tf| tfjle

s^y

YALE UNiV 3RSITY
LIBRARY

The Inca Peoples and Their
Culture

By
Hiram Bingham

Extract from
Proceedings of the Nineteenth International Congress
of Americanists, Washington, December, 1915

Washington, D. C.
1917

THE INCA PEOPLES AND THEIR CULTURE
By Hiram Bingham
THE term " Inca" may denote everything that is ancient Peruvian, but to the
careful archeologist it means the tribe or the nation that ruled part of
Peru during the three centuries preceding the Spanish conquest, while to
some more exact specialists ltTrefers only to the rulers of this ..tribe. Good
pTecedents may be found for all of these meanings, but actually the first is entirely
too broad while the last does savor somewhat of pedantry. It appears to me that
the term "Inca" may fairly be used to designate the nations that occupied
the major part of the Central Andes from the earliest times down to the Spanish
-conquest. Such a differentiation distinguishes these peoples both from the coastal
tribes and nations who were finally conquered by the mountain folk, and also from
the savage tribes of the interior or jungle peoples; from the semicivilized tribes
in Ecuador and the northern part of Peru as well as from the nomadic peoples in
southern Bolivia, northern Argentina, and Chile.
Apart from its convenience, a justification for the term in its suggested use
may be found in the significant forms of architecture and pottery that belong to
the ancient peoples in this area.
Furthermore it must be borne in mind that there was no written language in
South America preceding the Spanish conquest, that the chances of being able to
date definitely the various ruins or the gigantic labors of the so-called megalithic
folk are practically nil. There are many traditions, some reasonable, others
fantastic, of the origin of the tribe which in its strictest sense may be said to be
the tribe of the Incas.- There is little doubt that this tribe was connected by
direct descent with earlier tribes. It is, to say the least, not easy to differentiate
their work from the work of the megalithic folk. Accordingly, for the purpose
of this discussion I have adopted the term "Inca peoples" as one which covers
the originators of Central Andean culture from its earliest times down to the
advent of Europeans.
Sequence of cultures in the Andes is extremely difficult to determine. In the
first place there are no large sandy area's which, by gradually engulfing the life of
a village, preserve a record of its culture and are later so convenient when the
excavator comes to work out its stratification. In the second place, stupendous
landslides may sweep away in a few hours the accumulation of centuries and
, overturn everything in such helterskelter fashion as to place what is older actually
above what is newer. This has happened near Cuzco. In the third place, the
Spanish conquerors were a race of treasure hunters, and the result of their work
and that of their successors has been to destroy the majority of the evidence.
The thirst for treasure even today is so great as to cause otherwise sane and
intelligent people to accuse the scientific investigator of criminal excavations
and of nefarious transactions in gold and silver objects.
In consequence of these difficulties in^acranging a satisfactory sequence of
culture in the highlands, the builders of Mrch^^iMjm*, Jslvell as of Cuzco and
Ollantaytambo, may properly be classed al representatives of the Inca peoples. 253

254 XIX International Congress of Americanists
The characteristics of the culture of the Inca peoples may be considered under ,
' various heads. The chief and most obvious is that of architecture. Lack op,
timber," the prevalence of heavy rains during part of the year, and the eascwith
which stone might be procured, early led to the development of stone as building
material. Their culture did not extend to the use of lime.or cement, although we
do find that during one of their culture periods they developed the practice of :
laying their building stones in mud, thereby avoiding the necessity of carefully
fitting the stones to any great extent. Their desire to secure stability, however,
led them to develop a method of building walls whereby strength and permanence
were secured through the keying together of irregular blocks which were made to |
fit absolutely the one to the other. Even what appear to be rectangular blocks *
are prevented from slipping one upon the other by certain irregularities of the
inner surface. The upper and lower surf aces, of these stones were frequently
I con vexed or concaved, the convexity of one stone approximating the concavity
j of the adjoining stones. '!-
In constructing their walls the pure arch was not evolved. A few circular 1
or semicircular buildings have been found, but the majority are rectangular or
nearly so, and there appears to have been a great devotion to horizontal and
right lines. Their walls are seldom, if ever, exactly perpendicular, there being ;
generally a -marked^ batter. This tendency of lines to converge at the top is also
seen in the shape of the doors, windows, and niches.
In the building of their houses they developed several ingenious devices, such
as "lock holes" for fastening the bar back of a door; "ring stones" which were
inserted in the gables to enable the roofing beams to be tied on (similar ring stones
inserted in the walls of the houses enabled one end of a hand loom to be tied to
them) ; projecting stone cylinders which when placed near the edge of the gable
could be used as points to which to tie the roof and keep it from blowing off.
When used within the house these cylinders made convenient hooks and supports ;
they also served for ventilation and drainage.
Sculpture in a crude form existed, but there are no well-executed examples
of representations of the human body, and the sculptured cats that may be seen
on several bowlders are suggestive and symbolical rather than academically
correct. So far as modeling in clay goes, they had some skill in copying animals'
heads, but at best it is crude in comparison with the great skill displayed by the
coast peoples. Painting seems to have been in use at the time of the Spanish
conquest, but authentic examples of early painting are so scarce as to lead to a
very considerable doubt as to their authenticity.
The best examples of painting are seen in the decorations of the pottery.
A pair of dishes found in Machu Picchu bearing as decoration somewhat crudely
drawn butterflies painted in three colors represents about the finest kind of
ceramic decoration. Most of the decoration of the pottery consists of geometric
patterns. It may be suggested that there was the same prejudice against the
use of the human form in decoration as existed among the Arabs. The fact that
among the coast peoples one finds the human form well represented in many
forms, some of them extremely degenerate, and the lack of such degeneracy in
the pottery of the mountains, may lead to the conclusion that the worship of
the Sun and a finer type of religion was practised by the people of Machu Picchu.
In general their pottery is marked by simple and graceful lines like that of

Bingham — The Inca Peoples 255
ancient Greece, and resembling in its simplicity and utility some of the modern
vessels at present in use in French kitchens. The aryballi, the beaker-shaped
olla, and the ladle with a decorated handle are among the most characteristic forms.
There is a striking similarity between certain forms and those found in the
ruins of ancient Troy belonging to a period more than two thousand years before
Christ. Even some of the bronzes found at Machu Picchu so closely resemble
some found by Dr Schliemann in Troy as to make it extremely difficult for the
casual observer to tell them apart. As it does not appear that there could have
been any direct connection between Troy and Machu Picchu, one is driven to the
conclusion that we have here the development of an autochthonous culture along
lines strikingly reminiscent of those of one of the most ancient parts of the
Mediterranean. >
Owing to the extreme moisture of the climate near Machu Picchu the remains
of cloth were very few. But from the specimens found on the islands in Lake
Titicaca we know that the Inca peoples actually did arrive at a high degree of
skill in the manufacture of textiles through their ability to procure the wool
of the small American camel called the alpaca. By the use of hand looms artistic
and intricate patterns were produced, and clo.th of the utmost delicacy of texture
is not uncommon. It is said that the finer cloths were woven by the Virgins of
the Sun for the use of the Inca Emperor himself and the high priest.
Metal articles, on the other hand, are easily preserved for long periods of
time, even under adverse climatic conditions. We have been able to learn that
in metallurgy the people of Machu Picchu were extremely skilful makers of
bronze and frequently give evidence of a charming artistic sensibility in the nature
and attitude of the decorative figures, which include the heads of birds and animals,
and in one case the figure of a young fisherman engaged in his favorite pursuit.
Their skill in metallurgy has been shown by the researches of Professor
Mathewson, of the Hammond Laboratory of the Sheffield Scientific School
of Yale University, who has published a metallographic description of more than
one hundred metal articles, chiefly bronze, brought from Machu Picchu. The
collection includes such tools as axes, hatchets, knives, chisels, bars, and pointed
instruments; such domestic implements as mirrors, tweezers, small knives,
pins, needles, and spoons, and such articles of adornment as rings, bracelets,
spangles, and bells. In the past, collections of metal objects from the land of
the Incas have usually been preserved intact for exhibition purposes. Sometimes
specimens have been submitted for chemical analysis since this merely involves
the preparation of a small sample by drilling and does not spoil the specimen.
No considerable number of specimens had ever been thoroughly submitted to
metallographic examination, since such work necessitates mutilation of the
specimen. After consulting with Prof. W. H. Holmes, of the National Museum,
we determined that it would be wise to take advantage of the fact that the exact
source of all the subjects in this collection was known and that few of the pieces
were of rare or unusual design, to permit their thorough examination even if it
meant their destruction. As a result we now have the satisfaction of knowing
more than has ever been known before in regard to the structure of these metal
objects, the methods of manufacture, and the reasons for the composition of
Inca bronzes.
While the metallographic examination could not be expected to furnish any

256 XIX International Congress of Americanists ,
clue to the smelting process used in preparing the metal, we are able to draw the
following conclusions from Professor Mathewson's work: Some of the bronzes
are remarkably pure. Aside from very small quantities of sulphur, most of them
contain no metallic impurity whatever. One specimen consists of very nearly
pure tin: probably the first direct proof we have had that the Inca metallurgists
were acquainted with tin in its elementary form. Professor Mathewson thinks
it fair to infer that they used this pure tin in preparing their bronzes. Some
archeologists have taken the position that since the greatest quantity of tin is
usually found in those implements that require it least, they believe the presence
of tin in Inca bronzes to be accidental.
This hypothesis has been carefully considered by such practiced miners as
the Cerro de Pasco Company and the Guggenheims, and their experts agree
that so far as known copper and tin ores go, this is an untenable thesis.
Professor Mathewson also finds that while the percentage of tin contained
in Inca bronzes is not governed by the use for which they were intended, it does
appear to have been governed by another reason ; namely, the requirements of the
methods of manufacture. The ' more delicate or ornamental pieces contain
the maximum percentages of tin. It appears that bronze containing a high
percentage of tin yields the best impressions in casting, because bronzes of this
character expand in solidifying. Nice details of the pattern are thus more readily
brought out in the finished product.
Furthermore, the Incas appear to have known that the casting operation of
/ small delicate objects is facilitated by increasing the tin content because such
alloys retain their initial heat longer and remain longer in a fluid condition.
This information was particularly useful to them in casting such objects which
tended to cool rapidly. The ancient metallurgists appear to have availed them
selves of this knowledge, thus accounting for the higher percentage of tin in small
ornamental cast objects.
The metallographic tests further indicate that cast pieces were frequently
hammered and annealed as the occasion demanded. At the same time Professor
Mathewson believes that the early Incas were unfamiliar with refined methods of
heat treatment and so were compelled to sacrifice the extra hardness and strength
obtainable by increasing the tin content in large objects which required con
siderable working. Apparently cold-working was invariably depended upon to
produce the final stiffness and hardness of an object, and it seems probable that
more than one heat was needed in forging the blades of the chisels. This neces
sitated a low tin content in such objects as axes, large knives, etc.
Accordingly we find that Inca bronze was not accidental; first, because ores
yielding accidental bronze of similar analysis to 'the South American bronzes are
not known to the miners; second, because pure tin was found at Machu Picchu
and found in such form that it had evidently been intended for use in casting
rather than for any other purpose, no artifacts of pure tin being known from South
America; and third, Professor Mathewson's discovery that the highly ornamental
objects, requiring very careful casting and a small amount of hammering, contain
approximately that percentage of tin best suited to produce a good. casting, and
those objects which had to have a hammered edge contain a low percentage of tin
in order to enable them to be cold-worked.
Knives were generally cast in one piece and then cold-worked, such reheating

Bingham — The Inca Peoples 257
as took place being solely for the purpose of softening the metal to facilitate cold-
working and being probably less than red heat. Some specimens were repeatedly
hammered and reheated to an annealing temperature. Similar surface charac
teristics have been reproduced in the laboratory by hammering on the anvil with
a broadfaced hammer. This hammering might have been done with several of
the stone tools found. Regarding the original size and shape of the castings from
which the knives were made, little can be said. Several knives may have been
made from one cast piece. In all cases the blade appears to have been worked
and hammered so as to extend the metal more or less uniformly in several direc
tions. In any event the casting structure was thoroughly obliterated, so that the
knives in their present condition do not bear much resemblance to the original
cast form. Chisels, on the other hand, were not widely different from the castings
used in making them. >
A number of the cast structures were altered by cold- working with annealing;
others by hot-working; and one specimen shows two distinct varieties of metal
in its construction. It is a small knife with a conventionalized llama head.
The metal which projects up into the head is of a lower tin content than the head
itself. The head contained a higher content of tin, so that by expansion the result
would be better detail.
The most unusual bronze specimen found at Machu Picchu is a knife sur
mounted by an ornamental group comprising a prostrate fisher boy with line
and fish. Examination showed that the blade had been shaped after casting,
but without sufficiently drastic treatment to remove the casting cores. This
specimen, in common with many others, seems to have been cast as a well designed
and carefully executed handle, with a body of outlying metal, which was later
hammered into its desired shape and hardness without the necessity of drastic
annealing. ,
In another specimen the head was cast around a core of lower-tin-content
metal which forms the shank and blade of the knife, and which may have been
hammered out to its desired shape before the head was cast on. Examination
of a broken ax blade shows that the implement was used in heavy work, perhaps
upon stone, whereby the edge suffered severely and was appropriately dressed
from time to time. The structure near the edge is notable in that it shows
severe deformation of a character which could result only from hard use and not
from shaping the edge by hammering along the sides. Possibly sharp inner
corners of nice stone-cutting were obtained by using bronze, axes.
A small crowbar in the collection, one of those champis that always attract
the admiration of Peruvians, was used in a tensile test which gave an ultimate
strength of 28,000 pounds per square inch, although the metal in this particular
case is of very poor quality. Worked bronzes of the same composition when
hardened show greater strength. Nevertheless a fairly large stone could be pried
into place without actually breaking this bar.
The question has often arisen as to whether the builders of Machu Picchu
did or did riot use bronze implements in the finishing of the finer stone-work.
While we are. sure that hammerstones were the chief tools for dressing stone,
it appears to be entirely possible that bronze tools may have been used where
sharp inner corners were needed. Bronze, however, was too soft to last long in
such work, and it is not likely that it was often so employed. Experiments in

258 XIX International Congress of Americanists
the National Museum have demonstrated that patience, "elbow grease", and I
sand will cause stone tools to work miracles.
Their surgical tools were probably of bronze or obsidian. Surgery appears 5
to have been practised to a considerable degree, if one may judge by the large
numbers of trepanned skulls that we have found in caves within a radius of j
twenty-five miles of Machu Picchu. Some of them show that, in the words of ;
the moderns, "the operation was successful, but .the patient died immediately \
afterward." Others, on the other hand, show that the wound healed and the
patient lived for a considerable period after the operation. In some cases the
cause of the operation appears to have been disease; in others the evidence leads
to the conclusion that the operation was intended to relieve pain caused by wounds
received in battle. Since the favorite weapon of the Inca peoples was the sling,
and clubs were common, it is riot surprising that the skulls of many soldiers
should have needed the relief that came from skilled trepanning. We found no
arrowheads or spearpoints in this region.
In the art of war there was considerable development of skill in defense,
rather than offense. Fortifications constructed with salients and reentrant angles
so as to admit of lateral fire were not uncommon; high walls, even dry moats,
were not unknown. Forts were frequently situated on sightly eminences com
manding a fine view of all approaches.
The Inca peoples had no machinery and did not use iron or steel. They used
levers and inclined planes. They also made huge fiber ropes'; Long suspension
bridges were constructed of these ropes and their aid must have been invoked
in the construction of their huge walls. They thought nothing of handling blocks
of stone weighing five tons and upward. Indeed in the walls of Sacsahuaman
'« and in the fortress of Ollantaytambo there are numerous stones that weigh more
\ than fifteen tons which have been fitted together with a skill that has amazed
all beholders. Their works of engineering likewise included the straightening of river
courses and terracing the banks of rivers, thereby preventing them from eating
into the highly desirable bottomlands or alluvial plains.
They built irrigation ditches along the mountain-sides and around precipices.
They constructed well paved, but narrow, highways over which foot-runners
could rapidly pass, but which were not intended for wheeled vehicles, since the
latter did not come within the ken of the Inca peoples. These roads are frequently
taken over steep places by means of long flights of stone stairs. On these roads
at convenient intervals were erected rest houses. They constructed large corrals
for their flocks and herds.
This brings us to the subject of the domestication of animals and plants,
which formed an important feature of the culture of the Inca peoples. It appears
/ that the extent of these peoples and their influence throughout the Andes extends
no farther north than the known limits of the llamas and the alpacas. In fact
the development of their culture may be said to have depended in large measure
on their success in domesticating these varieties of the South American camel.
Two other varieties, the vicuna and the guanaco, have never been domesticated.
The alpaca and the llama,, on the other hand, were domesticated so long ago
that no wild members of these races remain, although the guanaco is so closely
akin that its ancestors and those of the llama and alpaca may be identical.

Bingham — The Inca Peoples 259
To have been able to raise and to train hundreds of thousands of llamas
which could carry from fifty to a hundred pounds apiece enabled the Inca peoples
to carry out engineering and agricultural works far in excess of that which they
could have done had they been obliged to depend entirely on human burden-
bearers. Equally important in the developing of their culture was their good fortune
in domesticating the white potato and in developing various varieties of it; and
furthermore, in developing maize or Indian corn. We have found the white-
potato plant from which the potato was domesticated, but we have hitherto
been unable to identify the wild plant from which maize was developed. The use
of maize appears to have been common to most of the American tribes, but the
domesticated white potato and its development, and the discovery that by
freezing and drying it this useful article of food might be kept almost indefinitely,
enabled the Inca peoples td meet periods of famine and drought in a way that
must have proved very valuable to them in their struggle for existence and in the
development of their culture. Not only did they doriiesticate food plants other
than the potato and the maize, but they also discovered the medicinal uses of
a considerable number of forest plants and cultivated these medicinal plants in
their little gardens, as their descendants still do.
In religion the Incas were fond of worshipping high places, fine views, and
other striking natural objects, such as huge, irregular bowlders, waterfalls,
springs, and the wonders of the air and the sky, such as rain, thunder, the starry
firmament, the moon, and, above all, the sun. In a cold mountainous region
like the Central Andes it was but natural that the blessed sun which is so eagerly
welcomed in the morning and so essential to the raising of the crops and to the
comfort of shivering mortality should have been regarded as their chief divinity.
It was likewise natural that they should have held great feasts of rejoicing and
solicitation at the solstices. They were superstitious and believed iri the value of
fetishes and in the spiritualization of the material universe.
The Spanish chroniclers give us many details in regard to the ancient religion
which are so strikingly like the essentials of the Holy Catholic faith as to lead the'
critically inclined to wonder just how far this resemblance actually ran.
Of literature as such they necessarily had none. Their records were kept
by means of knotted strings and possibly by stone counters. Like most primitive
peoples they had remarkable memories. Fine examples of prayers and chants
were recorded by some of the early Spanish chroniclers. How far these things
have been influenced by the writers' natural desire to please the readers is a
matter that is still open to discussion.
With regard to the presence of actual drama, the most diverse opinions
prevail. Sir Clements Markham was firmly convinced of the age of the drama
Ollantay, and so are most Quichua scholars in Cuzco today where the play is
annually reproduced by the local society interested in the preservation of the
ancient language. Critical students of comparative literature, however, find in
the characters and makeup of this drama so striking a resemblance to the Spanish
drama of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries as to make many
of then unwilling to believe that it is anything more than a post-Columbian
dramatic adaptation of an ancient Inca story.
In regard to music, so far as one may judge from the present-day music of

260 XIX International Congress of Americanists
the Andean peoples, it was a very simple affair and limited to a few notes repeated1
continually in a minor key and not highly developed.
In regard to customs of burial, their practice seems to have been almost
/ uniformly to place the body in a sitting position with the knees drawn up close
to the chest and the hands near the face. Burial usually took place in caves or
under rocky ledges, and was frequently accompanied by offerings, including earth
enware, small bronze objects, and food.
One of the more interesting burial customs observed in our recent excavations
in Peru was that of placing pairs of dishes in -the graves. This is particularly
true of small dishes or ladles, but is also true occasionally in the case of small
jugs. Larger jars like aryballi, or beaker-shaped ollas, etc., do not appear to
have been made in pairs, as a rule. An obvious explanation is, that a family could
readily do with one water jar, one cooking pot, and so on, but even the smallest
family would need two. ladles if these served as dishes from which soup or stew
could be eaten, as appears to have been the case.
The foundation stone of the culture and development of the Inca peoples
was the family group or clan. The family tie was very strong, and still is. The
extent to which members of a family will go in alleviating the suffering and
distress of distant relatives is perhaps the most striking and delightful trait in
the South Americans of today. This fundamental of their civilization greatly
influenced their architecture, since houses must be arranged in clan or family
groups; influenced their religion, enabling them to ascribe to particular shrines or
to remarkable bowlders the name of the family ancestor and to worship it as
his representative; and formed a basis on which government could rest, the
heads of families being held responsible for those under them.
Finally, it was truly a remarkable civilization which the Inca peoples
developed. In difficult feats of engineering they equaled the greatest ever accom
plished by primitive peoples. In textiles the products of their hand-looms can
with difficulty be paralleled today. In the simplicity, sincerity, and symmetry
of their pottery they produced examples surpassed only by the Greeks. In
metallurgy, in the construction of bronze they were remarkably clever, although
they did not succeed in learning how to use iron, and in the working of gold,
silver, copper, and tin, they were still at a primitive stage at the time of the
Conquest. Perhaps most unfortunate of all was their failure to develop an alphabet
or even some form of hieroglyphic similar to that developed in southern Mexico
and Central America. It is indeed remarkable that a people who succeeded in
equaling the ancient Egyptians in architecture, engineering, pottery, and textiles,
should have fallen so far behind them in the development of a written language.
This is the most serious obstacle that stands in the way of our learning more of
that enterprising race.
Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut

<i\,l h