Vilcabamba, Peru
Willkapampa | |
Cuzco Department | |
Coordinates | 12°54′14″S 73°12′11″W / 12.904°S 73.203°W |
---|---|
Altitude | 1,458 m (4,783 ft) |
Type | Settlement |
History | |
Builder | Manco Inca Yupanqui |
Founded | 1539 |
Abandoned | 1572 |
Cultures | Neo-Inca State |
Vilcabamba (in Hispanicized spelling) or Willkapampa (
Vilcabamba was the capital of the
Vilcabamba or Espiritu Pampa is located near the Chontabamba River, a tributary of the Urubamba River.[9] The Inca capital has often been referred to as Vilcabamba the Old to distinguish it from the town of Vilcabamba the New, of Spanish origin and 35 kilometres (22 mi) in straight-line distance southwest of Old Vilcabamba.[10][11]
In 2010, items belonging to the Wari culture and radiocarbon dated to about 700 CE were found at Espiritu Pampa. This discovery indicated that the site was occupied long before it became the Inca capital in 1539. As of 2013, archaeological investigations of the site were incomplete and the ruins of Espiritu Pampa were inaccessible by vehicle.[12]
History
La Convención province in which Vilcabamba is located is extremely rugged, occupying the north-eastern slopes of the Andes and sloping down to the
The Incas had occupied the Vilcabamba region since about 1450 CE, establishing major centers at Machu Picchu, Choquequirao, Vitcos, and Vilcabamba.[15] Thus, the Incas were familiar with the region when Inca emperor, Manco Inca Yupanqui, won the Battle of Ollantaytambo against the Spanish and their Indian allies in January 1537. Despite the victory Manco was under intense pressure from the Spanish. He decided that Ollantaytambo was too close to Cusco, controlled by the Spanish, so he withdrew westward to the Inca center of Vitcos. Almagro sent his lieutenant Rodrigo Orgóñez in pursuit with 300 Spaniards and numerous Indian allies. In July 1537, Orgoñez occupied and sacked Vitcos taking many prisoners, but Manco escaped.[16]
Manco Inca survived another Spain raid in 1539 by Gonzalo Pizarro, 300 Spanish soldiers, and Indian allies. The Spanish and the Incas fought a battle at Huayna Pukara (Huayna Fort), west of Vitcos and about 22 kilometres (14 mi) from Vilcabamba. Several Spaniards and Indians were killed, but Manco again escaped. Pizarro stayed in the region for more than two months searching for Manco unsuccessfully, but capturing Manco's principal wife Cura Ocllo. The Spaniards wrote of the region that "great resources are needed to undertake a penetration of that land. It can be done only with very heavy expenditure." The Spanish would not attempt another major military expedition into Vilcabamba until 1572. As the two Spanish raids demonstrated, Vitcos was accessible to the Spanish and Manco developed Vilcabamba as a more remote refuge.[17][18]
In the years following the Spanish raids, the Incas and the Spaniards maintained uneasy diplomatic relations with visits back and forth between Vilcabamba and Cuzco, the Spanish capital. The murder of a Spanish envoy by the Incas persuaded
After the fall of Vilcabamba, the Spanish pursued and captured Túpac Amaru, the last Inca monarch, and beheaded him in Cusco on September 24, 1572.[20]
Spanish Vilcabamba
In 1572, the conqueror and governor of Vilcabamba, Martin Hurtado de Arbieto, founded San Francisco de la Victoria de Vilcabamba, also known as Vilcabamba la Nueva ("the New"), 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) west of Vitcos. It is located on the Pampaconas River, a tributary of the Vilcabamba River, which is a tributary of the Urubamba River.[10] Hurtado was a brutal administrator, offering
The lost city
The location of the Incan Vilcabamba was forgotten during the 17th century by the few remaining inhabitants of the region. In 1710, an explorer, Juan Arias Diaz, found Choquequirao, 70 kilometres (43 mi) southwest of Vilcabamba, and identified it as the Incan capital.[23] Later historians and explorers identified Choquequirao as Vilcabamba. In 1909, Peruvian historian, Carlos A. Romero, debunked the claim that Choquequirao was Incan Vilcabamba based on his studies of writings by Spanish chroniclers of the 16th century. Romero identified the village of Puquiura as the site of Incan Vilcabamba.[24]
In 1911, Hiram Bingham was on the expedition which resulted in him bringing to a wider world attention the Incan ruin of Machu Picchu. Romero pointed him toward Puquiura as the site of Vilcabamba, and Bingham discovered there the ruins of Rosaspata. He correctly identified Rosaspata as the Incan Vitcos rather than Incan Vilcabamba. Drawn by rumors of another lost Inca ruin in the lowland forest, Bingham ignored tales of a hostile plantation owner and dangerous native peoples and proceeded onward. After a difficult three days of foot travel, he found the plantation. Its owner and the Asháninka or Campa indigenous peoples working there were friendly and helpful. They assisted him in cutting a trail through the jungle and two days later he found Inca ruins at a place called Espiritu Pampa. He found artificial terraces, stone houses, including a rectangular building 192 feet (59 m) long, a fountain, Inca pottery, and a stone bridge. But Bingham was running out of supplies and only spent a short time at Espiritu Pampa. Based on his brief observations, Bingham concluded that Machu Picchu was the Incan Vilcabamba. That opinion went largely unchallenged for 50 years.[25][26]
In 1964, Peruvian explorer Antonio Santander Caselli visited Espiritu Pampa and later claimed the discovery that Espiritu Pampa was the Incan Vilcabamba.[27] In the same month, American explorer Gene Savoy reached Espiritu Pampa. He discovered that Bingham had only seen a minor part of the ruin at Eremboni Pampa and that the main ruin of Espiritu Pampa was 700 yards (640 m) distant. Savoy found 50 or 60 houses and 300 houses at Espiritu Pampa. Savoy concluded that Espiritu Pampa was Vilcabamba, contradicting Bingham.[28] Savoy's 1970 book Antisuyo brought the site to even wider attention.
Researcher and author
In 1976, Professor Edmundo Guillén and Polish explorers Tony Halik and Elżbieta Dzikowska continued to explore the ruins at Espiritu Pampa. Before the expedition, Guillen visited a museum in Seville where he discovered letters from Spaniards, in which they described the progress of the invasion and what they found in Vilcabamba. Comparison between the letters' contents and the ruins provided additional proof of Espiritu Pampa as the location of Vilcabamba.
In 1981, the party of American explorer Gregory Deyermenjian reached and photographed parts of the site, soon thereafter generating a popular article concerning the site and its history.[30]
Later extensive archeological work by Vincent Lee, and especially his exhaustive study, his 2000 book Forgotten Vilcabamba, gave further and even more precise confirmation that has made Espíritu Pampa the definitively accepted site of the historical Vilcabamba.
On 16 June 2006, a museum in Cuzco[31] unveiled a plaque that commemorates the thirtieth anniversary of the 1976 Vilcabamba findings.
In 2011 was discovered the tomb of a king in Espíritu Pampa, which is estimated to date to the Wari period. The discovery testifies that the Vilcabamba site was inhabited since ancient times and that was almost certainly used as a center of commercial exchange between the people of the lowland jungle and the inhabitants of the Andean highlands[32].
In popular culture
The lost city of Vilcabamba features as a location in the educational computer game series
The city was the location of British writer
The science fiction story "Vilcabamba" (2010) by Harry Turtledove is a self-referential allegory of Vilcabamba as an alien invasion story set in the 22nd century.
An episode of the TV Series In Search of... (1976-1982) titled "Inca Treasures", highlights the expedition taken by professor Edmundo Guillén to explore the ruins of Vilcabamba.
The second episode of
Gallery
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Edmundo Guillén and Elżbieta Dzikowska in the ruins of Vilcabamba, photo taken by Tony Halik in 1976
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Tree over structure
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Vilcabamba
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Inca water fall
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Inca water fall
See also
- List of archaeological sites in Peru
- Ñusta Hisp'ana
- Spanish conquest of Peru
- Túpac Amaru
References
- ^ Ludovico Bertonio, Transcripción del vocabulario de la lengua aymara (Spanish-Aymara dictionary): Willka - Adoratorio dedicado al Sol u otros ídolos. / El Sol como antiguamente decían y ahora dicen inti. Pampa - El campo o todo lo que está fuera del pueblo, ahora sea cuesta, ahora llano. +Todo lo bajo respecto de la mesa o poyo, la tierra llana.
- ^ Teofilo Laime Ajacopa, Diccionario Bilingüe Iskay simipi yuyayk'ancha, La Paz, 2007 (Quechua-Spanish dictionary): willka - s. Nieto, ta respecto del abuelo. / s. Dios menor en la teogonia incaica. pampa s. Campo. Lugar generalmente plano. Pampa. / s. Llanura. Terreno uniforme y dilatado, sin altos ni bajos pronunciados.
- ^ Diccionario Quechua - Español - Quechua, Academía Mayor de la Lengua Quechua, Gobierno Regional Cusco, Cusco 2005: willka - s. Hist. Idolo de este nombre. Icono o imagen que representaba la divinidad tutelar del valle que se extiende desde lo que hoy es La Raya –línea divisoria entre Cusco y Puno– hasta la montaña misma. (J.L.P.) || Apellido de origen inkaico. / s. Biznieto o biznieta. SINÓN: haway. || Linaje. || adj. Sagrado, divino, sacro.
- ^ Mariko Namba Walter,Eva Jane Neumann Fridman, Shamanism: An Encyclopedia of World Beliefs, Practices, and Culture, Vol. 1, p. 439 willka or vilca (Anadenanthera peregrina and Anadenanthera colubrina):
- ^ Bingham, Hiram III. (2002) The Lost City of the Incas. Centenary edition. New York:Sterling Publ. Co. p.155. (huilca a type of tree and pampa a lowland flat area)
- ^ MacQuarrie 2007, p. 445.
- ^ "Mapa," [1], accessed 16 Jul 2019
- ^ Hemming 1970, pp. 485–494.
- ^ Lee 2000.
- ^ a b Thomson, Hugh. (2001). The White Rock. An Exploration of the Inca Heartland. London: Orion Books Ltd. p.310.
- ^ Google Earth
- ^ Fonseca Santa Cruz, Javier and Bauer, Brian S. (2013) "Dating the Wari Remains at Espiritu Pampa (Vilcabamba, Cusco)," Andean Past: Vol. 11 , Article 12, pp. 113-114, [2], accessed 2 July 2019
- ^ Hemming 1970, pp. 255, 331–332.
- ^ Google Earth
- Project MUSE.
- ^ Hemming 1970, pp. 222–225.
- ^ Bauer et al. (2013), pp. 5–6
- ^ Hemming 1970, p. 255.
- ^ Martin Hurdado de Arbieto, quoted in Hemming, pp. 433-434
- ^ Bauer et al. (2013), p. 16
- ^ Hemming 1970, pp. 474–478.
- ^ Bingham, pg. 157-158
- ^ Ethan Todras-Whitehill in the New York Times
- ^ Hemming 1970, pp. 478–481.
- ^ Hemming 1970, pp. 485–491.
- ^ Bingham, pg. xxxv, xxxvi, 155-172, 197
- ^ Bauer, Brian S., Fonseca Santa Cruz, Javier, Araoz Silva, Miriam (2014), Vilcabamba and the Archaeology of Inca Resistance, Bristol, Connecticut: LLC, p. 24
- ^ Hemming 1970, pp. 492–494.
- ^ Hemming 1970, pp. 492–499.
- ^ Deyermenjian 1985.
- ^ "Museo Inka - UNSAAC". museoinka.unsaac.edu.pe. Archived from the original on 2017-02-14.
- ^ lostcivilizations (2023-12-05). "The lost kingdom of Vilcabamba • Neperos". Neperos.com.
- ^ McCrum, Robert (July 28, 2002). "Back to the heart of darkness". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on October 12, 2008. Retrieved May 27, 2010.
Bibliography
- ISBN 978-0-15-602826-4.
- ISBN 1-84212-585-0.
- South American Explorer. No. 12. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2015-09-15.
- ISBN 978-0-9677109-0-7.
- ISBN 978-0-7432-6049-7. Internet Archive copy is currently only available to registered users with print disabilities (21 February 2024).
- Santander Casselli, Antonio (no date) "Vilcabamba" in Andanzas de un Soñador.
- ISBN 978-0-671-20220-0.
- ISBN 0-380-43687-6.
Further reading
- Diego de Castro Yupangui (1992) [1570]. Instrucción al Licenciado Lope García de Castro. Colección Clásicos peruanos (in Spanish). Lima: Fondo Editorial.
- Laurence Blair (2018). Peru’s last Incan city reveals its secrets: ‘It’s genuinely a marvel’. Espíritu Pampa: TheGuardian.com