Page 5 - 200205 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - May 2002

Ancient Inca City Discovered 5 Ancient Inca City Discovered 5 City Occupied by They lived there for 36 years, until the City Occupied by Spanish finally penetrated the area and Inca Discovered on killed the last Inca ruler, Tupac Amaru Inca Discovered on in 1572, bringing an end to the Inca Andean Peak in Peru empire. Andean Peak in Peru The uncertain location of the last capital of the Inca, supposedly High atop a mountain peak in replete with a vast storehouse of silver the Andes of southeastern Peru, a and gold, made the fabled "lost city" of group of explorers has discovered the Vilcabamba the object of a quest by ruins of a large settlement they think scholars and treasure hunters in the was occupied by the Inca in an early centuries that followed. period of their rise to power. Because few, if any, Spanish The ruins include tombs and conquistadors ever reached the several artificially built platforms that southern part of Vilcabamba, the ruins suggest the area was an important at Cerro Victoria "may ultimately yield burial site and ceremonial grounds for a record of Inca civilization from the sacred rites. But the team also found very beginning to the very end, the makings of a complete city. undisturbed by European contact—an Although it's not clear yet who unparalleled opportunity," Frost said. solar observations on the ceremonial specializes in archaeological research built the city, or when, experts say the Peruvian archaeologist platforms to develop the Inca calendar. at high altitudes, said the discovery "is ruins promise new insight into the Alfredo Valencia Zegarra, the chief More Extensive Than Expected one of the most important sites to be Inca—and perhaps other early archaeologist of the nine-person Cerro Victoria had never been located in the Vilcabamba region since inhabitants of the region, about which expedition team that surveyed the scientifically documented, although the Inca abandoned it over 400 years little is known. ruins at Cerro Victoria last June, said local people knew it as ago." Cerro Victoria, he added, "We don't know how long it the surrounding area has many Corihuayrachina. "promises to provide new insights into existed, we don't have good carbon[- historically important archaeological The expedition to the site took Inca occupation of this remote area." dating] data. But it shows evidence of sites that have never been explored. He two years to plan because the summit During expeditions in the early Inca settlement," said Peter Frost, has conducted excavations at Machu was so difficult to reach. When the early 1900s organized under the an independent scholar and explorer Picchu and other well-known sites in team arrived in June 2001, they found auspices of Yale University and the who led the expedition. the Cusco area. two local Indian families homesteading National Geographic Society, a young "If that's true, it shakes up Frost said the region has been amid the settlement, using some of the professor and explorer named Hiram theories of Inca expansion because the difficult to explore because of its same buildings that were once Bingham came upon Machu Picchu in Inca were not [thought] to be in the remote location and its heavily occupied by their ancient ancestors. 1911 and believed it was the "lost city" region so early," said Frost. forested and treacherous terrain. A The team plans to return later of Vilcabamba. He first sighted the ruins in British-born writer, photographer, and this year to continue exploring, Historians later refuted that 1999 while hiking in the region with professional guide, he has lived in mapping, and excavating the site, assertion. One of Bingham's other several companions. He returned last Cusco for 15 years and explored the which showed signs of considerable discoveries, however, did prove to be year with a team of archaeologists to region for 30 years. looting. the long elusive last capital of the Inca. map and investigate the site. The ruins at Cerro Victoria The initial excavations In 1964, an explorer named Frost said the ruins—many of were his first major Inca discovery. unearthed human remains, stone Gene Savoy concluded that ruins in an them well preserved—include an Inca- "I've always known that Vilcabamba implements, and Inca pottery from two area called Espiratu Pampa, which style wall, agricultural terraces, a was a primary area for recording different time periods, including an Bingham had tentatively identified at granary, cemeteries and funeral unfamiliar Inca sites," he said in a early formative period of Inca one time as the "lost city," were in fact towers, animal corrals, and a complex telephone interview from Cusco. development. Vilcabamba la Vieja ("Vilcabamba the of buildings surrounding a courtyard. Scott Gorsuch, a clinical According to the team's initial Old"), so named to differentiate it from On the surrounding slopes of psychologist in Santa Barbara, report on the findings, the settlement a later city of Vilcabamba built by the the summit, known as Cerro Victoria, California, and an avid explorer, was has a "spectacular"—but now heavily Spanish. the team also found the remains of among the group that first sighted the looted—sacred ceremonial platform The National Geographic more than 100 circular buildings at ruins at Cerro Victoria while hiking on surrounded by a low wall. It contains Society funded the expedition to Cerro elevations of up to 12,500 feet (3,900 a nearby ridge that bore evidence of the remains of what was once a large Victoria along with Mountain meters). The style is thought to be ancient burials. The ruins are partially roofed subterranean tomb. Hardwear and Geophysical Survey typical of the dwellings of Andeans obscured by cloud forests with jungle- Some of the community's dead Systems Inc. National Geographic is who occupied the region before the like vegetation, but through binoculars were buried above ground in small, also supporting a follow-up trip later Inca or under Inca rule, but Frost said the men could see the mountaintop cylindrical structures made of stone. this year. initial observations point to occupation ruins in the distance. These funeral towers, or chullpas, have In May, National Geographic by the Inca themselves. "We spotted what appeared to been heavily looted and were empty, Channel's International and PBS in the The newly discovered be a sacred platform on one of the but skeletons were found in the United States will present a television settlement is in the southern part of a peaks, and it seemed to have underground tombs. Two ancient special on the new archaeological sparsely inhabited region known as significance—it caught the sun's first cemeteries were also discovered. discovery and the culture of the Inca. Vilcabamba, named for a local rays in the morning and last ones at From ground-penetrating radar Check local listings for dates and mountain chain. It lies 22 miles (35 night," said Gorsuch. and excavation, the team concluded times. [] kilometers) southwest of Machu When he and the expedition that a distinctive wall built in a style Picchu, an ancient citadel that is the team traveled to the site later, he said, characteristic of the Inca was part of a OXYMORONS most famous Inca landmark. Another they were surprised to find the remains three-sided building that was probably from important Inca site, Choqequirau, is of a large settlement, which covers used for important ceremonial or nearby. about six square kilometers (2.3 square religious functions. Adjacent to that THE ‘X’ ZONE miles). main building was a courtyard Last Refuge of Inca Frost speculated that the containing other buildings—possibly Military Intelligence inhabitants favored the mountaintop an administrative center. Criminal Justice Vilcabamba has long been location for two reasons: to mine rich Circular buildings like those Limited Nuclear War known as the last outpost of the Inca in lodes of silver in the area and because found on the surrounding slopes have Pretty Ugly their attempt to evade conquest by the the site provided panoramic views of been found at other sites in Student Teacher Spanish, who arrived early in the 16th central Vilcabamba's snowy mountain Vilcabamba. Scholars long assumed Natural Additives century in search of gold. peaks, some as high as 18,000 feet they were dwellings of pre-Inca tribes Death Benefits When the Inca ruler Manco (5,486 meters), which were sacred to or of communities that were colonized Holy Wars Inca and his large army failed to ancient Andeans. by the Inca, but Frost said evidence Half Dead overthrow the Spanish invaders in "They were probably holding suggests some were occupied by the Even Odds A.D. 1536, the Inca fled from their religious ceremonies in worship of Inca. Plastic Glasses imperial capital at Cusco and took these peaks," he said. The Inca, he Johan Reinhard, a National Science Fiction refuge in the Vilcabamba wilderness. added, may have made celestial and Geographic explorer-in-residence who Good Grief