Astronomical observations in the Inca Temple of Coricancha (Cusco)? A critical review of the hypothesis
Mariusz Ziółkowski
Centre for Precolumbian Studies, University of Warsaw (Poland)
Jacek Kościuk
Faculty of Architecture, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology (Poland)
Abstract
Coricancha (Qurikancha, Qorikancha) was the most important temple in Cuzco, the capital of Tawantinsuyu, the Inca Empire. The Spanish Conquistadores had the opportunity to see her, and her legendary richness, in November 1533, after entering Cuzco. Coricancha was the place to worship the most sacred effigies of the Inca cult, including the figure of the Sun, called Punchao. From this early period, there are also references, unfortunately not very precise, related to a specific orientation of some elements of the temple providing reflection of the rising (or setting) sun on the aforementioned figure of Punchao. Based on these sources, and the analysis of the remains of the original Inca Coricancha, a number of hypotheses regarding the possible astronomical function of this temple were formulated. Of particular importance was the hypothesis of Zuidema and Aveni, according to which astronomical observations at Coricancha constituted the structural skeleton of a specific Inca calendar cycle of 328 days. This article presents a critical analysis of this hypothesis, based on long-term research and measurements carried out in the Coricancha by the authors of the text.
Keywords:
Incas, Coricancha, Punchao, astronomic orientation, Inca calendar, metrologyReferences
Anónimo, Discurso de la sucesión y gobierno de los Yngas”, in: Juicio de límites entre el Perú y Bolivia, ed. Victor Maurtua vol. 8, pp. 149−165, Lima 1906
Google Scholar
Agurto Calvo, Santiago,Cusco: la traza urbana de la ciudad inca. Cusco, Proyecto Per 39, UNESCO, Instituto Nacional de Cultura, Cuzco 1980
Google Scholar
Astete Victoria, Fernando; Mariusz Ziółkowski and Jacek Kościuk,On Inca astronomical instruments: the observatory at Inkaraqay – El Mirador (National Archaeological Park of Machu Picchu, Peru), Estudios Latinoamericanos, Sociedad polaca de Estudios Latinoamericanos, Warszawa, vol. 36/37 (2016/2017), pp. 9−25.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36447/Estudios2017.v36-37.art1
Google Scholar
Aveni, Anthony F., Horizon Astronomy in Incaic Cuzco. In: Archaeoastronomy in the Americas, edited by Ray A. Williamson, A Ballena Press/Center for Archaeoastronomy Cooperative Publication, Los Altos – College Park 1981, pp. 305−318
Google Scholar
Aveni, Anthony F., Stairways to the stars: skywatching in three great ancient cultures, J. Wiley, New York 1997, pp. 305−318.
Google Scholar
Barnes, Monica and Fleming, David, Charles-Marie de La Condamine’s Report on Ingapirca and the Development of Scientific Field Work in the Andes, 1735−1744, Andean Past: Vol. 2, Article 10, 1989. Available at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/andean_past/vol2/iss1/
Google Scholar
Bauer, Brian S., and David S.P. Dearborn, Astronomy and Empire in the Ancient Andes. University of Texas Press, Austin 1995.
Google Scholar
Béjar Navarro, Raymundo, Arquitectura Inka: El templo del Sol o Qorikancha, Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, Cuzco 1990.
Google Scholar
Betanzos, Juan de, Suma y narración de los Incas, prólogo, transcripción y notas por María del Carmen Martin Rubio, Ediciones Atlas, Madrid 1987.
Google Scholar
Cieza de León, Pedro, Crónica del Perú, El Señorio de los Incas, p. II, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima 1986[1550].
Google Scholar
Cornejo Bouroncle, Jorge, El Ccoricancha, Revista Universitaria, vol. 31, nr 83, Cusco 1942, pp. 74−84.
Google Scholar
Dearborn, David S. P.; Schreiber Katharina J. and White Raymond E., Intimachay: A December Solstice Observatory at Machu Picchu, Peru. American Antiquity 52 (2), 1987, pp. 346−352.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/281786
Google Scholar
Duviols, Pierre, Punchao, Ídolo mayor del Coricancha. Historia y tipología, Antropología Andina, n° 1−2, Cusco 1976, pp. 156−183
Google Scholar
Farrington, Ian, Cusco. Urbanism and Archaeology in the Inka World, University Press of Florida, 2013.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvx1hssj
Google Scholar
Gasparini, Graciano and Margolies, Luise, Arquitectura Inka, Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas 1977.
Google Scholar
Guaman Poma de Ayala, Phelipe, El Primer Nueva Coronica y Buen Gobierno, edición crítica de John V.Murra y Rolena Adorno, Siglo Veintiuno Editores, México 1980[1615/16].
Google Scholar
Hyslop, John, Inka Settlement Planning, Texas University Press, Austin 1990.
Google Scholar
Julien, Catherine, Documentación presentada por la ciudad del Cuzco sobre el terremoto de 1650, Revista del Museo e Instituto de Arqueología, t. 25, Cusco 1996, pp. 293−373.
Google Scholar
Kendall F.R.S., David George, Hunting quanta, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Mathematical and Physical Sciences, 1974, A 276, pp. 231−266.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.1974.0020
Google Scholar
Kubler, George, Cuzco: Reconstrucción de la Ciudad y Restauración de Sus Monumentos, Informe de la Misión enviada por la Unesco en 1951, UNESCO, Paris 1952.
Google Scholar
Levillier, Roberto, Gobernantes del Perú, t. IV, Buenos Aires 1924.
Google Scholar
Ladrón de Guevara A., Oscar, La Restauración del Coricancha y Templo de Santo Domingo, Revista del Museo e Instituto Arqueológico, no. 21, UNSAAC, Cusco 1967, pp. 29−95.
Google Scholar
Lehmann-Nitsche, Roberto R., Coricancha, el templo del Sol en el Cuzco y las imágenes de su altar mayor. Revista del Museo de La Plata. v. XXXI, 1928, pp. 1−260
Google Scholar
Lízarraga, Reginaldo de, Descripción breve de toda la tierra del Perú, Tucumán, Río de la Plata y Chile. Biblioteca de autores españoles, vol. 216, Ediciones Atlas, Madryt 1968[1605].
Google Scholar
Mena, Cristóbal de, La conquista del Perú [in:] Las relaciones primitivas de la conquista del Perú, ed. by Raúl Porras Barrenechea, Instituto Raúl Porras Barrenechea, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima 1967[1534], pp. 79−101.
Google Scholar
Müller, Rolf, Sonne, Mond und Sterne über dem Reich der Inka, Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg-New York 1972.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-95223-4
Google Scholar
Pakkanen, Jari, Deriving ancient foot units from building dimensions: a statistical approach employing cosine quantogram analysis, in: Burenhult, G. and J. Arvidsson (eds.), Archaeological Informatics: Pushing The Envelope. CAA2001. Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology. Proceedings of the 29th Conference, Gotland, April 2001, BAR International Series 1016, Archaeopress, Oxford, pp. 501−506.
Google Scholar
Pizarro, Pedro, Relación del Descubrimiento y Conquista del Perú, Pontíficia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima 1978[1571].
Google Scholar
Rostworowski de Diez Canseco, María, Mediciones y Cómputos en el Antiguo Perú, Cuadernos Prehispánicos No 6, Seminario Americanista, Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid 1978.
Google Scholar
Rowe, John H., An Introduction to the Archaeology of Cuzco, Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, vol. 27, nr 2, Harvard University, Cambridge Massachusetts 1944.
Google Scholar
Rowe, John H., An account of the shrines of ancient Cuzco, Ñawpa Pacha, vol. 17, Berkeley 1979, pp. 1−80.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1179/naw.1979.17.1.001
Google Scholar
Ruíz de Arce, Juan, Relación de servicios en Indias de Don Juan Ruiz Arce, Conquistador del Perú, Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, 102, Madrid 1933[1545], pp. 327−384.
Google Scholar
Sancho de la Hoz, Pedro, Relación de la Conquista del Perú, Bibliotheca Tenantitla 2, Ediciones José Porrua Turanzas, Madrid 1962[1572].
Google Scholar
Sarmiento de Gamboa, Pedro, Segunda Parte de la Historia General Llamada Índica. In Geschichtedes Inkareiches von Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, edited by Richard Pietschmann. Ab-handlungen der Königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Philologisch-Historiche Klasse, Neue Folge, Band VI nº 4. Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, Berlin 1906 [1571].
Google Scholar
Uhle, Max, El Templo del Sol de los Incas en Cuzco [in:] Proceedings of the XXIII International Congress of Americanists in New York in 1928, New York 1930, pp. 291−295.
Google Scholar
Urton, Gary, At the Crossroads of the Earth and the Sky, University of Texas, Austin 1981.
Google Scholar
Ziółkowski, Mariusz, Pachap Unancha. El calendario metropolitano del Estado Inca. Ediciones El Lector – Sociedad Polaca de Estudios Latnoamericanos, Arequipa 2015.
Google Scholar
Ziółkowski, Mariusz and Sadowski, Robert, Investigaciones arqueoastronómicas en el sitio de Ingapirca, Prov. de Cañar, Ecuador, in: Archeologia e Astronomia, Colloquio Internazionale, Venezia 3−6 Maggio 1989, A cura di Manuela Fano Santi, Rivista di Archeologia Supplementi, 9, 1991, pp. 151−162.
Google Scholar
Ziółkowski, Mariusz, Jacek Kościuk and Fernando Astete Victoria, Astronomical Observations at Intimachay (Machu Picchu): A new approach to an Old Problem” In Ancient Cosmologies and Modern Prophets. Proceedings of the 20th Conference of the European Society for Astronomy in Culture, edited by Ivan Sprajc and Peter Pehani, pp. 391−404. Slovene Anthropological Society, Ljubljana 2013.
Google Scholar
Ziółkowski, Mariusz, Jacek Kościuk and Fernando Astete Victoria, Inca Moon: Some Evidence of Lunar Observations in Tahuantinsuyu, in: Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy, edited by Clive L.N. Ruggles, pp. 897−912. Springer Science+Business Media, New York 2014.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6141-8_81
Google Scholar
Zuidema, R. Tom, La imagen del Sol y la huaca de Susurpuquio en el sistema astronómico de los Incas en el Cusco, Journal de la Société des Américanistes, Paris 1974−1976, vol. 63, pp. 199−230.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/jsa.1974.2127
Google Scholar
Zuidema, R. Tom, The Inca Calendar, in: Native American Astronomy, Aveni A. F. (ed.), Texas University Press, Austin 1977, pp. 219−263.
Google Scholar
Zuidema, R. Tom, Inca Observations of the Solar and Lunar Passages Through Zenith and Anti-Zenith at Cuzco, [in] Archaeoastronomy in the Americas, edited by Ray A. Williamson, A Ballena Press/Center for Archaeoastronomy Cooperative Publication, Los Altos – College Park 1981, pp. 319−342
Google Scholar
Zuidema, R. Tom, The sideral lunar calendar of the Inca, in: Archaeoastronomy in the New World, Aveni A. F. (ed.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge-London-New York 1982a, pp. 59−107.
Google Scholar
Zuidema, R. Tom, Catachillay. The Role of the Pleiades and the Southern Cross and Centauri in the Calendar of the Incas, in: Ethnoastronomy and Archaeoastronomy in the American Tropics, A. F. Aveni y G. Urton (ed.) Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, vol. 385, New York 1982b, pp. 203−229.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1982.tb34266.x
Google Scholar
Zuidema, R. Tom, The Astronomical Significance of Ritual Movements in the Calendar of Cuzco, in: J. E. Staller (ed.), Pre-Columbian Landscapes of Creation and Origin, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2008, pp. 249−267.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-76910-3_8
Google Scholar
Zuidema, R. Tom, El Calendario Inca. Tiempo y Espacio en la Organización Ritual del Cuzco; la Idea del Pasado, Fondo Editorial del Congreso del Perú / Fondo Editorial Pontifi cia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima 2010.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18800/9786124075162
Google Scholar
Zuidema, R. Tom, Ceque System of Cuzco: A Yearly Calendar-Almanac in Space and Time, in: Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy, Ruggles C.L.N. (ed.), Springer Science + Business Media New York 2014, pp. 851−863.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6141-8_80
Google Scholar
Authors
Mariusz ZiółkowskiCentre for Precolumbian Studies, University of Warsaw Poland
Authors
Jacek KościukFaculty of Architecture, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology Poland
Statistics
Abstract views: 830PDF downloads: 744