Machu Picchu Cultuur

Machu Picchu Culture Machu Picchu also reflects what is is alleged to be one of the most organized cultures of the history. Two blocks of stone-made constructions are separated by the Sacred Square, right in the middle of Machu Picchu ruins. One of them sheltered the Hanan Cusco (High Cusco), the other one belonged to the Hurin Cusco (Low Cusco). The rest of the people lived in the perimeter, doing the harvest of the terraces or “andenes”. The inca culture was a pyramid structure that had demographic divisions. The lower you were in the pyramid, the lower rights and privileges you had. It´s not clear how many people lived in the Tawantinsuyu. According to some data, the Tawantinsuyu population reached the 40 million people, but other versions come to lower amounts, as 4 million people. Whatever the exact amount could be, it´s for sure the system had to be strong and efficient enough to aloud its leaders to rule that society, living on a very difficult terrain and with a variety of weather, from extreme to paradise. That precision is reflected in the Machu Picchu ruins, the mirror of an ancient culture that reflects thousands of years of compiling living knowledge, showing a society that manage to live in a close harmony with the environment. And from that environment they extracted the most beautiful works of art, a cultural expression that continues to puzzle the scholars. Since their spoken language never had a written expression, they concentrated their creative impulse on the arts, achieving colorful textile designs, elegant ceramics, and exquisite jewelry made of pure gold and silver. The textiles had multiple uses. The Incas invented the “telar” or loom, a wooden gadget used to weave really fast and exactly as the model. Even today it´s still being use among the rural people of the Andes. The exquisite figures and designs, geometrically displayed, showed the amazing variety of habits and uses of the Incas, like the harvest seasons, the cults and worships. The nature also played a very important role, visible in the geometric stylizations of llamas and jaguars. Like everything in this culture, the textiles were all different, depending on the user; they were made in softer cotton for the nobility than for the rest of the people. The most known ceramic was the aribalo or aryballo (known by the local people as “macka”), big and generally used in carrying chicha, a holy beverage, to the ceremonies. This ariballo had a conic bottom that matched a hole made in the soil, so it could be tilted to pour the anxiously desired beverage. In those ceremonies, the nobility used to drink chicha in glasses known as keros. Made and carved in wood, the keros were decorated with figures of jaguars, and even with gemstones. Smelting metals was another art that the Incas culture dominated with high performance. It also made this civilization famous hundreds of miles away from its borders. Many fabulous myths, like El Dorado, were believed by treasure hunters to have their source somewhere deep in the mountains of the Incas Andes. Tons and tons of gold, mountains of precious jewels filled the dreams of many. But it also became the beginning of the end for the great Inca culture. The foreigners´ greed allowed them to discover this civilization, crushing it completely. But they never found the treasures of Machu Picchu. It was four hundred years later that finally one explorer, Hiram Bingham, unveiled the sleepy ruins and their magic to the world. All that Hiram Bingham found is now at the Yale University, in the United States. All the inca´s cultural expression in ceramics, metal and cotton he founded in Machu Picchu is there. It´s unclear if they have catalogued everything Bingham took away. Some voices are protesting about the lack of gold pieces, in a place created for the royalty and left on the running, in a civilization known specially because of their gold art. The list is still awaited. Their religion was monotheistic, with the Inti (the Sun), as their almighty God. As many other cultures, the religion is mixed with myths about their genesis that also serves as a base for the social organization. One of the most popular myths about the origins of the Inca culture was the Myth of Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo. They were sons of the sun, who sent them to establish the Empire, and to teach people about different techniques to make their lives easer. They emerged from the Titicaca Lake with a golden crook and travelled to Cusco, where Manco Capac plunge the crook. Manco Capac appears as the first Inca that began to organize and rule the region, and Mama Ocllo taught new things to the people. There are a lot of ritual places all around the Tawantinsuyu, dedicated for the Sun. But amid the most important ones are those found in Machu Picchu, like the Intihuatana, and the Temple of the Sun. Believed to be a calendar tool, the Intiwatana (Sun catcher) is a huge piece of solid rock, sculpted with geometrical perfection. It shows the astronomical knowledge of the Incas culture, because it´s located to point exactly to the Sun during the winter solstice. Also the pillar in its center makes no shadow exactly in the two equinoxes of the year. The Temple of the Sun is a semicircular-shaped construction, with three windows. The trespassing was allowed only to the Inca and the priests. It could have been decorated with gemstones, specially the windows and the door. Despite the curvature, their builders manage to pile up perfectly cut rocks one next to the other -no breeze between them- to make a solid wall. It was full of offerings and ornaments that even now excites the imagination of the visitors. That is how the cultural inheritance of Machu Picchu seems to be among the richest ones of the world. That is another powerful reason to visit its ruins.