Page 593 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

Burials with these materials were particularly
sacred. These high-altitude burials may have been
offerings to mountain gods and to the sun, pos-
sibly a means of acquiring higher status for the
family making the offering.
Small gold or silver figures have been found in
many parts of the Inka empire, sometimes associ-
ated with human sacrifice and perhaps always in
sacred places (Bandelier 1910; Bray in Brussels
1990; Essen 1984, 384; McEwan and Silva I.
1989; Reinhard 1983, 50-54). There were also
apparent sacrifices to the sea. In 1892 an Inka
burial was discovered on Isla de La Plata, off the
coast of Ecuador, at the approximate northern end
of the Inka empire. Two skeletons were found
accompanied by three female figures of gold and
three others of silver, copper, and marine shell
(McEwan and Silva I. 1989). The lighthouse
keeper on the island at the time reported also
finding a pair of figures, one of silver and one
of gold.
In the highlands nearer the center of the Inka
empire, gold and silver figurines have been found
in and near Lake Titicaca, both with burials and as
apparent offerings (McEwan and Silva I. 1989;
Johan Reinhard, personal communication, 1991).
Cat. 444 comes from Koati, in Lake Titicaca, an
island dedicated to the moon (Bandelier 1910, pi.
LVII). A burial found near Pacariqtambo, the place
of origin of the Inka people, was accompanied by
marine shells, a gold figure, and other objects of
silver (McEwan and Silva I. 1989,170).
According to the Spanish chroniclers, such sac-
rifices/offerings were made at solstice celebra-
tions, on the accession of a new ruler, and on the
death or the anniversary of the death of an Inka
ruler (Bray in Brussels 1990, McEwan and Silva I.
1989). Although the burial patterns are not com-
pletely consistent, they often involve upper-class
young people, gold and silver figures, and marine
shell, usually spondylus, in natural form or as a
figurine. The seeming consistency of the offer-
ings may have been a means of confederating the
empire through the type standardization that is
evidenced in many Inka practices. E . p. B .

449
TUNIC

Inka
cotton, wool, gold beads
96.5 x 80.5 (38 x 31%]
Staatliches Museum fur Volkerkunde, Munich

The tunic, called unquin the Quechua language
of the Andes, was a knee-length men's garment,
a sleeveless rectangle of cloth longer than it was
wide. The loom length of these tunics is usually

592 CIRCA 1492