwide. The Nazca Lines are a collection of giant geoglyphs—designs or motifs etched into the ground—located in the Peruvian coastal plain about miles kilometers south of Lima, Peru. Created by the ancient Nazca culture in South America, and depicting various plants, animals, The ancient Inca device known as the khipu consists of a series of knotted cotton or wool strings hung from a main cord, typically made from llama or alpaca hair.
In , while leading an expedition in search of gold, he sighted Beginning in the eighth century B. Among the many legacies Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. Recommended for you.
How the Troubles Began in Northern Ireland. Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu Tucked away in the rocky countryside northwest of Cuzco, Peru, Machu Picchu is believed to have been a royal estate or sacred religious site for Inca leaders, whose civilization was virtually wiped out by Spanish invaders in the 16th century. How Inca Mummies Ruled Over the Living The Inca civilization, like other ancient Andean groups, practiced artificial mummification as a way of honoring their ancestors and preserving the connection between present and past.
Che Guevara Che Guevara was a prominent communist figure in the Cuban Revolution who went on to become a guerrilla leader in South America. Two main routes connected the north and the south of the empire, with many smaller branches extending to outposts to the east and west.
The roads varied in width and style because often the Inca leaders utilized roads that already existed to create this powerful network. Common people could not use these official roads unless they were given permission by the government. These roads were used for relaying messages by way of chasqui , or human runners, who could run up to miles a day with messages for officials. Llamas and alpacas were also used to distribute goods throughout the empire and ease trade relations. The roads also had a ritual purpose because they allowed the highest leaders of the Inca Empire to ascend into the Andes to perform religious rituals in sacred spaces, such as Machu Picchu.
Chasqui carrying a quipu on official state business: Chasquis were highly agile long-distance runners who used the complex road systems to relay messages and goods between cities. TheInca utilized a complex recording system to keep track of the administration of the empire. Quipus also spelled khipus were colorful bunches of knotted strings that recorded census data, taxes, calendrical information, military organization, and accounting information.
Inca quipu: These complex recording devices allowed officials to keep track of taxes, labor, and goods in a precise fashion. The Spanish burned the vast majority of existing quipus when they arrived in South America. However, there is some evidence to suggest that these tools were also used to record stories and language for posterity, and were not only numerical recording devices.
Trade and the movement of goods fed into what is called the vertical archipelago. This system meant that all goods produced within the empire were immediately property of the ruling elites. These elites, such as the emperor and governors, then redistributed resources across the empire as they saw fit.
Taxes and goods were collected from four distinct suyus , or districts, and sent directly to the ruling emperor in Cusco. This highly organized system was most likely perfected under the emperor Pachacuti around The Four suyus of the Inca Empire: The economic system linked together four large suyus, or districts, that all reported back to the capital of Cusco.
This system also required a minimum quota of manual labor from the general population. This form of labor taxation was called mita. The populations of each district were expected to contribute to the wealth of the empire by mining, farming, or doing other manual labor that would benefit the entire empire. Precious metals, textiles, and crops were collected and redistributed using the the road system that snaked across the land, from the ocean to the Andes. The Inca Empire worshipped the Sun god Inti, and expanded its hold on outlying areas by incorporating other deities into the religious system.
Learn about the forms of worship of the Sun god Inti, the religious hierarchy, and the cultural assimilation of outlying clans in the Inca Empire. The Inca religious system utilized oral traditions to pass down the mythology of their Sun god, Inti. This benevolent male deity was often represented as a gold disk with large rays and a human face. Golden disks were commonly displayed at temples across the Inca Empire and were also associated with the ruling emperor, who was supposed to be a direct descendent of Inti, and divinely powerful.
Inti was also associated with the growth of crops and material abundance, especially in the high Andes, where the Inca centered their power. Some myths state that this benevolent entity, along with Mama Killa, the Moon goddess, had children. This wedge penetrated the earth, and they built the capital of Cusco and civilization on that very spot. Royalty were considered to be direct descendants of Inti and, therefore, able to act as intermediaries between the physical and spiritual realms.
The high priest of Inti was called the Willaq Umu. He was often the brother or a direct blood relation of the Sapa Inca, or emperor, and was the second most powerful person in the empire. The royal family oversaw the collection of goods, spiritual festivals, and the worship of Inti. Power consolidated around the cult of the Sun, and scholars suggest that the emperor Pachacuti expanded this Sun cult to garner greater power in the 15th century.
Conquered provinces were expected to dedicate a third of their resources, such as herds and crops, directly to the worship of Inti. Each province also had a temple with male and female priests worshipping the Inti cult. Becoming a priest was considered one of the most honorable positions in society. The main temple in the Inca Empire, called Qurikancha, was built in Cusco. The temple housed the bodies of deceased emperors and also contained a vast array of physical representations of Inti, many of which were removed or destroyed when the Spanish arrived.
It represents the mythical origin of the Inca and the hope for good crops in the coming year as the winter sun returns from darkness. The festival of Inti Raymi: This festival is celebrated in late June in the capital of Cusco every year. Thousands of visitors arrive to see the procession and rituals.
Religious life was centered in the Andes near Cusco, but as the Inca Empire expanded its sphere of influence, they had to incorporate a wide array of religious customs and traditions to avoid outright revolt. Ayllus, or family clans, often worshipped very localized entities and gods. The ruling Inca often incorporated these deities into the Inti cosmos. For example, Pachamama, the Earth goddess, was a long-worshipped deity before the Inca Empire.
She was incorporated into Inca culture as a lower divine entity. The Inca also incorporated the Moon into their religious myths and practices in the form of Mama Killa. The Inca believed in reincarnation. Death was a passage to the next world that was full of difficulties. The spirit of the dead, camaquen , would need to follow a long dark road.
The trip required the assistance of a black dog that was able to see in the dark. Most Incas imagined the after world to be very similar to the Euro-American notion of heaven, with flower-covered fields and snow-capped mountains.
It was important for the Inca to ensure they did not die as a result of burning or that the body of the deceased did not become incinerated. This is because of the underlying belief that a vital force would disappear and this would threaten their passage to the after world. Human sacrifice has been exaggerated by myth, but it did play a role in Inca religious practices.
As many as 4, servants, court officials, favorites, and concubines were killed upon the death of the Inca uayna Capac in , for example. The Incas also performed child sacrifices during or after important events, such as the death of the Sapa Inca or during a famine.
These sacrifices were known as capacocha. Legend has it that he first killed his brothers and then led his sisters into a valley near Cuzco, where they settled down around A. Cuzco was located at a nexus point between two earlier empires, one called the Wari and another based at the city of Tiwanaku. The expansion of the Inca Empire began by the time the fourth emperor, Mayta Capac took hold, but didn't gain momentum until the reign of the eighth emperor, Viracocha Inca.
Viracocha began the practice of leaving behind military garrisons in lands to maintain the peace, according to History. However, Inca oral history recorded by the Spanish, suggests that the expansion began in earnest during the reign of the emperor Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, the son of Viracocha Inca, who reigned from to Pachacuti became emperor after he halted an invasion of Cuzco that was being carried out by a rival group called the Chancas.
The invasion had driven his father to a military outpost. Subsequently, Pachacuti worked to expand the territory the Inca controlled, extending their influence beyond the Cuzco region. The Incas worked hard at diplomacy, and tried to get their rivals to surrender peacefully before resorting to military conquest, said Terence D'Altroy, an anthropologist at Columbia University, in a PBS Nova interview.
Pachacuti ordered that the Inca capital, Cuzco, be rebuilt and strengthened. And, he allegedly had the city completely raised so that it could be rebuilt in the shape of a puma. McEwan added that commoners were not allowed to live in the city and had to reside in the outlying settlements. The Spanish would later plunder this gold and build a new city in the place of Cuzco. While the Inca did not develop what we would consider a formal system of writing, they did use recording devices, such as the quipu, a cord with knotted strings suspended from it.
Most written accounts of Incas come from outsiders as the Incas primarily shared their knowledge with one another through oral storytelling. According to McEwan, the Inca pantheon had an array of gods that included the creator god Viracocha, sun god Inti, thunder god Illapa and earth-mother goddess Pachamama, among others. There were also regional deities worshipped by people whom the Inca conquered.
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