Terrance Arce, Duncan Gigerich, Ohrlan Laborte, Guadalupe Perez, Ben Sanders
Professor Sanders
Anthropology 102
30 November 2017
The Incas of Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu in Peru is one of the most mysterious and widely researched archaeological sites in the world. Because Machu Picchu was built in the mid fifteenth century and later abandoned, there are many unanswered questions regarding some of the artifacts and the people’s history. Early theories have been disproven, and our group focused primarily on the initial theory that Machu Picchu was the center of Incan life, as it represented a ceremonial occurrence. Machu Picchu was located in southern Peru above Lake Titicaca, and was isolated by vegetation. Based on our research of the physiographic region and cultural setting of Machu Picchu, we believe that the site’s sole purpose was to be a sacred, respected land.
The term “Inca” originally was reserved for a chief; Inca or Inka translates into King or emperor. Today the term is used to refer to the race that has built great civilizations in the highlands of Peru and Bolivia (Bingham 39). Bingham confused the site with the safe haven Vilcapampa, but eventually Bingham was able to locate Vilcapampa and other archeologists excavated and re analyzed Bingham’s findings. The site of Machu Picchu is described as being located in the most inaccessible corner of the most inaccessible section of the central Andes. Along with its elevation is its location on a narrow ridge protected by a granite canyon, which helped provide protection from invaders (Bingham 177).
Machu Picchu was a great citadel on top the high mountain range of the Andes in Peru, created by the Incan Civilization. Although a specific time period is not exact, historians and archaeologists estimate that it was created some time near 1450 and was abandoned in the mid sixteenth century. It is located in the outskirts of the Inca civilization, approximately sixty kilometers from the central city of Cuzco, Peru. As previously mentioned, Machu Picchu is in the Andes Mountains, an area full of dense jungles, and reaches an elevation of 7,972 feet above ground. The occupied area is south of the equator, often having a cool climate that only gets cooler as the altitude increases. The climate and environment of the region only allowed certain biotic communities to exist; coincidentally, the relationship between the cultural setting of the Inca community and the biotic communities say a lot about the significance of religion in the culture.
A study of the dietary history of those who inhabited Peru suggests that the vegetation in the area consisted of grains and seeds such as maize, quinoa, and kiwicha, since that was a part of the dietary items found in Inca digestive systems. It was also noted that the civilization did not eat too much meat, except for llamas and guinea pigs in moments of celebration, as they kept to their grains. Tamara Bray wrote that there was some discrepancy between the ways resources were distributed, and the differences between the dietary systems of the citizens of Machu Picchu and the citizens of Cuzco is proof of that. In spite of its importance to the community, Machu Picchu did not often include members of the Inca nobility; instead, the community included the yanacona and aclla, which are considered to be the men and women of the servant class. Bray mentioned that different groups had access to different resources, food being one of them. The nobles, priests, and government officials in Cuzco had more evidence of meat in their dietary system, which corresponds with Inca religion, which puts nobility on a pedestal (Bingham ).
We are going to do majority of our research on the citadel of Machu Picchu because of the richness in the culture and the mysteries that still lie behind its history. Our main goal as a group is to determine whether or not Machu Picchu was a central religious site for the Incas. Because of the initial exploration theories on Machu Picchu, and the Incas being known as worshippers, the evidence the early explorer Hiram Bingham found could have easily been misidentified as religious. Archaeologists have since then argued against Bingham’s early research.
Part 2:
Machu Picchu became a well-known archaeological site by word of mouth and the debatably brilliant rediscovery by an American professor. Yale’s Hiram Bingham made the 1911 explorations in South America available to the public in the 1913 March edition of the National Geographic magazine, which included photographs and his personal accounts of the expedition. A copy of those photos and the writing published in that edition can be found on the National Geographic website today. Although Hiram Bingham did not actually discover Machu Picchu and the city was in fact not the lost hidden capital he was searching for, Bingham was successful in reawakening the interest historians had on the Andean society.
Through the investigation of the environment and diet, we can determine how ancient Incans may have lived. The environment and diet provide fundamental factors in understanding how the Incans accessed their food sources and more importantly how they governed themselves. For the site of Machu Picchu, it is understood that it is located on a narrow ridge at an elevated position in the Andes. The geographical location of Machu Picchu determines not only determines what kind of sustenance was available but also what kind of lifestyle and beliefs they had, or the type of culture they adhered to. Incans have been referred to as sun worshippers which is due to their interest in astrology for both religious and practical purposes (Dearborn et al. 346).
As far as dating goes, there are many methods in which one can go about when trying to date a site. The most common and precise methods when dating organic materials are radiocarbon dating, tree ring dating, phylogenies, etc. We can use these methods by looking at animal/human remains such as teeth and bones as well as the vegetation in the site. When a animal/human lives, it’s C14/C12 proportion remains stable, when he dies C14 begins disintegrating and we can use the level of C14 left in relation to the original to know the time of his death (SJuan 76). In 1983, test excavations were carried out and charcoal was collected for radiocarbon dating. “Archaeologists assume that the construction of the citadel would date from the fifteenth century approximately chronological date given by the carbon-14 or radiocarbon” (.The charcoal was recovered inside the citadel of Machu Picchu by a joint expedition of Peru's Instituto Nacional de Cultura and UCLA. The radiocarbon dates from this expedition as well as others obtained from the Bingham Collection at Yale point to a much longer occupational history at Machu Picchu, contrary to present expectations centered on Inca times only (Chohfi 237).
When analyzing the story behind Machu Picchu, it is clear to understand how Hiram Bingham misinterpreted the purpose of found artifacts and remaining eco-facts. Being that it was untouched by the Spanish conquistadores, some architectural features slightly correlated with the history of the founders of the Inca empire, which would could lead many to the Bingham’s conclusion: Machu Picchu was a religious site and the artifacts found were ceremonial. Bingham’s interpretations of data and his dating methods were considered “obscure” by other archaeologists, and later explorations disproved Bingham’s theories. Times Magazine described Machu Picchu as a “…maze of a thousand ruined houses, temples, palaces and staircases, all hewn from white granite and dominated by a great granite sundial.”
Part 3:
The evidence gathered in our research design concludes that Machu Picchu was not in fact a religion center for the Incas, but more of a haven. The inaccurate publishings of the early twentieth century were later corrected, but many still refer to Machu Picchu as the “Lost City.”
References
Part 1
Bingham, Hiram. Lost City of the Incas. Reprint: Greenwood Press, Publishers. Westport, Connecticut.1981. Originally published: 1st Ed. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1948.
Bray, Tamara L., and Sarah Berry. “Tradition Summary: Inca.” 2004. Web. 18 Oct. 2017.
Dearborn, David S. P. , et al. “Intimachay: A December Solstice Observatory at Machu Picchu, Peru.”American Antiquity, Vol. 52, No. 2 (Apr., 1987), pp. 346-352, http://www.jstor.org/stable/281786. Accessed 29 Nov. 2017.
Farrington, I. S. “Ritual Geography, Settlement Patterns and the Characterization of the Provinces of the Inka Heartland.” World Archaeology, vol. 23, no. 3, 1992, pp. 368–385. JSTOR.
Turner, Bethany L.; Kingston, John D. and Armelagos, George J. Chungara: Revista de Antropología Chilena Vol. 42, No. 2 (JULIO – DICIEMBRE 2010), pp. 515-534.
Part 2
Bingham, Hiram. “In the Wonderland of Peru.” Edited by Gilbert H Grosvener, National Geographic, L.L. Bean, 14 Sept. 2017,