Getting High in Peru, Year 2: Archaeological Adventures, the Inca King List.

Getting High in Peru, Year 2: Archaeological Adventures, 

the Inca King List.

Mama Occlo was the sister-wife of Manco Capac

      My first visit to Peru (4 months) was last year, 2013. My base of operations was in Arequipa and from there we went to Colca Canyon, numerous pre-Inca sites in northern Peru, and finally to Cusco, the Sacred Valley ending at Machu Picchu. Before traveling in the Sacred Valley, I had detailed my visits to the pre-Inca sites of northern Peru in my blogs (nealbierling.blogspot.com) which was followed by two books (2014) on Peru entitled: Getting High in Peru, Archaeological Adventures, Volumes 1 and 2. These two volumes and other books based on my 40 years working in the Middle East as an archaeologist and photographer can be viewed and purchased on Amazon.com.

      In my subsequent research on Machu Picchu, numerous writers would mention or quote Hiram Bingham. I have since returned to Cusco and Machu Picchu (and plan to do so 2 more times this year, 2014), where I photographed the Hiram Bingham sign, and I brought his book and others with me to Arequipa where I plan to conduct further research over the next five months. Bingham’s book Lost City of the Incas describes his archaeological adventures and dangers in Peru early in the 1900s, and even though I too have encountered Indian Jones type dangers in the Middle East, they pale in view of Hiram’s encounters, and travel in Peru and to Machu Picchu is totally different 100 years after Hiram.

       As I followed Hiram’s account, I would use the maps in the front of his book, another map of Peru, and my pictures noting in his book my picture numbers as I read his descriptions. Fortunately (or Ojala), on my next trip to Machu Picchu I plan to fill gaps in my picture database.

       My Getting High in Peru, Archaeological Adventure volumes of 2013-14 begin with a study of the pre-Inca civilizations going back 2000 years and end at Machu Picchu with the Inca of 500 hundred years ago. Currently, in August 2014, I do not plan to visit additional pre-Inca sites until later this year, so, in the near future I plan to begin my blogs with new info on Machu Picchu.

      For example, the La Recoleta Convent Museum here in Arequipa, Peru, which is part of a monastery (They turn it around here. It is for men), has stylized copies of 16^th century paintings of the Inca leaders beginning with the 1^st Inca around AD 1200 and ending with Atahualpa in 1533. These copies are based on a description of a meeting between Inca Titu Cusi with the Spanish. But the description was used to paint the other Inka kings. I have since rechecked the chronology of the Inca kings and plan to post this chronology along with the paintings of the Inca kings below.

      Making decisions about the spelling was a challenge, but I used what looks like the more popular spellings such as “Inca” rather than “Inka” the other common spelling. “Inca” appears to be the Quechua word for “ruler” or “nobility.” Some of the rulers also have a variation of “Capac” another Quechua word which may also indicate ruler. As in ancient Egypt, the ruler married a sister in order to better maintain the royal line without competition. For example, the rulers appear to have more than one wife, but if, say a son was born to a non-sister woman, he was not what we refer to as the crown prince unless necessity called for a revision.

      One change I did make compared to my sources, based on my work in the Middle East, I hesitate using the word, “myth,” as in Inca myths. For example, before and into the 1960s and into the 1970s university students in the U.S. were taught that the Iliad and its story of the Trojan War was a “Greek myth.” Today, due to excavation work and related research (including my own), we know that this is not the case. There was a Troy, there was a Trojan War, and Homer was one of the ancients who passed the story down (with embellishments). In the same way, I believe that the Inca King List was passed down by their descendants, perhaps too with embellishment, but I am presenting it to you as best I can (likely with revisions later).

1.      Manco Capac whose principal wife (p. w.) was his sister Mama Occlo (Quechua word meaning ‘pure’) around the year AD 1200. Mama Occlo and her other sisters were among the original Incas (now our generic word for the tribe) from Tampu-tocco, south of Cusco. Manco was the Inca who is credited with the founding of Cusco.

Manco Capac ruling around AD 1200

(However, the Inca saying that Tampu-tocco was south of Cusco may have been a plan to deceive the Spanish. Hiram Bingham believed that Machu Picchu was Tampu-tocco. However, this conclusion is in dispute by more recent researchers.)

2.      Sinchi Roca and his p. w. was Manco Sapaca

Sinchi Roca, number 2

3.      Lloque Ypanqui [renamed self as Pachacuti (Cataclysm)] and his p. w. was Mama Cora

Lloque Ypanqui, number 3

4.      Mayta Capac whose p. w. was Mama Tacucaray. He put Arequipa under Inca control ca. AD 1290.

Mayta Capac, number 4

5.      Capac Yupanqui.

Capac Yupanqui, number 5

6.      Inca Roca.

Inca Roca, number 6

7.      Yahuar Huacac.

Yahuar Huacac, number 7

8.      Viracocha Inca whose p. w. was Mama Rondocya.

Viracocha Inca, number 8

9.      Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui and his p. w. was Mama Anahuarqui. Machu Picchu and Coricancha (temple in Cusco’s Church of Santo Domingo) were built. He ruled about 1438-1471 and had royal estates at Pisac, Ollantaytambo (granaries in the side of the mountain), and Machu Picchu.  He had overthrown his dad, #8. Pachacuti was the Inca who extended the Inca Empire north to Ecuador and south to Argentina, and his name means “he who shakes the earth.”

Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, number 9

[The La Recoleta Monastery paintings match my Inca King list to this point.]

10.  Topa Inca, or alternative spellings appear to be Tupac Inca, or Topa Inca Yupanqui whose p. w. was his sister Mama Occlo. He ruled around 1471-1493. He had royal estates at Choquequirao and Chinchero, and he co-reigned with his Dad for a while.

Topa Inca or Topa Inca Yupanqui, number 10

11.  Tupac Yupanqui Inca is # 11 in the Recoleta Museum where my other king lists have Huayna Capac (meaning young lord) as #11. The La Recoleta has Huayna Capac as # 12. Huayna Capac was a grandson to #9, Pachacuti.

Tupac Yupanqui Inca, number 11

12.  Huayna Capac, a grandson to #9, Pachacuti, ruled from approximately from AD 1493 to 1527. He built the Royal Estates at Quespiwanka and Tombebamba. He was the one who expanded into Ecuador back in 1511, but now the Inca were weak due to brothers fighting each other. There is a 1527 civil war between Huascar (Tupac Cuis Hualpa) whose mother was Mama Occlo, and Atahualpa who was NOT of the sister-mother, but the Inca army supported Atahualpa. 

Huayna Capac, number 12

13.  Huascar AD 1527 – 1532 (La Recoleta has XIII as Tupac Huascar.)

Recoleta Museum has Tupac Huascar as number 13

14.  Atahualpa AD 1532 and executed by Pizarro on July 26, 1533 (Recoleta does have Atahualpa as #14.)

Atahualpa, AD 1532 was number 14

Cusco was taken by the Spanish in 1532. They choose Manco Inca (Yupanqui) as their puppet king in 1533 -1536 (Manco Capac II). He was a grandson of # 12. However, the Spanish abuse him (for example Gonzalo Pizarro takes Manco’s wife, Cura Olcollo in 1536); he rebels that year; Manco lays siege to Cusco (1536-37) and does win a battle against the Spanish at Ollantaytambo, but then Spanish reinforcements come so he retreats to Vilcabamba. The Spanish install Paully Inca, a brother of Manco Inca as their puppet ruler in 1537. His son, Carlos Inca, later is also recognized as ruler by the Spanish.

Gonzalo Pizarro kills Manco’s wife in 1539. Manco is killed by renegade the Spanish Almagro II, a former partner of F. Pizarro, in 1544 (or 1545). He tricked Manco Inca, who had given Almagro and co-conspirators refuge; they kill him. Manco’s son, Sayri Topa, is recognized as ruler by the Inca population. He dies when he moves to Cusco so his brother Titu Cusi becomes ruler, and finally a 3^rd brother, Tupac Amaru becomes ruler. Tupac Amaru [a 3^rd son of Manco II], 1545 – 1572, was captured and executed by the Spanish in Cusco publically. His wife and Inca lords were tortured before they died, and Tupac’s head was cut off and displayed. He may have retreated to Machu Picchu but left. The Spanish had attacked and sacked Vilcabamba to get Tupac. (Titu Cusi does leave behind a report about Inca history, which he had dictated to the son of a Spanish soldier and a Quechua mother.)

Map in the La Recoleta Museum listing the tribes/cultures in Peru