Origins of Machu Picchu

Introduction

  • Machu Picchu: A vast ceremonial city in the Andes, built in the mid-15th century.
  • Inca Empire: Machu Picchu was its crowning glory.
  • Albert Lynn: Uses 21st-century technologies to explore the past.
  • Technologies used: Lasers to scan deserts, strip away jungle, and scour oceans.

Machu Picchu: Engineering Marvel

  • Comparison: Ranked with Stonehenge and the Pyramids of Giza.
  • Location: High above the Sacred Valley of Peru.
  • Inca Belief: Mountains were gods.
  • Inca Architecture: Vertical terracing, open plazas, grand temples, ceremonial doorways (double jam gateway).
  • Masonry: Stones fit perfectly without space for even a razor blade, shaped with stone tools.

The Quest for Origins

  • Objective: To find the origins of Machu Picchu and explore pre-Inca civilizations.
  • Pre-Inca Tribes: Smaller, competing tribes inhabited Peru before the Inca.

Rayaka: A Pre-Inca Site

  • Location: 60 miles southeast of Machu Picchu.
  • Ketchua Village: Some elders still speak Ketchua, the language of the Inca Empire.
  • Local Legend: An ancient site hidden on the hillside with a warning to respect local traditions.
  • Discovery: Small walls, possibly pre-Inca.
  • Grave Discovery: A skull and leg bone found in a small cave, predating the Inca and Machu Picchu (600-1000 years ago).

Exploration Challenges

  • Vegetation: Thick vegetation with no clear path.
  • Terrain: Near-vertical slopes with thorns and cacti.

Lidar Technology

  • Purpose: To scan the mountaintop for pre-Inca structures by digitally removing vegetation.
  • Objective: Find pre-Inca building traces and older paths.
  • Findings: Potential structures, including two or three in a row on the ridgeline, resembling a neighborhood.
  • Method: Map anomalies and use Lidar in a section grid to reveal hidden structures.

Lidar Results

  • 3D Model: Reveals a city-like structure with terraces and buildings.
  • Strategy: Ground truth the findings, follow semi-trails, and explore identified sites.

Return to the Hillside

  • Objective: Find physical evidence of pre-Inca presence.
  • Challenges: Intense undergrowth, steep terrain.
  • Discovery: Chullpas (houses for the dead), some well-preserved.
  • Pre-Inca Chullpas: Circular, small spaces dating back to around 1000 AD.

The City of the Dead

  • Chullpas: A village for the dead.
  • Tradition: Mummified ancestors were placed on platforms, allowing the living to commune, feed, and drink with them.
  • Inca Structures: Rectangular structures, possibly Inca, built next to pre-Inca chullpas.
  • Inca Appropriation: The Inca incorporated earlier traditions, leaving their mark while respecting existing sites.

The Cult of Wiraqocha

  • Focus: Investigating the roots of Inca belief systems.
  • Wiraqocha: A creator god, according to Spanish chronicles.
  • Origin Stories: Possibly inspired by natural events like meteor falls.

Kinsaata Volcano

  • Location: Identified via satellite imagery near Machu Picchu.
  • Significance: Potential inspiration for stories of fire from the heavens.
  • Geological Context: Last erupted a few thousand years ago, with pumice volcanic rock.
  • Chullpas: Found near the volcano, suggesting burials close to the site of a godlike event.
  • Raki: A town at the base of the volcano, predating the Inca.
  • Temple of Wiraqocha: Inca ruler built a large building to commemorate the miracle of fire from the sky.

Architecture of Power

  • Pattern: The Inca incorporated earlier belief systems, building larger and grander structures.

Journey to Wat

  • Objective: Find a city of the living at an older, higher-altitude Inca site.
  • Wat: Inca buildings around 100 years older and 5,000 feet higher than Machu Picchu.

Exploring Wat

  • Altitude: 13,000 feet.
  • Inca Walls: Impressive structures.
  • Double Jam Doors: Inca symbols marking special places.
  • Inca Transformation: The Inca built on top of earlier settlements, asserting their authority.
  • Beliefs: Mountains as ancestors, objects of veneration.

Lidar Scan of Wat

  • Objective: To uncover Inca and pre-Inca finds.
  • Challenges: Extreme altitude, thin air, cold temperatures, sheer drops.

Lidar Results at Wat

  • Vegetation Removal: Lidar reveals carved terraces.
  • Circular Structures: Identification of potential pre-Inca foundations using machine learning and computer vision algorithms.

Ground Truthing at Wat

  • Discovery: Pre-Inca pottery (1100-1300 AD), including a snake figurine.

Circular Structures

  • Likely Use: Wells or storage.
  • Pottery Analysis: Pre-Inca pottery found within the structures.
  • Cooking Pot: Suggests the location was a house for a family during the pre-Inca period.

Inca Influence at Wat

  • Plaza: Square buildings built by the Inca on top of pre-Inca structures for public gatherings.
  • Community Building: Hosting people with food and drink to integrate them into the Inca state.
  • Inca Modification: The Inca incorporated existing beliefs and expanded them on a larger scale, modifying the mountaintop.

Machu Picchu Connection

  • Similarities: Terracing techniques and mountain modifications seen at Wat are similar to Machu Picchu.
  • Prototype: Wat served as a prototype for Machu Picchu.

Conclusion

  • Belief System: People come from the mountains and nature.
  • Transformation: This belief evolved into the architecture at Wat.
  • Lidar Revelation: Wat’s monumental scale and human efforts are revealed.
  • Wat: Transformed by the Inca with residential areas, plazas, and terracing.
  • Legacy: Wat is an infusion of ideas and beliefs through generations, leading to the creation of Machu Picchu.