Inca Ushnus

 

Project summary

This project examines how the Inca Empire (c. AD 1400 – 1532) met the challenge of appropriating and modifying the Andean landscape to enhance its productive capacity and political power to create the largest native state in the Americas.

For more details please go to the project summary document

 

Progress and Highlights

Year 1

• The first season of fieldwork was conducted in May-June 2007, involving all members of the project team.

• The fieldwork involved collaboration with Dr C. Vivanco of the University of Ayacucho , Peru

• The fieldwork involved the excavation of five ushnus, full geoarchaeological and geomorphological surveys, and the initiation of the ethnographic analysis

• The laboratory analyses involved soil micromorphology, sediment and soil geochemistry and spatial analysis (GIS ArcView)

• A full report was written on the archaeological excavations for the Peruvian National Institute of Culture (INC) (in Spanish and English).

• The fieldwork confirmed the presence of multiple layers of topsoil and subsoil which is not of local origin infilling the Inca ushnu structures, which suggests that this was a widespread practice, presumably of symbolic rather than practical importance.

Year 2

This project can report a finding which is of great significance for Andean archaeology -

The ushnu of Incapirqa Waminan has produced perhaps one of the most evocative finds of the season. At the base of a very narrow, deep and steep sided shaft, which penetrated through the platform fills descending further and deeper, was a circular cut, which had been carved into the underlying bedrock. Positioned here was a group of three carved conically shaped rocks, placed in a tripod configuration, with their tips resting against one another. Two were sculpted in red andesite, and the third was of a white variety. Holes in the bedrock are known to have been thought of as eyes into the world of the ancestors, the world below. Stones were also widely seen as being charged with sacred essence, to represent embodiments of ancestors and deities. Key ethno-historic sources links stones of the size and shape found here with one of the principal functions of ushnu platforms, their role in Inca sun worship.

A second season of field work has been on-going throughout the summer of 2008 and findings will be updated here.

Year 3

Following on from the research conducted in 2007, the fieldwork in 2008 resulted both in important complementary findings as well as in new and unexpected results. The fieldwork in 2007 had uncovered a so far unique find of conical stones placed in a tripod configuration at the base of a deep steep sided pit. Early Spanish and indigenous chroniclers describe similar stones as being sugarloaf, pineapple, pinecone or bowling pin shaped. In the chronicle sources they are stated to have been used in important solar rituals involving the non-elite population, where they appear to represent variously stone ancestors, the sun or the seat of the sun. The 2008 fieldwork uncovered a further example of this type of stone as a surface find on a platform south of the Rio Pampas. Comparative research flagged up a further example of this type of stone object recently excavated at the imperial ushnu at Huanucopampa. This confirms a widespread use and association of this type of conical stones with usnu platforms. Documentary source material seems to confirm that many of the high altitude platforms are positioned near ethnic boundaries as well as along elements of the Inca road system. The latter has also been confirmed in the latest fieldwork. Research into the SoundScapes associated with the various ushnu platforms has shown that some of the sites were planned to maximise effective sound levels across large public spaces. The planning details of the site of Usccunta additionally conform to the known social divisions of Inca social groups. The latter discovery has significant implications with respect to our understanding of a site, which is known to have constituted a mayor regional shrine for interregional pilgrimage activities both during the Inca period and the preceding Late Intermediate Period.