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AP World History: The Inca. Periods 3 and 4. Recall the South American Civilizations that Preceded the Inca!. CIVILIZATION The Chavin : c. 900 BCE – 200 CE The Moche : 200 – 600 CE. ACHIEVMENTS Temple complex at Chavin de Huantar Skilled artists and potters.
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AP World History: The Inca Periods 3 and 4
Recall the South American Civilizations that Preceded the Inca! • CIVILIZATION • The Chavin: c. 900 BCE – 200 CE • The Moche: 200 – 600 CE • ACHIEVMENTS • Temple complex at Chavin de Huantar • Skilled artists and potters
I Geography of Incan Civilization • The Inca empire stretched 2,500 miles along the Andes mountains in western South America • Altitudes up to 22,000 feet! The Inca chewed coca leaves to help acclimate to the lower oxygen. C) Lake Titicaca is the highest elevated lake in the world
II Government • The Incan Empire lasted from 1200 – 1535 CE • Capital at Cuzco “Naval of the world” • Ruled by an emperor • Government forced all citizens to do labor for the empire most of the year. (Building bridges, roads, temples, etc)
III Religion A) Polytheistic B) Inti (Sun God) was the most powerful - emperor was the only “son of the sun” C) Reincarnation: saved nail clippings & teeth in case their returning spirit needed them D) Sacred Temple of the Sun in Cuzco E) Families worshipped their ancestors in addition to the Incan gods
IV Mummification • There were 2 types of mummies • Emperors were mummified due to the belief that their soul comes back to the body - These mummies were paraded around, clothed and even fed! 2. Young girls were left to die in the Andes as sacrificial victims. Due to the dry climate, they became well preserved. B) Spanish conquistadors destroyed most of the Emperor mummies.
Final Moments of Incan Child Mummies' Lives RevealedJul 29, 2013 by Joseph Castro, LiveScience Three Incan children who were sacrificed 500 years ago were regularly given drugs and alcohol in their final months to make them more compliant in the ritual that ultimately killed them, new research suggests. Archaeologists analyzed hair samples from the frozen mummies of the three children, who were discovered in 1999, entombed within a shrine near the 22,100-foot (6,739 meters) summit of the Argentinian volcano Llullaillaco. The samples revealed that all three children consistently consumed coca leaves (from which cocaine is derived) and alcoholic beverages, but the oldest child, the famed "Maiden," ingested markedly more of the substances. Coca was a highly controlled substance during the height of the Inca Empire, when the children were sacrificed. The evidence, combined with other archaeological and radiological data, suggests that the Maiden was treated very differently from the other two children, Llullaillaco Boy and Lightning Girl (so named by researchers because the mummy appears to have been struck by lightning). After being selected for the deadly rite, the Maiden likely underwent a type of status change, becoming an important figure to the empire; the other two children may have served as her attendants. "(The Maiden) became somebody other than who she was before," said study lead author Andrew Wilson, an archaeologist at the University of Bradford in the U.K. "Her sacrifice was seen as an honor." To learn about the final moments of a mummy's life, scientists will sometimes turn to hair samples, which provide a record of what substances were circulating in the blood when new hair cells formed. And because hair grows at a relatively constant rate, it can provide a kind of timeline of what a person has consumed (the length of the timeline depends on the length of hair available). In a 2007 study, Wilson and his colleagues analyzed the child mummies' hair to understand how their diets changed over time. They found that the children came from a peasant background, as their diet consisted mainly of common vegetables, potatoes in particular. But in the year leading up to their deaths, they ate "elite" food, including maize and dried llama meat, and appeared to have been fattened up in preparation for the sacrifice. Additionally, the 13-year-old Maiden consumed more of the elite food than the Llullaillaco Boy and Lightning Girl, who were both 4 to 5 years old, Wilson noted. (The three children were previously believed to be about two years older than these estimates, but a new analysis of CT scans suggests otherwise.) In the new study, the scientists analyzed the mummies' hair for cocaine (a major alkaloid of coca leaves) and its metabolite benzoylecgonine, as well as cocaethylene, which forms when both cocaine and ethanol are present in the blood. The scientists created a timeline of coca and alcohol consumption for the children — due to respective hair lengths, the chronology for the younger children only went back to about nine months before their deaths, whereas the Maiden's timeline spanned about 21 months before death.
Final Moments of Incan Child Mummies' Lives Revealed Jul 29, 2013 by Joseph Castro, LiveScience Continued… The team found that the younger children ingested coca and alcohol at a steady rate, but the Maiden consumed significantly more coca in her final year, with peak consumption occurring at approximately six months before her death. Her alcohol consumption peaked within her last few weeks of life. The increase in drug and alcohol ingestion likely made the Maiden more at ease with her impending death, Wilson said, adding that she was discovered with a sizeable coca quid (lump for chewing) in between her teeth, suggesting she was sedated when she died. The children's burial conditions provide further insight into their final moments. The Maiden sat cross-legged and slightly forward, in a fairly relaxed body position at the time of her death. She also had a feathered headdress on her head, elaborately braided hair and a number of artifacts placed on a textile that was draped over her knees. Furthermore, scans showed the Maiden had food in her system and that she had not recently defecated. "To my mind, that suggests she was not in a state of distress at the point at which she died," Wilson said. It's not clear how the Maiden died, but she may have succumbed to the freezing temperatures of the environment and was placed in her final position while she was still alive or very shortly after death, he said. By contrast, the Llullaillaco Boy had blood on his cloak, a nit infestation in his hair and a cloth binding his body, suggesting he may have died of suffocation. The Lightning Girl didn't appear to be treated as roughly as the boy, though she didn't receive the same care as the Maiden — she lacked, for example, the Maiden's decorated headdress and braids. "The Maiden was perhaps a chosen woman selected to live apart from her former life, among the elite and under the care of the priestesses," Wilson said. Evidence suggests the imperial rite may have been used as a form of social control. Being selected for the ritual was supposed to be seen as a great honor, but it likely produced a climate of fear. In fact, it was a major offense for parents to show any sadness after giving up their children for the ceremony. More work on the three mummies will reveal more about the Inca society and its practice of ritual sacrifice. "The exciting thing about these individuals is that they probably still have much more to tell us," Wilson said. "Locked in their tissues are many stories still to unfold." The work was detailed today (July 29) in the Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
IV Economy & Trade • Llama caravans traded along the Incan roads B) Cultivated crops: potatoes, coca leaves, corn (made into an alcoholic beverage chicha), quinoa (a high protein grain) C) Domesticated animals: alpaca, llama, guinea pig E) Terrace farming (cut steps into the mountains) Roasted guinea pig is a delicacy!
V Science & Other Achievements • Quipu: Knotted colored strings that were used as a counting system.
Science & Other Achievements Continued… B) The Inca constructed a road system of over 14,000 miles, that ran almost the entire length of the South American pacific coast! • 2 main highways, connected by shorter crossroads • Built stone walls to prevent people falling off cliffs • No wheel, all travel done by foot • Bridges built over rivers
Incan Rope Bridge The construction of these bridges amounted to a pair of stone anchors on each side of the canyon with massive cables of woven grass linking these two pylons together. Adding to this construction, two additional cables acted as guardrails. The cables which supported the foot-path were reinforced with plaited branches. This multi-structure system made these bridges strong enough to even carry the Spaniards while riding horses after they arrived. However, these massive bridges were so heavy that they tended to sag in the middle, and this caused them to sway in strong winds.
VI Incan Culture & Society • Families lived in homes made of stone and mud with thatched roofs • At 13, all children were given an IQ exam (oral as the Inca did not have a writing system). Those who passed went to school to work in the government.
VII Machu Pichu Machu Pichu is tangible evidence of the urban Inca Empire at the peak of its power and achievement—a citadel of cut stone fit together without mortar so tightly that its cracks still can’t be penetrated by a knife blade. The complex of palaces and plazas, temples and homes may have been built as a ceremonial site, a military stronghold, or a retreat for ruling elites—its dramatic location is certainly well suited for any of those purposes. The ruins lie on a high ridge, surrounded on three sides by the windy, turbulent Urubamba River some 2,000 feet (610 meters) below. Scholars are still striving to uncover clues to the mysteries hidden here high in the eastern slopes of the Andes, covered with tropical forests of the upper Amazon Basin. Machu Picchu appears to lie at the center of a network of related sites and trails—and many landmarks both man-made and mountainous appear to align with astronomical events like the solstice sunset. The Inca had no written language, so they left no record of why they built the site or how they used it before it was abandoned in the early 16th century. Landscape engineering skills are in strong evidence at Machu Picchu. The site’s buildings, walls, terraces, and ramps reclaim the steep mountainous terrain and make the city blend naturally into the rock escarpments on which it is situated. The 700-plus terraces preserved soil, promoted agriculture, and served as part of an extensive water-distribution system that conserved water and limited erosion on the steep slopes. The Inca’s achievements and skills are all the more impressive in light of the knowledge they lacked. When Machu Picchu was built some 500 years ago the Inca had no iron, no steel, and no wheels. Their tremendous effort apparently benefited relatively few people—some experts maintain that fewer than a thousand individuals lived here. In 1911 a Peruvian guide led Yale professor Hiram Bingham up a steep mountainside and into the history books as the first Western scholar to lay eyes on the “lost city” of Machu Picchu. While indigenous peoples knew of the site, Peru’s Spanish conquerors never did—a fact which aided Machu Picchu’s isolation, and preservation, over the centuries. - natgeo.com
Focus Questions • How did geography affect the Incan civilization? • What were the main achievements of the Inca? • Compare and contrast Aztec and Incan human sacrifice. • Is Machu Pichu overrated?
