The Inca Empire is one of the most unique in human history, as it achieved greatness without the use of the wheel, metals, or a system of writing.
The Incas are thought to have originated in the city of Cusco (or Cuzco) from people who settled in what is today southern Peru around 1200. This is where they established their capital.
Local mythology says the Inca were created by the sun god, Inti, who sent his son, Manco Capac, to Earth. Legend has it that he first killed his brothers and then led his sisters into a valley near Cusco. The Incas called themselves “Intip Churin,” which in Quechua means “the children of the sun.”
According to some historians, the Incas managed to expand their empire because they found an already established infrastructure—hydraulic systems and highways—left from two earlier empires. Cusco was located between two previous empires, the Wari and one based at the city of Tiwanaku.
As warriors and conquerors, the Incas were as benevolent as they were fierce. Tribes that were subdued quietly were treated well and brought into the sophisticated Inca social system.
Soon, the Inca sun-worshipping religion and Quechua language were spread to the far corners of the empire. The less troublesome groups were allowed a certain degree of freedom to speak their own language and dress according to their own traditions. Tribes that resisted conquest were banished to distant parts of the realm to break their spirit.
They began their conquests in the early 15th century and within a hundred years had gained control of an Andean population of about twelve million people.
Inca society
The Inca governors were considered divine, having titles like Lord Inca or Sapa Inca, meaning “Divine Inca” and “Unique Inca.”
The Incas forced each conquered community to resettle in large contingents, distributing ethnic groups throughout their territory. This was done in order to prevent them from organizing revolts. Local governors were responsible for enforcing the labor tax on which the empire was based. Tax was paid in kind by service in the army, on public works, or in agricultural work.
A decimal-based administration system helped the Inca maintain social and economic control over their vast territory. Ten workers would have one leader. Ten leaders would have their own head, and so on.
Resources such as food and clothing were strictly managed, using a fair system. Citizens were expected to work hard. In return, they were provided with adequate food and clothing. Accounting was done by using knotted strings called quipus.
The Incas did not have a monetary system. They believed in barter as a form of payment that consisted of exchanging one thing for another. In addition, they were experts in agriculture, which was their main activity. Among their main crops were corn, potatoes, cotton, tomatoes, peanuts, and coca, goods that they would also use to barter.
Citizens were encouraged to be good social beings through sayings like Ama quilla, Ama ll’ulla, Ama shua (‘Don’t be lazy, don’t lie, don’t steal’). They were obligated to attend regular elaborate fiestas, where they ritually consumed plentiful amounts of food and chicha (maize beer).
The Inca religion was polytheistic and had as gods Viracocha (administrator god), Inti (Sun), Pachamama (mother earth), Apus (spirit of the mountains), Cochamama (goddess of the sea), and Pachacámac (god of earthquakes), among others.
Women in the Inca Empire were married at the age of sixteen, whereas men married at twenty. Men of lower social rank could only have one wife, while men of high social rank could have more wives. A wedding was more of a business-like agreement, an economic agreement between two families. Parents on either side had to come to an agreement before the marriage took place and the couple could not be directly related to one another.
Unique practices
The Inca took part in spiritual human sacrifices known as the Capacocha. These sacrifices were taking place in mountains throughout the Andes where people were placed alive into burial tombs. They were left with favorite items such as figurines, coca leaves, food, alcoholic beverages, and pottery. These offerings were carried out as efforts to please the mountain deities.
The Vilca camayos were the overseers of the people’s offerings in which they had a decision on where the sacrifices were made and the number of sacrifices made on each mountain. Mountain deities were worshiped because it was believed that they controlled things like rainfall, water flow, and, therefore, the abundance and fertility of crops.
Another extraordinary practice the Inca performed was cranial deformation. They achieved this by wrapping tight cloth straps around the heads of newborns to alter the shape of their still-soft skulls. These deformations did not cause brain damage, however. Researchers at the Field Museum believe that the practice was used to mark different ethnicities across the Inca Empire.
The Inca preserved bodies through mummification. They wrapped them up in the fetal position in cloth or leather. Social rank determined how the Incas were buried. Common people were placed in an open cave or chullpa for their loved ones to visit. Emperors’ organs were removed and placed in jars separate from their bodies. After preparation, they were placed where they spent most of their time in life.
Machu Picchu
Nestled high in the slopes of the Andes, the ruins of Machu Picchu showcase the greatness of the Inca Empire but also reveal its mysteries.
The sacred city of the Incas was built at the top of an Andes mountain overlooking the Urubamba Valley in Peru around the year 1500.
A giant stone sits at the top of the sacred mountain called Intihuatana, which means “the place when the sun gets tied.” The stone is perfectly positioned so that each corner sits at the four cardinal points (north, south, east, and west) and at an angle of about thirteen degrees northward, casting shadows throughout the day.
At exactly noon on the spring or fall equinox date, the sun casts no shadow at all, which means the stone precisely indicates the date of the two equinoxes.
Here the beautiful Inca walls and their advanced civil engineering projects fascinate, considering no draft animals, wheels, or iron tools were used. The site seems to have been sculpted out of a notch between two small peaks by moving stone and earth to create a relatively flat space. The engineer Kenneth Wright has estimated that 60 percent of the construction done at Machu Picchu was underground. Much of that consists of deep building foundations and crushed rock used as drainage.
Machu Picchu, the greatest monument of the Incas, demonstrates how advanced they were without the use of equipment that had already been invented and used in Europe and the East.
What we know about Inca society has been derived from a combination of archaeological studies, oral tradition preserved by official “memorizers,” and the written accounts sent to Spain by early Spanish observers. Quantitative data was kept knotted onto the quipu records kept by professional accountants. Nonquantitative data, however, has not been deciphered yet.
Some of the Spaniard conquerors transcribed events that were told to them, and systematic efforts were made by the Spanish in 1549 and in the 1570s to investigate the Andean past. These accounts have been the main sources of the fragmentary information available to today’s researchers.
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