Incan Civilization — Part 2

The khipu recorded numbers: the type of knot gives the digit, its position on the cord gives the place value, and the system is decimal. Colonial records describe the khipukamayuq — the keepers — reading out censuses, tribute and dates from them, and Spanish courts accepted khipu accounts as evidence in the sixteenth century. The chroniclers also wrote that the keepers recited the histories and genealogies of the Inca rulers from their cords. About 1,400 khipus survive. The Third Council of Lima in 1583 ordered those used in the old religion to be destroyed.

An epidemic reached the empire before the Spanish did. It killed the emperor Huayna Capac around 1527 and his named heir, and his sons Huáscar and Atahualpa went to war over the throne. Atahualpa's generals had just defeated and captured Huáscar when Pizarro landed with fewer than 200 men.

At Cajamarca in November 1532, Atahualpa came into the square with thousands of attendants to meet the Spanish, who attacked from hiding and took him prisoner. From captivity he still gave orders across the empire: he offered a room filled with gold and twice over with silver for his freedom, and at his command it was carried to Cajamarca from temples and palaces far and wide. In July 1533 the Spaniards tried and executed him.

The Inca state did not end there. Manco Inca rose against the Spanish in 1536 and besieged Cusco. A neo-Inca state held out at Vilcabamba in the mountains, with its own rulers, until the last, Túpac Amaru, was captured and executed in Cusco in 1572 — forty years after Cajamarca.

The second part of the Inca story follows the empire's records, its religion and its fall. It is told by the Spaniards who were at Cajamarca, and by Andean writers of the next generation.

The Sun and the sacred land

At the centre of Inca religion was Inti, the Sun. The emperor, the Sapa Inca, ruled as the Sun's descendant, so his power was religious as well as political. Across the land were huacas — sacred places, stones and springs — linked to Cusco by lines called ceques.

Records in knots

The khipu was a bundle of knotted, coloured cords that recorded numbers. The type of knot gives the digit, and its position on the cord gives the place value — ones, tens, hundreds — in a system based on ten. Records from the Spanish colonial period describe the khipukamayuq, the keepers of the cords, reading out censuses, tribute and dates from them. Spanish courts accepted khipu accounts as evidence in the sixteenth century. The chroniclers also wrote that the keepers recited the histories and family lines of the Inca rulers from their cords. About 1,400 khipus survive. In 1583 the Third Council of Lima, a meeting of church leaders, ordered those used in the old religion to be destroyed.

A sickness and a civil war

An epidemic reached the empire before the Spanish did. Around 1527 it killed the emperor Huayna Capac and the son he had named as heir. Two of his other sons, Huáscar and Atahualpa, then went to war over the throne. Atahualpa's generals had just defeated and captured Huáscar when Francisco Pizarro landed with fewer than 200 men.

Cajamarca

At Cajamarca in November 1532, Atahualpa came into the town square with thousands of attendants to meet the Spanish. The Spanish attacked from hiding and took him prisoner. Even in captivity he still gave orders across the empire. He offered to fill a room with gold, and twice over with silver, for his freedom, and at his command the treasure was carried to Cajamarca from temples and palaces far and wide. In July 1533 the Spaniards put him on trial and executed him.

The Inca state carries on

The Inca state did not end there. Manco Inca rose against the Spanish in 1536 and laid siege to Cusco. A new Inca state held out at Vilcabamba in the mountains, with its own rulers. The last of them, Túpac Amaru, was captured and executed in Cusco in 1572 — forty years after Cajamarca.

Four things worth knowing

• About 1,400 khipus survive. Harvard's Khipu Database Project has matched a handful of them to Spanish colonial censuses of the same villages.
• Spanish colonial courts accepted khipu accounts as evidence, with a khipukamayuq reading them aloud.
• Dead Inca rulers were preserved as mummies. They kept their palaces, servants and estates, and were carried out to take part in festivals.
• Túpac Amaru II, who led a great rising against Spanish rule in 1780, took his name from the last Inca ruler of Vilcabamba.

This part of the Inca story is about how the Inca kept their records, what their religion taught, and how their empire ended.

People and their jobs

• The Sapa Inca was the emperor. The Inca said he was the son of Inti, the Sun.
• The khipu keeper (khipukamayuq) looked after the knotted cords that held the empire's numbers. He could read out how many people lived in a village, and what they owed.
• Priests cared for the temple of the Sun in Cusco and the holy places all over the land.
• Runners carried messages along the roads.
• The royal servants kept caring for a ruler even after he died. Dead Inca rulers were preserved as mummies. They kept their palaces and servants, and were carried out to join the festivals.

Things they made and used

• A khipu is a bundle of coloured cords with knots. The kind of knot gave the number, and where it sat on the cord showed ones, tens or hundreds. About 1,400 khipus still survive.
• A huaca is a holy place or thing — a special stone, a spring or a mountain.
• The temple of the Sun in Cusco had walls covered with sheets of gold.
• The ransom room. When the Spanish captured the ruler Atahualpa, he offered to fill a room with gold, and twice over with silver, to be set free.

Animals

• Llamas carried goods along the roads. Great herds of them belonged to the Sun and to the ruler.

How the empire ended

A sickness came before the Spanish did, and the emperor Huayna Capac died. Two of his sons, Huáscar and Atahualpa, then fought over the throne. In 1532 a small Spanish force led by Francisco Pizarro captured Atahualpa at Cajamarca. Some Inca rulers kept their own kingdom in the mountains at Vilcabamba for forty more years.