By: Jake Sparhawk, Amanda Lennox and Madison Klein

 

The origin of the Inca Empire comes from a tale of four brothers and four sisters who emerged from a cave and set out to find where there people would live. One of the brothers named Ayar Manco carried a golden staff, and wherever the staff landed, a city would rise. The staff landed in Cusco, the “navel of the universe”. This was essentially the capital of the empire, and served as a political, military, and administrative center. The Inca empire was the largest pre-Colombian empire, and was divided into four different “suyu”, or regions: Chinchaysuyu, Antisuyu, Qullasuyu and Kuntisuyu. The empire as a whole was referred to as Tawantinsuyu. Beginning in the early 13th century, the empire lasted until 1572 when the strong Spanish army took over. It stretched from the Andean Mountains into Peru, Ecuador, west and south central Bolivia, northwest Argentina, north and central Chile, and south Colombia. Officially, the language spoken was Quecha, but there were variations based on region.  Incan’s were allowed to practice different types of religion, but most practiced polytheism(16).

In contrast, the Aztec Empire began as an alliance between three city-states in the Valley of Mexico: Tenochitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan. It existed from 1428 until Spanish conquer in 1521. The original people were called the Mexica, but the empire was a compilation of as many as 17 ethnic groups. The alliance was a conquering group; they began gaining control of surrounding areas quickly, and at one point controlled most of central Mexico(15). The city of Tenochitlan held a large part of the power, serving as the military power(17). The Aztecs allowed the current rulers of the regions they conquered to remain in power though. Nahuati was the main language spoken in the Aztec Empire. They, too practiced polytheism(18).

When comparing the Aztec and Inca empires with relation to their sacred structures, religion is the fundamental key in both. In Inca religion, sacred sites, or huacas, were spread most usually in natural objects such as mountains, boulders, streams, battle fields or any type of place that was connected to the past Inca rulers(14). Most believed that their ancestors rose from things that trees or rich soil. The most familiar Inca site is a city called Machu Picchu. It is a city that was built in the Andes Mountains at the very top of a mountain(4). It was built very carefully and tactfully including terraces that allowed for rainfall to safely reach the bottom of the mountain without creating mudslide. One belief of why the Incas chose mountain tops was to align with the rising and setting of the sun. To the Incas, they had a God named Inti, who was the source of warmth, light and healthy crops (12). When they conquered new lands, they required the conquered citizens to also worship Inti. In every region, temples were built to worship Inti, and while they made other worship their God, they also accepted their Gods into the Inca pantheon(12). The Incas had a ritual called Inti Watana Stone where the stones were to be arranged in such a manner that they pointed directly towards to sun during the winter solstice. They believed that the stone was to hold the sun in place(20).

Both empires have scared structures that reflect their beliefs. The Aztec built several types of pyramid structures that either served as monuments for their many god or as ceremonial shrines to perform rituals.(3) There are Round Pyramids that are dedicated to the god of wind,  Ehecatl, one of the forms of god Quetzalcoatl. The shape was used in order to prevent the structure as a “barrier” of the wind god’s entrance. Going on about the wind, they had a purpose for each type of wind the blow over the pyramid. The gentle winds were sent to the east where the god of paradise, Tlalocan, resided. Winds that possessed gales were sent to the underworld, Mictlan, in the north. Cool gentle breezes blew to the west, where Cihuapipiltin, a woman who died giving birth, stayed. And finally, winds that had a strong and gusty wind were sent to the south where the Huitznahua gods, the stars of the south, resided(3). The next type of pyramid were the twin star pyramids. These pyramids were used to house two deities, the god of good rain season and an abundant harvest, Thlacan, and the god of war and sacrifice, Huitzilopochtli. The two each had separate temples on the top of the pyramid. Thlacan had the temple on the left side and was painted in a blue and white colors in order to represent water and moisture. Huitzilopochtli’s temple was on the right side and was painted similar to Thlcan, with red being in the place of blue representing blood. The Aztecs relied heavily on these structures, as the gods controlled whether the season will yield a famine or not so they built the pyramids in order to be as close as they can to the sky, which was where the gods lived(3).Because of worship of many gods, they built shrines or Adoratorios. Since they were polytheistic, each shine had a different yet similar structure, depending on the god it was built for. The similar design was that each shrine had a circle table of which the offering was placed before the gods. Since the amount of sacrifices were immense, some structures were created in order to burn the offering in a fire, in order to make room for more. These structures were possibly the most influential in the Aztecs lives, as they truly believed that sacrifices would please their gods(3).

Although there are differences between the Aztec and the Inca empires, both had similar beliefs about worshipping, war and strategies to run the empires. They both were sacred to their beliefs with religion. Both empires believed in sacrifice(13), the Aztecs more so when dealing with human sacrifice. It was a honor to die for their Gods. When the topic of war is at place and their goals, both empires battle wars hopes were to take captives and expand their empire(13). The armies were a key figure in keeping the empire strong and maintained. Both ran the economies not based off of money, but off of agriculture, labor and goods(13). The Aztec empire ended up lastly a lot longer than the Inca empire but within time, both empires were conquered by the Spanish(13). Both empires are still looked at to this day as a great way to learn about the way of life at that time. Their structures can tell us about the way the lived, how to worshipped or how they ran their empire. Although the Incas did not have any written language, they managed to create a city on top of a mountain that has lasted around 500 years. Thankfully these empires were not forgotten so we can now reflect on their ways of living and engineering and help us to better ourselves for present and future generations.

 

1.http://blogs.harrisonhigh.org/shannon_herndon/herndondocs/11%20-%20aztecincacomparison.pdf

2. Mark Cartwright, Aztec Art, January 6 2014. http://www.ancient.eu/Aztec_Art/
3. Manuel Aguilar-Moreno, Aztec Architecture.http://www.famsi.org/research/aguilar/Aztec_Architecture_Part1.pdf

4. Mark Cartwright, Machu Picchu, March 4 2014. (http://www.ancient.eu/Machu_Picchu/
5. Mark Cartwright, Inca Architecture, March 13 2014. http://www.ancient.eu/Inca_Architecture/
6. Sacred Sites https://sacredsites.com/americas/peru/machu_picchu.html
7. G. Wayne Clough, The Earliest and Greatest Engineers Were the Incas, January 2014. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/magazine/earliest-and-greatest-engineers-were-incans-180947976/?no-ist

8.Inca Engineering http://dwb.unl.edu/teacher/nsf/C10/C10Links/ericir.syr.edu/Projects/Newton/14/incaengineer06.html

9.William R. Fowler, Inca Empire, 2000. http://autocww2.colorado.edu/~toldy3/E64ContentFiles/HistoryOfTheAmericas/IncaEmpire.html

10.Info Please http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/society/inca-inca-agriculture-engineering-manufacturing.html

11. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inca_architecture

12.Gale World History in Context http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/whic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?zid=0815c7ada1a697f9c22b70286fbe1330&action=2&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CCX3424400021&source=Bookmark&u=mlin_s_thayacad&jsid=86fda428b204e3b67fcc23cfaf48fbe5

13. Ashley Birmingham, Aztecs and Incas compared politics and economy, December 6 2013.http://www.slideshare.net/abirmingham/aztecs-and-incas-compared-politics-and-economics
14. Machu Picchuhttp://www.machupicchu.org/religious_significance_in_machu_picchu.htm
15. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec_Empire
16. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inca_Empire
17. Aztec-History http://www.aztec-history.com/aztec-empire.html
18. Aztec-History http://www.aztec-history.com/aztec-civilization.html
19. Aztec-History http://www.aztec-history.com/ancient-aztec-religion.html

20. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machu_Picchu

 

 

The Aztec Pyramid (15)

Sacsayhuaman (16)

Macchu Pichu (16)

Assignment Module 5.2

 

Group 1 Members: Kyle Mitsunaga, Jessica Fontenot, Kayla Pollard, Karina Myles, and Jonathan Shoemaker

 

Question 1:

Both the Incas and the Aztecs not only built single structures for religious purposes but often had sacred areas or sacred sites.

 

The Incas and Aztecs had a lot of similarities in the way that they constructed their cities. From the way they broke them into quadrants, how the layout was done for religious purposes, their agricultural ingenuity, the great skill and remarkable craftsmanship that went into the construction of the great temples and pyramids and the way they incorporated astronomy and engineering.  When refurbishing the cities both used a grid like pattern when creating streets, they were at 90 degree angles (1). Both civilizations had religions that were strongly rooted in astronomy, the sun being a main component. The higher parts of the temples were also used as observation spaces (2).

Some differences are also apparent in the way they used their temples and pyramids: the design, where they were located and the way and materials that were used to build the structures.

The Incas broke their empire into four quadrants that connected at the Capital with a grand temple (3). All of the structures that they built were very complex and intricate, this shows that they took their time to plan for issues so that the structures would be solid and last a long time. Religious decorations and layouts were incorporated in most of the great buildings. Besides buildings they also built and maintained an intricate highway through the vast empire (4), devised intricate agricultural systems and built suspension rope bridges. Incorporated in the way they constructed their empire was astronomy, religion and engineering.  For the two equinoxes in March and September the Intihuatana stone lines directly up with the sun at noon creating no shadow.  During these times there were ceremonies at the rock where they would “tie the Sun” (5).

The Aztec’s laid their city out symmetrically and it was divided into four city sections, which were interlaced by canals (6). The city center was were they built the great pyramid.  They worked their way out from the center and after the pyramids came the temples and palaces and on the outside were the houses and agriculture. The pyramids, temples and palaces were all made of stone (7) and built with better craftsmanship so that they were more structurally sound. They were also extravagantly decorated with religious arts. In front of every temple is a plaza, this plaza was home to their religious arts.  At these sites it was common to slay enemies, see sacrifices, and watch performances while the nobility sat in a higher space (8).  Houses were built with wood and loam, with roofs made of reed (9). The structure and surrounding areas that they built were complex and intricate systems, which showed a lot of planning and thought to potential issues. Throughout their construction you can see that religion, astronomy and engineering are all incorporated (10).

 

Coricancha- Inca

 

 

Templo Mayor – Aztec

 

Question 2:

For the Aztec’s it’s interesting to see that they were culture that took serious pride about their religion and many aspects of daily life. For example the Aztec’s built Templo Mayor for two of the major gods in their belief (11). Aztec people practiced these beliefs with a large amounts of value anchored in them, now these values must have an origin. The origin is something rather unique and crazy to think could happen but a large portion of Aztec belief came from a mix of different cultures and some of their own (12).The main gods in Aztec belief where Ometecuhtli and his female counterpart Omecihuatl, Quetzalcoatl, Huitzilopochtli, Xipe totec, and Tláloc. The list of gods all stem from believing that human life and the survival of human life depended on the balance between the gods (13). This is why the building took place and why those built were so perfectly constructed.  

 

If we dive into the beliefs of the Inca’s we understand that they have this moral code, which states, “ama suwa, ama llulla, ama quella” (14). This was something that they lived by. Simply it means, “Do not steal, do not lie, and do not be lazy” (15). This code is apart of every Inca, it’s how they lived their lives they were hardworking and honest. This reflects in Machu Picchu “Old Peak” or “Old Mountain” (16), which is their entire city. This temple, or entire city is very thought out. This city is divided up into an upper and lower section. You would find the temples in the upper section and the warehouses in the lower (17).  Everything that the Inca’s did was through this city that they had. They were hardworking people and we see that through their irrigation system that irrigated their fields for their agriculture (18). This didn’t happen by accident, they were not lazy in building this city. They took great pride in how they lived and the values that they had and it is relevant in the Machu Picchu. The Inca’s were dedicated to the Sun God, within the city you can find the Temple of the Sun. Just another symbol of their beliefs and culture is reflected in their sacred structures. Getting back on the fact that the Incas were not lazy. “No wheels were used to transport heavy rocks for the construction of the city” (19). Not only was the construction of this site difficult, but the way they were able to harvest crops and maintain a working city on this mountain takes a lot of work and determination by all the Incas as one. As we see in the Machu Picchu the Inca’s were dedicated to their beliefs and their culture and it is shown in their sacred structure.

 

The Aztecs were very connected to their culture, gods, and the earth. They believed in many gods and worshiped them in sacred places. The also believed in the supernatural. The two structures that stood out to me were the Templo Mayor (The Great Temple) and the Aztec Calendar Stone (Sun Stone).

 

The Templo Mayor was the main temple located in the capital city of Tenochtitlan. According to tradition, the location of Templo Mayor is located on the exact spot where the god Huitzilopochtli gave the Mexica people a sign that they had reached the promised land (20). The main temple was dedicated to two gods: god of War Huitzilopochtli and god of rain and agriculture Tlaloc (21). The spire located in the center was dedicated to the wind god Quetzalcoatl (22). In an insert from the book Finger-Prints of the Gods, Graham Hancock talks about the location of the temple and what it meant for the Aztec people:

 

“What Harlestons investigations had shown was that a complex mathematical relationship appeared to exist among the principal structures lined up along the Street of the Dead (and indeed beyond it). This relationship suggested something extraordinary, namely that Teotihuacan might originally have been designed as a precise scale-model of the solar system”(23).

 

The various levels of the Temple also represent the cosmology of the Aztec world. (24) First of all, it is aligned with the cardinal directions with gates that connect to roads leading in these directions. (25) This indicates the place where the plane of the world that humans live in intersects the thirteen levels of the heavens, called Topan and the nine levels of the underworld, called Mictlan (26).

 

The temple was destroyed by Christians in the early 1500’s (27). I wonder if this was because the Aztecs worshiped many gods? As seen in the picture above, this is what it would have looked like when it was still standing. Today you can still visit the site and the museum dedicated to this once sacred structure.

 

The Aztec Calendar Stone, or Sun Stone, is probably the most famous work of Aztec sculpture (28). The stone is 11.75 ft in diameter and weighs 24 tons. In the center of the monolith is the face of the solar deity, Tonatiuh, which appears inside the glyph for “movement” (Nahuatl: ollin), the name of the current era (29). The central figure is shown holding a human heart in each of his clawed hands, and his tongue is represented by a stone sacrificial knife (Tecpatl) (30). The exact purpose and meaning of the Calendar Stone are unclear (31). Archaeologists and historians have proposed numerous theories, and it is likely that there are several aspects to its interpretation (32). The earliest interpretations of the stone relate to its use as a calendar (33). Some of the circles of glyphs are the glyphs for the days of the month (34). Another aspect of the stone is its religious significance (35). One theory is that the face at the center of the stone represents Tonatiuh, the Aztec deity of the sun (36). Modern archaeologists, such as those at the National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City, believe it is more likely to have been used primarily as a ceremonial basin or ritual altar for gladiatorial sacrifices, than as an astrological or astronomical reference (37). Yet another characteristic of the stone is its possible geographic significance (38). The four points may relate to the four corners of the earth or the cardinal points (39). The inner circles may express space as well as time(40).

 

Endnotes

1. Sacred Sites https://sacredsites.com/americas/peru/machu_picchu.html  
2. Crystal Links http://www.crystalinks.com/aztecreligion.html
3. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inca_Empire
4. NOVA http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/lost-inca-empire.html
5. Sacred Sites https://sacredsites.com/americas/peru/machu_picchu.html
6. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec
7. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec
8. Crystal Links http://www.crystalinks.com/aztecreligion.html
9. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec
10. Legends and Chronicles http://www.legendsandchronicles.com/ancient-civilizations/the-ancient-aztecs/aztec-architecture/
11. King, Heidi. “Tenochtitlan: Templo Mayor | Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. October 2004. Accessed February 13, 2016. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/teno_2/hd_teno_2.htm.
12.  “Aztec Gods – Who’s Who.” Aztec-History. Accessed February 13, 2016. http://www.aztec-history.com/aztec-gods.html.
13. “Aztec Gods – Who’s Who.” Aztec-History.
14. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inca_Empire
15. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inca_Empire
16. “Machu Picchu Facts.” Machu Picchu Facts.

http://www.machupicchu.org/machu_picchu_facts.htm

17. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machu_Picchu.
18. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machu_Picchu.
19. “Machu Picchu Facts.” Machu Picchu Facts. http://www.machupicchu.org/machu_picchu_facts.htm
20. Wikipedia contributors, “Templo Mayor,”  Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Templo_Mayor&oldid=703727184
21. Wikipedia contributors, “Templo Mayor,”
22. Wikipedia contributors, “Templo Mayor,”
23. Graham Hancock, Finger-Prints of the Gods (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1995), 167

24.Wikipedia contributors, “Templo Mayor,”

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28.Wikipedia contributors, “Aztec calendar stone,”  Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aztec_calendar_stone&oldid=704342920

29. Wikipedia contributors, “Aztec calendar stone,”  
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