Getting High in Peru, Year 2 Adventures: Revised Inca King List

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

Mama Occlo was the sister-wife of Manco Capac

            As I mention below in the initial blog on this topic, while I revisited Machu Picchu earlier this month, I had done some prep work on the Inca leaders and I brought some of the books with me to Arequipa. Now that I have had a chance to research the books, I have revised and expanded the initial blog on the King List. Inca history is becoming clearer as I prep for an extensive return to Machu Picchu and another Inca site in October.

      My first visit to Peru (4 months) was last year, 2013. My base of operations was in Arequipa. 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 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.

      Researching Machu Picchu, I noted that numerous writers would mention or quote Hiram Bingham. Having 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. Though I too have had Indiana Jones type encounters in the Middle East, they pale in view of Hiram’s encounters. A further note: 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 Inca kings. I have since rechecked the chronology of the Inca kings using additional sources and am reposting this chronology along with the paintings of the Inca kings below.

      Making decisions about the spelling is 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).

      Where did the Inca come from before their move to the Cusco Valley? Lake Titicaca area is one suggestion. Or they could have gone there after settling in the Cusco Valley. More digging and other research needs to fill in the gaps of information. But what is slightly better known is that the powerful Wari (Huari) culture, centered on Ayacucho, was collapsing around AD 1100 and perhaps due climatic changes (drought), whereas, the Cusco Valley was a well-watered valley, aiding the Inca in their ascendency in the region. For me, this idea is intriguing since the collapse of the Mycenaean Civilization—the fall of Troy mentioned above, and the mass movements of people in the Middle East around 1200 BC likely was also due to climatic changes. And recent news in the United States is that North Dakota is switching crops from wheat to corn due to climatic changes.

      Back to the Inca, it appears that climatic changes positioned them in the Cusco Valley to take over from the Wari.

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.

1. Manco Capac  believed to be ruler ca. 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

2. Sinchi Roca

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

3. Lloque Ypanqui

4.      Mayta Capac whose p. w. was Mama Tacucaray. (One report states Mayta Capac put Arequipa under Inca control ca. AD 1290.)

4. Mayta Capac

5.      Capac Yupanqui.

5. Capac Yupanqui

6.      Inca Roca (or Rocca).

6. Inca Roca

7.      Yahuar Huacac (or Huaccac).

7. Yahuar Huacac

8.      Viracocha Inca (meaning Creator God Ruler) whose p. w. was Mama Rondocya.

8. Viracocha Inca

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 (or remakes) the earth.” Pachacuti defeats the region’s Chimu Empire and uses their artisans to define Inca crafts.

The 500-year-old Incan “Ice Maiden Juanita” recovered from the 20,700-foot Mt. Ampato in 1995 and currently residing in Arequipa dates to this period. According to the archaeologist, Johan Reinhard, the Inca came to this region after 1450 and before 1532. The textiles she wore or surrounding her were all richly-patterned Inca textiles. All artifacts, including ceramics were Incan. Reinhard suggests that Juanita may have been from nearby Colca Canyon. His team went back up Ampato the following month and recovered a young boy and a young girl from 19,200 feet, perhaps sacrificed as a pair, and again all artifacts were Incan.   

9. Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui

 

Ice Maiden Juanita Museum Brochure

[My La Recoleta 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.

10. Topa Inca or Topa Inca Yupanqui

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

11. Tupac Yupanqui Inca

12.  Huayna Capac, a grandson to #9, Pachacuti, ruled from approximately from AD 1493 (Columbus’ time) to 1527 (death due to smallpox?). He built the Royal Estates at Quespiwanka and Tombebamba. Pachacuti, #9, 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. 

12. Huayna Capac

13.  Huascar Inca (Golden Chain Ruler) AD 1527 – 1532 (Recoleta has XIII as Tupac Huascar. National Geographic has Huayna Capac as #11, Huascar as #12, and Atahualpa as #13, Apr 2011. We have much more to learn about Inca and pre-Inca history in Peru. )

13. La Recoleta has Tupac Huascar as number thirteen

14.  Atahualpa AD 1532 and after a capture of 8 months was executed by Pizarro on July 26, 1533 (La Recoleta does have Atahualpa as #14.)

14. Atahualpa AD 1532. He was NOT the final Inca king.

Cusco was taken by the Spanish in 1532. They choose Manco Inca (Yupanqui), the kid brother of Huascar and Atahualpa, 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 (& half-sister), Cura Olcollo in 1536); he rebels that year; Manco takes control of Sacsaywaman, 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 in the rain forest. Vilcabamba (Espiritu Pampa) becomes that last Inca capital. His wife escaped from Pizarro and rejoined her husband.  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. The Spanish recapture Cura Olcollo but Manco Inca escapes and vows to kill more Spanish.

Francisco Pizarro takes revenge and kills Manco’s wife in a very cruel way in 1539 and evidently her body was sent downriver to be found by Manco. Manco is later killed in 1544 (or 1545) by “renegade” Spaniards formerly allied with Diego de Almagro I, a former partner of the Pizarros, then enemy of F. Pizarro (and executed in 1538). Almagro’s supporters tricked Manco Inca; they had killed Francisco Pizarro (in 1541) so were now the enemy and were given refuge by Manco; they kill him in Vitcos (west of Machu Picchu). Manco’s son, Sayri Topa, is recognized as ruler by the Inca population from 1544 - 1560. He dies when he moves to Cusco so his brother Titu Cusi becomes ruler from 1560 - 1571, and finally a 3^rd brother, Tupac Amaru becomes ruler. Tupac Amaru [a 3^rd son of Manco II], and his pregnant wife were captured in 1572 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. Soon thereafter, the loyal Inca hope and pray that Tupac Amaru and his Uncle Atahualpa will return in bodily form to drive the Spanish out.

Titu Cusi does leave behind a report about Inca history, which he had dictated to an assistant, Martin Pando, son of a Spanish soldier and a Quechua mother. A Friar Marcos Garcia was also involved in the dictation. One other person who tells us more about Titu Cusi was the 17^th century Father Calancha, an Augustinian monk and hagiographer but also a pioneering anthropologist writing about the Inca of the previous century. He lived most of his life in Peru, knew Quechua, and writes about the death of Titu Cusi who evidently caught pneumonia after a party. Friar Diego, who was attending Titu Cusi was then killed by the Inca, and they also killed the mestizo assistant, Martin Pando.

What happened to the mummies of the Inca kings? Some of them were on display in Lima for a time, but then in 1559 the magistrate of Cusco conducted a hunt for the mummies in order to destroy this idolatry, and it appears he was successful since Peru (unlike Egypt) does not have any mummies of its former Inca rulers.      

La Recoleta Museum Map of the tribes/cultures in Peru