Ghosts of Machu Picchu Page #2

---

a far cry from Eaton's 4 to 1 ratio.

To figure out the sex of a skeleton,

you have to compare it

across many ethnic and racial groups.

Eaton's references were limited

to people of European or African descent.

People in the Andes are,

are relatively short, delicately built.

And I can only guess that what

he was looking at was bone size

and he said this looks like

a small person, therefore it's female.

In Bingham's collection, Verano also

found the bones of several children

and children and virgins

just didn't add up.

I just, I can't find

evidence to support that idea

that these were virgins of the sun.

I think that,

that can be pretty well ruled out.

Without the virgins

or any sign of Spanish desecration,

there was no proof to support Bingham's

theory that this was Vilcabamba.

So what was it?

With so few written records,

archeologists like Fernando Astete

must piece together clues about

Machu Picchu's history

wherever they can find them.

And he thinks he's just found one

in a nearby town called Patallacta.

Patallacta was important

because it supplied the food

for all the people

living at Machu Picchu.

Patallacta is a few hours

walk from Machu Picchu

along the main Inca

trail through the region.

lt is the closest place to Machu Picchu

where large-scale farming

could have taken place.

The people who lived at Patallacta

weren't just farmers though,

they likely played many roles-they could

have been stoneworkers, builders,

laborers.

Astete's best hope for understanding

Machu Picchu is to learn about the people

who lived here

the possible builders of the city.

Above the old Inca town,

up a nearly vertical slope,

a local guide has found

what looks like a burial niche.

Astete and fellow archaeologist,

Elva Torres,

believe it may be undisturbed

a gravesite last touched 500 years ago.

Hey, what's up?

And the tomb?

It's sealed.

We need to open it.

Before the tomb can be opened,

Astete's Quechua guide

makes an offering of coca leaves

to the spirits that dwell here, just

as his Inca forbearers would have done.

Pass it to me, pass it to me.

Be careful so the others don't fall.

Astete and Torres have investigated

many other burials in the area.

Most are far more accessible.

This tomb...has been constructed.

The other tombs don't use this style.

They're simply in caves, in natural

rock formations that are easy to get to.

Do you see anything?

No, it's very dark.

In the dim tomb light...

a human skull.

Yes, I see a skull.

So there's a skull and lots of bones.

Be careful, don't step on anything.

As Torres enters the cramped tomb,

the find only gets more tantalizing.

It appears there's

a couple of individuals.

But as she investigates, she finds

a lot more skeletons-nine in all.

And many show signs of injury.

Well, this problem regarding fractures...

they could be from everyday activities.

They could have been from a fall,

something may have fallen on them or

perhaps some other sort of activity.

In this case, they may have been

working in the quarries.

Could these be the skeletons

Of the builders of Machu Picchu?

They can't be sure until

they take a closer look in the lab.

There, Torres is joined

by bio-archeologist Valerie Andrushko.

Right away, they find some surprises

in the skulls from Patallacta.

They're full of holes.

It's the sign of

a procedure called trepanation.

Trepanation is the partial removal

of part ofthe skull

that the Inca practiced with very

high degrees of success.

Our understanding is that trepanation

was often done in order to release

intracranial pressure due to fractures.

It's skull surgery,

and healed wounds found throughout

the empire show that the Inca

were skilled at using

it to treat head trauma.

When we see evidence for trauma,

the question is always, is it related

to accidents or is related to violence?

This individual right here, this is

a complete fracture of the frontal bone.

It has perforated all

the way to the frontal sinus.

This type of injury

is not the type of injury

that one would

get from an accidental fall.

To me, this is the type of injury more

indicative of a weapon type injury,

possibly indicative of warfare.

In fact, several skulls from the tombs

show signs of blunt force trauma,

the type of fracture

you'd get from a club.

So these weren't builders

they were likely warriors.

Possibly, these individuals

may have been engaged in defense

of the sites around them, possibly

engaged in the defense of Machu Picchu.

This revelation stands in stark contrast

to the appearance of Machu Picchu

as a religious sanctuary.

This is a city dominated

by sacred temples and shrines.

The Temple of the Three Windows.

The Temple of the Condor, named

for its carved floor and stone wings.

The elegantly curved Temple of the Sun,

built on a rock that is

illuminated on the solstice.

And, at the highest point in the city,

a stone pillar known as the Intihuatana.

The evidence seems to be in conflict:

was Machu Picchu a military

fortress orwas it a religious center?

The answer can perhaps be found

in the ancient capital of Cusco

where the descendants

of the Inca still live.

Every year, during the Roman Catholic

festival of Corpus Christi,

statues of the Virgin Mary,

along with 15 other saints,

are removed from the cathedral

and brought to the square.

These performers may be paying

homage to Christian saints,

but the instruments they play

and the steps they move

to are actually Inca in origin.

That's because this Corpus Christi

procession is a Christian revision

of an Inca ritual.

Five hundred years ago, the Inca

also processed through Cusco.

But they didn't carry statues of saints.

They carried the mummies of their kings

whom they revered as gods.

It was likely one of these kings

who built Machu Picchu.

The quality of the stonework

alone suggests the city was royal.

Fernando Astete estimates that it would

have taken at least 50 years to complete.

Since the Inca Empire

only lasted 100 years,

focus has been on the earliest kings.

The accounts of a Spanish Jesuit named

Bernabe Cobo point to a dynamic leader

who founded the Inca Empire,

a king named Pachacuti.

But no one could ever prove

that Pachacuti built Machu Picchu.

A small clue was hidden in his name,

which means, "He who remakes the world.

Pachacuti was sort

of the Alexander the Great of the Incas.

He was the one who started

the expansion out of the Cusco region

and the Inca Empire began

to expand tremendously over areas

that had never been

conquered by the Incas before.

What we know of Pachacuti's history

is due in part to Father Cobo.

Cobo arrived in Peru after

the conquest in the late 1500s

and wrote his account based on interviews

with descendants of the Inca.

According to Father Cobo,

Pachacuti was renowned as a builder.

Having enlarged his empire with

so many and such vast provinces,

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes