by E. George Squier
1877
from
JamesQ.Jacobs Website
NOTE:
This excerpts serves to provide a description of the
ruins before the harvesting of many stones for railroad
construction. It also provides insights into some
nineteenth-century attitudes towards archaeology sites
by and the racism of its author, cited writers, and the
local priest (cura) in Tiahuanaco village.
|
Tiahuanaco - The Baalbek Of The New
World
CHAPTER XV
Tiahuanaco a Centre of
Ancient Civilization - Difficulties - The Chuño Festival
- Death of my Photographer - Studying the Art.-My
Assistants - The Edifices of Ancient Tiahuanaco - The
Ruins a Quarry for Modern Builders - Their Extent - The
Temple - The Fortress - The Palace - The Hall of Justice
- Precision of the Stone-cutting - Elaborate Sculptures
- Monolithic Gate-ways - The Modern Cemetery - The
Sanctuary.-Symbolical Slab - The great Monolithic
Gate-way - Its Elaborate Sculptures - Monuments
described by Cieza de Leon and D’Or-bigny - Material of
the Stone-work - How the Stone was cut - General Resume
- Tiahuanaco probably a Sanctuary, not a Seat of
Dominion |
Tiahuanaco lies almost in the very centre of the great terrestrial
basin of lakes Titicaca and Aullagas, and in the heart of a region
which may be properly characterized as the Thibet of the New World.
Here, at an elevation of twelve thousand nine hundred feet above the
sea, in a broad, open, unprotected, arid plain, cold in the wet and
frigid in the dry season, we find the evidences of an ancient
civilization, regarded by many as the oldest and the most advanced
of both American continents.
It was to explore and investigate the monumental remains that have
made this spot celebrated that I had come to Tiahuanaco, and I lost
no time in commencing my task. This was not an easy one, for even
with the aid of the drunken Cura we were unable to procure laborers
to assist us, for not only had we reached the village on the eve of
the Chuño, or potato festival, a remnant of ancient observances, but
before we had finished our work the Feast of Corpus Christi had
commenced. Chicha flowed like water, and the few inhabitants that
the Chuño festival had left sober deliberately gave themselves up to
beastly intoxication.
This was not my only difficulty. While we were toiling our way
upwards through the mountain road, my photographer, on whose skill I
had depended, became dangerously ill. One bitter night, under an
ebon sky, with no one to assist us save some kindly Indians, we
tried in vain to relieve his sufferings and compose his mental
hallucinations. The disease baffled all our efforts, and before
sunrise death brought him relief and release. He murmured something
in the Gaelic tongue, in which only the endearing word
"mamma"—sacred in all languages—was intelligible, and died with that
word lingering on his thin, blue lips.
I had provided myself with a complete and costly set of photographic
apparatus, which I regarded as indispensable to success in depicting
the ancient monuments; but I had little knowledge of the art, and
must now become my own photographer, or lose many of the results of
my labor. With no instruction except such as I could gain from
Hardwick’s "Manual of Photographic Chemistry," I went to work, and,
after numerous failures, became tolerably expert. I had but a single
assistant, Mr. H-, an amateur draughtsman, and only such other aid
as I could get from my muleteer and his men, who were eager to
conclude their engagement, and simply astounded that we should waste
an hour, much more that we should spend days, on the remains of the
heathens.
Still, the investigation was undertaken
with equal energy and enthusiasm, and, I am confident, with as good
results as could be reached without an expenditure of time and money
which would hardly have been rewarded by any probable additional
discoveries. We spent a week in Tiahuanaco among the ruins, and, I
believe, obtained a plan of every structure that is traceable, and
of every monument of importance that is extant.
The first thing that strikes the visitor in the village of
Tiahuanaco is the great number of beautifully cut stones, built into
the rudest edifices, and paving the squalidest courts. They are used
as lintels, jambs, seats, tables, and as receptacles for water. The
church is mainly built of them; the cross in front of it stands on a
stone pedestal which shames the symbol it supports in excellence of
workmanship. On all sides are vestiges of antiquity from the
neighboring ruins, which have been a real quarry, whence have been
taken the cut stones, not only for Tiahuanaco and all the villages
and churches of its valley, but for erecting the cathedral of La
Paz, the capital of Bolivia, situated in the deep valley of one of
the streams falling into the river Beni, twenty leagues distant. And
what is true here is also true of most parts of the Sierra. The
monuments of the past have furnished most of the materials for the
public edifices, the bridges, and highways of the present day.
The ruins of Tiahuanaco have been regarded by all students of
American antiquities as in many respects the most interesting and
important, and at the same time most enigmatical, of any on the
continent. They have excited the admiration and wonder alike of the
earliest and latest travelers, most of whom, vanquished in their
attempts to penetrate the mystery of their origin, have been content
to assign them an antiquity beyond that of the other monuments of
America, and to regard them as the solitary remains of a
civilization that disappeared before that of the Incas began, and
contemporaneous with that of Egypt and the East.
Unique, yet perfect in type and
harmonious in style, they appear to be the work of a people who were
thorough masters of an architecture which had no infancy, passed
through no period of growth, and of which we find no other examples.
Tradition, which mumbles more or less intelligibly of the origin of
many other American monuments, is dumb concerning these. The
wondering Indians told the first Spaniards that "they existed before
the sun shone in the heavens," that they were raised by giants, or
that they were the remains of an impious people whom an angry Deity
had converted into stone because they had refused hospitality to his
vice-regent and messenger.
I shall give only a rapid account of these remains, correcting some
of the errors and avoiding some of the extravagances of my
predecessors in the same field of inquiry. I must confess I did not
find many things that they have described; but that fact, in view of
the destructiveness of treasure-hunters and the rapacity of ignorant
collectors of antiquities, does not necessarily discredit their
statements; for Tiahuanaco is a rifled ruin, with comparatively few
yet sufficient evidences of former greatness.
The ruins are about half a mile to the southward of the village,
separated from it by a small brook and a shallow valley. The
high-road to La Paz passes close to them—in fact, between them and
some mounds of earth which were probably parts of the general
system.
They are on a broad and very level part
of the plain, where the soil is an arenaceous loam, firm and dry.
Rows of erect stones, some of them rough or but rudely shaped by
art; others accurately cut and fitted in walls of admirable
workmanship; long sections of foundations, with piers and portions
of stairways; blocks of stone, with mouldings, cornices, and niches
cut with geometrical precision; vast masses of sandstone, trachyte,
and basalt but partially hewn; and great monolithic doorways,
bearing symbolical ornaments in relief, besides innumerable smaller,
rectangular, and symmetrically shaped stones, rise on every hand, or
lie scattered in confusion over the plain. It is only after the
intelligent traveler has gone over the whole area and carefully
studied the ground, that the various fragments fall into something
like their just relations, and the design of the whole becomes
comprehensible.
Leaving aside, for the present, the lesser mounds of earth of which
I have spoken, we find the central and most conspicuous portion of
the ruins, which cover not far from a square mile, to consist of a
great, rectangular mound of earth, originally terraced, each terrace
supported by a massive wall of cut stones, and the whole surmounted
by structures of stone, parts of the foundations of which are still
distinct. This structure is popularly called the" Fortress," and, as
tradition affirms, suggested the plan of the great fortress of
Sacsahuaman, dominating the city of Cuzco . The sides of this
structure, as also of all the others in Tiahuanaco, coincide within
ten degrees with the cardinal points of the compass.
Close to the left of the Fortress (I
adopt this name, and the others I may use, solely to facilitate
description) is an area called the "Temple," slightly raised,
defined by lines of erect stones, but ruder than those which
surround the Fortress. A row of massive pilasters stands somewhat in
advance of the eastern front of this area, and still in advance of
this are the deeply embedded piers of a smaller edifice of squared
stones, with traces of an exterior corridor, which has sometimes
been called the "Palace." At other points, both to the south and
northward, are some remains to which I shall have occasion to refer.
The structure called the Temple will
claim our first attention; primarily because it seems to be the
oldest of the group, the type, perhaps, of the others, and because
it is here we find the great monolithic sculptured gateway of
Tiahuanaco, which is absolutely unique, so far as our knowledge
goes, on this continent.
The body of the Temple forms a rectangle of 388 by 445 feet,
defined, as I said before, by lines of erect stones, partly shaped
by art. They are mostly of red sandstone, and of irregular size and
height; those at the corners being more carefully squared and
tallest. For the most part, they are between 8 and 10 feet high,
from 2 to 4 feet broad, and from 20 to 30 inches in thickness. The
portions entering the ground, like those of our granite gateposts,
are largest, and left so for the obvious purpose of giving the
stones greater firmness in their position.
These stones, some of which have fallen and others disappeared, seem
to have been placed, inclining slightly inwards, at approximately 15
feet apart, measuring from centre to centre, and they appear to have
had a wall of rough stones built up between them, supporting a
terre-plein of earth, about 8 feet above the general level of the
plain. On its eastern side this terre-plein had an apron or lower
terrace 18 feet broad, along the edge of the central part of which
were raised ten great stone pilasters, placed 15 1/2 feet apart, all
of which, perfectly aligned, are still standing, with a single
exception. They are of varying heights, and no two agree in width or
thickness.
The one that is fallen, which was second
in the line, measures 13 feet 8 inches in length by 5 feet 3 inches
in breadth. It is partly buried in the earth, but shows 32 inches of
thickness above ground. Among those still erect the tallest is 14
feet by 4 feet 2 inches, and 2 feet 8 inches; the shortest 9 feet by
2 feet 9 inches, and 2 feet 5 inches. These are less in dimension
than the stones composing the inner cell or sanctum of Stonehenge ,
which range from 16 feet 3 inches to 21 feet 6 inches in height; but
they are nearly, if not quite, equal with those composing the outer
circle of that structure. They are much more accurately cut than
those of Stonehenge , the fronts being perfectly true, and the backs
alone left rough or only partially worked.
The tops of the taller ones have
shoulders cut into them as if to receive architraves; and as this
feature does not appear in the shorter ones, it may be inferred that
their tops have been broken off, and that originally they were all
of one length. And here I may call attention to another singular
feature of this colonnade—namely, that the sides or edges of each
erect stone are slightly cut away to within six inches of its face,
so as to leave a projection of about an inch and a half, as if to
retain in place any slab fitted between the stones, and prevent it
from falling outwards. The same feature is found in the stones
surrounding the great mound or Fortress, where its purpose becomes
obvious, as we shall soon see.
Such is the general character of the exterior propylon, if I may so
call it, of the structure called the Temple. But within the line of
stones surrounding it there are other features which claim our
attention. I have said that the interior is a mound of earth raised
about eight feet above the general level. But in the centre and
towards the western side is an area sunk to the general level, 280
feet long by 190 feet broad. It was originally defined on three
sides by walls of rough stones which rose above the surface of the
mound itself, but which are now in ruins.
If this sunken area communicated in any
way with the more elevated interior parts of the structure, the
means of communication, by steps or otherwise, have disappeared.
Across the end of the area not shut in by the mound, the line of
stones which surrounds the Temple is continued without interruption;
but outside and connected with it is part of a small square of
lesser stones, also erect, standing in the open plain.
Regarding the eastern side of the Temple , marked by the line of
pilasters which I have described, as the front, we find here, at the
distance of 57 feet, the traces of a rectangular structure, to which
I have alluded as the" Palace," which was composed of blocks of
trachyte admirably cut, 8 to 10 feet long by 5 feet broad, with
remains of what appears to have been a corridor 30 feet broad
extending around it. The piers which supported the Palace still
remain, sunk deep in the ground, apparently resting on an even
pavement of cut stones. Remove the superstructures of the best-built
edifices of our cities, and few, if any, would expose foundations
laid with equal care, and none of them stones cut with such
accuracy, or so admirably fitted together.
And I may say, once for all, carefully
weighing my words, that in no part of the world have I seen stones
cut with such mathematical precision and admirable skill as in Peru,
and in no part of Peru are there any to surpass those which are
scattered over the plain of Tiahuanaco. The so-called Palace does
not seem to have been placed in any symmetrical relation towards the
Temple, although seemingly dependent on it; nor, in fact, do any of
the ancient structures here appear to have been erected on any
geometric plan respecting each other, such as is apparent in the
arrangement of most of the remains of aboriginal public edifices in
Peru.
The Fortress stands to the southwest of the Temple , the sides of
the two coinciding in their bearings, and is 64 feet distant from
it. As I have already said, it is a great mound of earth, originally
rectangular in shape, 620 feet in length and 450 in width, and about
50 feet high. It is much disfigured by the operations of
treasure-seekers, who have dug into its sides and made great
excavations from the summit, so that it now resembles rather a huge,
natural, shapeless heap of earth than a work of human hands.
The few of the many stones that
environed it, and which the destroyers have spared, nevertheless
enable us to make out its original shape and proportions. There are
distinct evidences that the body of the mound was terraced, for
there are still standing stones at different elevations, distant
horizontally nine, eighteen, and thirty feet from the base. There
may have been more terraces than these lines of stones would
indicate, but it is certain that there were at least three before
reaching the summit.
This coincides with what Garcilazo tells
us of the mound when first visited by the Spaniards. He says,
speaking of the ruins under notice:
"Among them there is a mountain
or hill raised by hand, which, on this account, is most admirable.
In order that the piled-up earth should not be washed away and the
hill leveled, it was supported by great walls of stone. No one knows
for what purpose this edifice was raised."
Cieza de Leon, who
himself visited Tiahuanaco soon after the Conquest, gives
substantially the same description of the so-called Fortress.
On the summit of this structure are
sections of the foundations of rectangular buildings, partly
undermined, and partly covered up by the earth from the great modern
excavation in the centre, which is upwards of 300 feet in diameter,
and more than 60 feet deep. A pool of water stands at its bottom.
This latest piece of barbarism was, however, only in continuation of
some similar previous undertaking. All over the Fortress and on its
slopes lie large and regular blocks of stone, sculptured with
portions of elaborate designs, which would only appear when the
blocks were fitted together.
Some portions of the outer or lower wall are fortunately nearly
intact, so that we are able to discover how it was constructed, and
the plan and devices that were probably observed in all the other
walls, as well as in some parts of the Temple. In the first place,
large, upright stones were planted in the ground, apparently resting
on stone foundations. They are about ten feet above the surface,
accurately faced, perfectly aligned, and inclining slightly inwards
towards the mound.
They are placed seventeen feet apart
from centre to centre, and are very nearly uniform in size,
generally about three feet broad and two feet in thickness. Their
edges are cut to present the kind of shoulders to which I alluded in
describing the pilasters in front of the Temple , and of which the
purpose now becomes apparent. The space between the upright stones
is filled in with a wall of carefully worked stones. Those next the
pilasters are cut with a shoulder to fit that of the pilaster they
adjoin; and they are each, moreover, cut with alternate grooves and
projections, like mortise and ten on, so as to fit immovably into
each other horizontally.
Vertically they are held in position by
round holes drilled into the bottom and top of each stone at exact
corresponding distances, in which, there is reason to believe, were
placed pins of bronze. We here see the intelligent devices of a
people unacquainted with the uses of cement to give strength and
permanence to their structures. Nearly all the blocks of stone
scattered over the plain show the cuts made to receive what is
called the T clamp, and the round holes to receive the metal pins
that were to retain the blocks in their places, vertically.
The Fortress has on its eastern side an apron, or dependent
platform, 320 by 180 feet, of considerably less than half the
elevation of the principal mound. Like the rest of the structure,
its outline was defined by upright stones, most of which, however,
have disappeared. The entrance seems to have been at its southeast
corner, probably by steps, and to have been complicated by turnings
from one terrace to another, something like those in some of the
Inca fortresses.
The tradition runs that there are large vaults filled with treasure
beneath the great mound, and that here commences a subterranean
passage which leads to Cuzco, more than four hundred miles distant.
The excavations certainly reveal some curious subterranean features.
The excavation at its southwest corner has exposed a series of
superimposed cut stones, apparently resting on a pavement of similar
character, twelve feet below the surface.
It is said that Von Tschudi, when he visited the ruins, found some "caverns" beneath
them (but whether under the Fortress or not does not appear), into
which he endeavored to penetrate, but "was glad to be pulled out, as
he soon became suffocated." I found no such subterranean vaults or
passages in any part of Tiahuanaco; but I do not deny their
existence.
To the southeast of the Fortress, and
about two hundred and fifty paces distant, is a long line of wall in
ruins, apparently a single wall, not connected with any other so as
to form an enclosure. But beyond it are the remains of edifices of
which it is now impossible to form more than approximate plans. One
was measurably perfect when visited by D’Orbigny in 1833, who
fortunately has left a plan of it, more carefully made than others
he has given us of ruins here or elsewhere. Since 1833, however, the
iconoclasts have been at work with new vigor.
Unable to remove the
massive stones composing the base of what was called the Hall of
Justice, they mined them, and blew them up with gunpowder, removing
many of the elaborately cut fragments to pave the cathedral of La
Paz. Enough remains to prove the accuracy of D’Orbigny’s plan, and
to verify what Cieza de Leon wrote concerning these particular
remains three hundred years ago.
The structure called the Hall of Justice occupied one end of a court
something like that discoverable in the Temple. In the first place,
we must imagine a rectangle, 420 feet long by 370 broad, defined by
a wall of cut stones, supporting on three sides an interior platform
of earth 130 feet broad, itself enclosing a sunken area, or court,
also defined by a wall of cut stones. This court, which is of the
general level of the plain, is 240 feet long and 160 broad. At its
eastern end is, or rather was, the massive edifice distinguished’ as
the Hall of Justice, of which D’Orbigny says:
"It is a kind of platform of
well-cut blocks of stone, held together by copper clamps, of
which only the traces remain. It presents a level surface
elevated six feet above the ground, 131 feet long and 23 broad,
formed of enormous stones, eight making the length and two the
breadth. Some of these stones are 25 1/2 feet long by 14 feet
broad, and 6 1/2 feet thick. These are probably the ones
measured by Diego de Leon, who describes them as 30 feet long,
15 in width, and 6 in thickness. Some are rectangular in shape,
others of irregular form.
On the eastern side of the platform,
and cut in the stones of which they form part, are three groups
of alcoves, or seats. One group occupies the central part of the
monument, covering an extent of fifty-three feet, and is divided
into seven compartments. A group of three compartments occupies
each extremity of the monument. Between the central and side
groups were reared monolithic doorways, similar in some respects
to the large one, only more simple, the one to the west alone
having a sculptured frieze similar to that of the great gateway.
In front of this structure, to the
west, and about twenty feet distant, is a wall remarkable for
the fine cutting of its stones, which are of a blackish basalt
and very hard. The stones arc all of equal dimensions, having a
groove running around them, and each has a niche cut in it with
absolute precision. Every thing goes to show that the variety of
the forms of the niches was one of the great ornaments of the
walls, for on all sides we find stones variously cut, and
evidently intended to fit together so as to form architectural
ornaments."
So much for the description of D’Orbigny.
I measured one of the blocks with a double niche, which is shown in
the engraving of the terrace walls of the Fortress. It is 6 feet 2
inches in length, 3 feet 7 inches broad, and 2 feet 6 inches thick.
The niches are sunk to the depth of 3 inches.
One of the monolithic doorways originally belonging to this
structure is unquestionably that forming the entrance to the
cemetery of Tiahuanaco . This cemetery is an ancient rectangular
mound, about a hundred paces long, sixty broad, and twenty feet
high, situated midway between the village and the Fortress. Its
summit is enclosed by an adobe wall, and, as I have said, the
entrance is through an ancient monolithic gateway, of which I give a
front and rear view. It is 7 feet 5 inches in extreme height, 5 feet
10 1/2 inches in extreme width, and 16 1/2 inches thick.
The doorway, or opening, is 6 feet 2
inches in height, and 2 feet 10 inches wide. The frieze has a
repetition of the ornaments composing the lower line of sculptures
of the great monolith, but it has suffered much from time and
violence. The ornamentation of the back differs from that of the
front, and seems to have been made to conform to the style adopted
in the interior of the structure.
In making our measurement in the cemetery we disturbed a pack of
lean, hungry, savage dogs of the Sierra-an indigenous species—which
had dug up the body of a newly-buried child from its shallow, frozen
grave, and were ravenously devouring it. They snarled at us with
bristling backs and bloodshot eyes as we endeavored to drive them
away horn their horrible feast—by no means the first, as the
numerous rough holes they had dug, the torn wrappings of the dead,
and the skulls and fragments of human bodies scattered around too
plainly attested. I subsequently represented the matter to the cura,
but he only shrugged his shoulders, ejaculating, "What does it
matter? They have been baptized, and all Indians are brutes at the
best."
Returning to the Hall of Justice, we find, to the eastward of it, a
raised area 175 feet square, and from 8 to 10 feet high, the
outlines defined by walls of cut stone. This seems to have escaped
the notice of travelers; at least, it is not mentioned by them. In
the centre of this area there seems to have been a building about
fifty feet square, constructed of very large blocks of stone, which
I have denominated the "Sanctuary."
Within this, where it was evidently
supported on piers, is the distinctive and most remarkable feature
of the structure. It is a great slab of stone 13 feet 4 inches
square, and 20 inches in thickness. It is impossible to describe it
intelligibly, and I must refer to the engraving for a notion of its
character. It will be observed that there is an oblong area cut in
the upper face of the stone, 7 feet 3 inches long, 5 feet broad, and
6 inches deep. A sort of sunken "portico" 20 inches wide, 3 feet 9
inches long, is cut at one side, out of which opens what may be
called the entrance, 22 inches wide, extending to the edge of the
stone.
At each end of the "portico" is a flight of three miniature steps
leading up to the general surface of the stone, and sunk in it,
while at the side of the excavated area are three other flights of
similar steps, but in relief. They lead to the broadest part of the
stone, where there are six mortises, 8 inches square, sunk in the
stone. 6 inches, and forming two sides of a square, of 3 feet 7
inches on each side, and apparently intended to receive an equal
number of square columns. The external corners of the stone are
sharp, but within six inches of the surface they are cut round on a
radius of twelve inches.
I cannot resist the impression that this stone was intended as a
miniature representation or model of a sacred edifice, or of some
kind of edifice reared by the builders of the monuments of
Tiahuanaco. The entrance to the sunken area in the stone, the steps
leading to the elevation surrounding it, and the naos opposite the
entrance, defined perhaps by columns of bronze or stone set in the
mortises and supporting some kind of roof, constituting the shrine
within which stood the idol or symbol of worship—all these features
would seem to indicate a symbolic design in this monument.
The building in which it stood, on
massive piers that still remain, was constructed of blocks of stone,
some of them nearly fourteen feet in length and of corresponding
size and thickness, and was not so large as to prohibit the
probability that it was covered in. Looking at the plan of the
Temple, and of the enclosure to the area, one side of which was
occupied by the building called the Hall of Justice, we cannot fail
to observe features suggestive of the plan cut in the great stone
which I have called symbolical.
The most remarkable monument in
Tiahuanaco, as already intimated, is the great monolithic gateway.
Its position is indicated by the letter m in the plan. It now stands
erect, and is described as being in that position by every traveler
except D’Orbigny, who visited the ruins in 1833, and who says it had
then fallen down. I give two views of this unique monument, both
from photographs, of some interest to me, as the first it was ever
my fortune to be called on to take.
It will be seen that it has been
broken—the natives say by lightning—the fracture extending from the
upper right-hand angle of the opening, so that the two parts lap by
each other slightly, making the sides of the doorway incline towards
each other; whereas they are, or were, perfectly. vertical and
parallel—a distinguishing side two small niches, below which, also
on either side, is a single larger niche. The stone itself is a dark
and exceedingly hard trachyte.
It is faced with a precision that no
skill can excel; its lines are perfectly drawn, and its right angles
turned with an accuracy that the most careful geometer could not
surpass. Barring some injuries and defacements, and some slight
damages by weather, I do not believe there exists a better piece of
stone-cutting, the material considered, on this or the other
continent. The front, especially the part covered by sculpture, has
a fine finish, as near a true polish as trachyte can be made to
bear.
The lower line of sculpture is 7 1/2 inches broad, and is unbroken;
the three above it are 8 inches high, cut up in cartouches, or
squares, of equal width, but interrupted in the centre, immediately
over the doorway, by the figure in high-relief to which I have
alluded. This figure, with its ornaments, covers a space of 32 by 21
1/2 inches. There are consequently three ranges or tiers of squares
on each side of this figure, eight in each range, or forty-eight in
all. The figures represented in these squares have human bodies,
feet, and hands; each holds a sceptre; they are winged; but the
upper and lower series have human heads wearing crowns, represented
in profile, while the heads of the sixteen figures in the line
between them have the heads of condors.
The central and principal figure is angularly but boldly cut, in a
style palpably conventional. The head is surrounded by a series of
what may be called rays, each terminating in a circle, the head of
the condor, or that of a tiger, all conventionally but forcibly
treated. In each hand he grasps two staves or sceptres of equal
length with his body, the lower end of the right-hand sceptre
terminating in the head of the condor, and the upper in that of the
tiger, while the lower end of the left-hand sceptre terminates in
the head of the tiger, and the upper is bifurcate, and has two heads
of the condor. The staves or sceptres are not straight and stiff,
but curved as if to represent serpents, and elaborately ornamented
as if to represent the sinuous action of the serpent in motion.
The radiations from the head—which I
have called rays, for want of a better term—seem to have the same
action. An ornamented girdle surrounds the waist of this principal
figure, from which depends a double fringe. It stands upon a kind of
base or series of figures approaching nearest in character to the
architectural ornament called grecques, each extremity of which,
however, terminates in the crowned head of the tiger or the condor.
The face has been somewhat mutilated, but shows some peculiar
figures extending from the eyes diagonally across the cheeks,
terminating also in the heads of the animals just named.
The winged human-headed and condor-headed figures in the three lines
of squares are represented kneeling on one knee, with their faces
turned to the great central figure, as if in adoration, and each one
holds before him a staff or sceptre. The sceptres of the figures in
the two upper rows are bifurcate, and correspond exactly with the
sceptre in the left hand of the central figure, while the sceptres
of the lower tier correspond with that represented in his right
hand. The relief of all these figures is scarcely more than
two-tenths of an inch; the minor features are indicated by very
delicate lines, slightly incised, which form subordinate figures,
representing the heads of condors, tigers, and serpents.
Most of us have seen pictures and
portraits of men and animals, which under close attention resolve
themselves into representatives of a hundred other things, but which
are so artfully arranged as to produce a single broad effect. So
with these winged figures. Every part, the limbs, the garb, all
separate themselves into miniatures of the symbols that run all
through the sculptures on this singular monument.
The fourth or lower row of sculpture differs entirely from the rows
above it. It consists of repetitions—seventeen in all—smaller and in
low-relief, of the head of the great central figure, surrounded by
corresponding rays, terminating in like manner with the heads of
animals. These are arranged alternately at the top and bottom of the
line of sculpture, within the zigzags or grecques, and every angle
terminates in the head of a condor.
The three outer columns of winged figures, and the corresponding
parts of the lower line of sculpture, are only blocked out, and have
none of the elaborate, incised ornamentation discoverable in the
central parts of the monument. A very distinct line separates these
unfinished sculptures from those portions that are finished, which
is most marked in the lower tier. On each side of this line,
standing on the rayed heads to which I have alluded, placed back to
back, and looking in opposite directions, are two small but
interesting figures of men, crowned with something like a plumed
cap, and holding to their mouths what appear to be trumpets.
Although only three inches high, these little figures are ornamented
in the same manner as the larger ones, with the heads of tigers,
condors, etc.
These are the only sculptures on the face of the great monolith of
Tiahuanaco. I shall not attempt to explain their significance.
D’Orbigny finds in the winged figures with human heads symbols or
representations of conquered chiefs coming to pay their homage to
the ruler who had his capital in Tiahuanaco, and who, as the founder
of sun-worship and the head of the Church as of the State, was
invested with divine attributes as well as with the insignia of
power.
The figures with condors’ heads, the
same fanciful philosopher supposes, may represent the chiefs of
tribes who had not yet fully accepted civilization, and were
therefore represented without the human profile, as an indication of
their unhappy and undeveloped state. By parity of interpretation, we
may take it that the eighteen unfinished figures were those of as
many chieftains as the ruler of Tiahuanaco had it in his mind to
reduce, and of which, happily, just two-thirds had claims to be
regarded as civilized, and, when absorbed, to be perpetuated with
human heads, and not with those of condors.
Another French writer, M. Angrand, finds
a coincidence between these sculptures and those of Central America
and Mexico, having a corresponding mythological and symbolical
significance, thus establishing identity of origin and intimate
relationship between the builders of Tiahuanaco and those of
Palenque, Ocosingo, and Xochicalco.
Leibnitz tells us that nothing exists without a cause; and it is not
to be supposed that the sculptures under notice were made without a
motive. They are probably symbolical; but with no knowledge of the
religious ideas and conceptions of the ancient people whose remains
they are, it is idle to attempt to interpret them. Nowhere else in
Peru, or within the whole extent of the Inca empire, do we find any
similar sculptures. They are, as regards Inca art, quite as unique
in Peru as they would be on Boston Common or in the New York Central
Park.
The reverse of the great monolith shows a series of friezes over the
doorway, five in number, of which the engraving will give a better
idea than any description. Above the entrance on either hand are two
niches, twelve by nine inches in the excavation. It will be observed
that those on the right have a sort of sculptured cornice above them
which those on the left have not. The second one on the left, it
will also be observed, is not complete, but evidently intended to be
finished out on another block, which was to form a continuation of
the wall of which the gateway itself was designed to be a part.
Indeed, as I have said, nearly all the blocks of stone scattered
over the plain are cut with parts of niches and other architectural
features, showing that they were mere fragments of a general design,
which could only be clearly apparent when they were properly fitted
together.
The lower niches, now on a level with the ground, show that the
monolith is sunk deeply in the soil. They exhibit some peculiar
features. At each inner corner above and below are vertical sockets,
apparently to receive the pivots of a door, extending upwards and
downwards seven inches in the stone. D’Orbigny avers that he
discovered the stains of bronze in these orifices and I have no
doubt that these niches had doors, possibly of bronze, hinged in
these sockets, and so firmly that it was necessary to use chisels
(the marks of which are plain) to cut into the stone and disengage
them. These large niches are 28.2 inches by 18.2 inches wide. On the
face of the monolith, on each side of the doorway, but near the
edges of the stone, are two mortises 10 inches by 9, and 6 inches
deep, and 12 inches by 6, and 3 1/2 inches deep respectively, which
are not shown in the drawings published by D’Orbigny and some
others.
I very much question if this remarkable stone occupies its original
position. How far it has sunk in the ground it was impossible for me
to determine, for the earth was frozen hard, and we had no means of
digging down to ascertain. D’Orbigny, as I have already said, states
it was fallen when he visited it. Who has since raised it, and for
what purpose, it is impossible to say.
No one that we could find either knew or
cared to know anything about it. It seems to me not unlikely that it
had a position in the hollow square of the structure called the
Temple, in some building corresponding with that called the Hall of
Justice. Or, perhaps, it had a place in the structure enclosing the
stone I have ventured to call symbolical. It is neither so large nor
so heavy that it may not be moved by fifty men with ropes, levers,
and rollers and although we no not know of any reason why it should
have been removed from its original position, we know that many of
the heaviest stones have been thus moved, including the monolithic
doorway at the entrance of the cemetery.
In addition to the various features of Tiahuanaco already
enumerated, I must not neglect to notice the vast blocks of unhewn
and partially hewn stones, that evidently have never entered into
any structure, which lie scattered among the ruins. The positions of
two or three are indicated in the plan. The one to the northeast of
the Temple is 26 by 17, and 3 1/2 feet aboveground. It is of red
sandstone, with deep grooves crossing each other at right angles in
the centre, twenty inches deep, as if an attempt had been made to
cut the stone into four equal parts.
Another of nearly equal dimensions,
partly hewn, was between the Temple and the Fortress. Another,
boat-shaped and curiously grooved, lies to the northwest of the
great mound. It measures upwards of forty feet in length, and bears
the marks of transportation from a considerable distance.
There were formerly a number of specimens of sculpture in Tiahuanaco
besides the two monolithic gateways I have described. Says Oiego de
Leon:
"Beyond this hill [referring to the
Fortress] are two stone idols, of human shape, and so curiously
carved that they seem to be the work of very able masters. They
are as big as giants, with long garments differing from those
the natives wear, and seem to have some ornament on their
heads."
These, according to D’Orbigny, were
broken into pieces by blasts of powder inserted between the
shoulders, and not even the fragments remain on the plain of
Tiahuanaco. The head of one lies by the side of the road, four
leagues distant, on the way to La Paz , whither an attempt was made
to carry it. I did not see it, but I reproduce the sketch of it
given by D’Orbigny, merely remarking that I have no doubt the
details are quite as erroneous as those of the figures portrayed by
the same author on the great monolith. The head is 3 feet 6 inches
high and 2 feet 7 inches in diameter; so that if the other
proportions of the figure were corresponding, the total height of
the statue would be about eighteen feet.
D’Orbigny found several other sculptured figures among the ruins;
one with a human head and wings rudely represented; another of an
animal resembling a tiger, etc. Castelnau mentions "an immense
lizard cut in stone," and other sculptured figures. M. Angrand,
whose notes have been very judiciously used by M. Desjardains,
speaks of eight such figures in the village of Tiahuanaco, besides
two in La Paz , and one, broken, on the road thither.
I found but two; rough sculptures of the
human head and bust, in coarse red sandstone, one of a man and the
other of a woman, standing by the side of the gateway of the church
of Tiahuanaco. They are between four and five feet high, roughly
cut, much defaced, and more like the idols which I found in
Nicaragua, and have represented in my work on that country, than any
others I have seen elsewhere.
Among the stones taken from the ruins, and worked into buildings in
the town of Tiahuanaco, are a number of cylindrical columns cut from
a single block, with capitals resembling the Doric. One of these
stands on each side of the entrance to the court of the church, 6
feet high and 14 inches in diameter. There are also many caps of
square columns or pilasters, besides numbers of stones cut with deep
single or double grooves, as if to serve for water-conduits when
fitted together—a purpose the probability of which is sanctioned by
finding some stones with channels leading off at right angles, like
the elbows in our own water-pipes.
The stones composing the structures of Tiahuanaco, as already said,
are mainly red sandstone, slate-colored trachyte, and a dark, hard
basalt. None of these rocks are found in situ on the plain, but
there has been much needless speculation as to whence they were
obtained. There are great cliffs of red sandstone about five leagues
to the north of the ruins, on the road to the Desaguadero; and, on
the isthmus of Yunguyo, connecting the peninsula of Copacabana with
the mainland, are found both basaltic and trachytic rocks, identical
with the stones in the ruins.
Many blocks, hewn or partially hewn, are
scattered over the isthmus. It is true this point is forty miles
distant from Tiahuanaco in a right line, and that, if obtained here,
the stones must have been carried twenty-five miles by water and
fifteen by land. That some of them were brought from this direction
is indicated by scattered blocks all the way from the ruins to the
lake; but it is difficult to conceive how they were transported from
one shore to the other.
There is no timber in the region of
which to construct rafts or boats; and the only contrivances for
navigation are floats, made of reeds, closely bound into cylinders,
tapering at the ends, which are turned up so as to give them
something of the outline of boats. Before they become water-soaked
these floats are exceedingly light and buoyant.
As to how the stones of Tiahuanaco were cut, and with what kind of
instruments, are questions which I do not propose to discuss. I may,
nevertheless, observe that I have no reason to believe that the
builders of Tiahuanaco had instruments differing essentially in form
or material from those used by the Peruvians generally, which, it is
certain, were of champi, a kind of bronze.
I have thus rapidly presented an outline of the remains of
Tiahuanaco-remains most interesting, but in such an absolute
condition of ruin as almost to defy inquiry or generalization.
Regarding them as in some respects the most important of any in
Peru, I have gone more into details concerning them than I shall do
in describing the better-preserved and more intelligible monuments
with which we shall have hereafter to deal.
We find on a review that, apart from five considerable mounds of
earth now shapeless, with one exception, there are distinct and
impressive traces of five structures, built of stones or defined by
them—the Fortress, the Temple, the Palace, the Hall of Justice, and
the Sanctuary—terms used more to distinguish than truly characterize
them. The structure called the Fortress may indeed have been used
for the purpose implied in the name.
Terraced, and each terrace faced with
stones, it may have been, as many of the terraced pyramids of Mexico
were, equally temple and fortress, where the special protection of
the divinity to whom it was reared was expected to be interposed
against an enemy. But the absence of water and the circumscribed
area of the structure seem to weigh against the supposition of a
defensive origin or purpose. But, whatever its object, the Fortress
dominated the plain; and when the edifices that crowned its summit
were perfect, it must have been by far the most imposing structure
in Tiahuanaco.
The Temple seems to me to be the most ancient of all the distinctive
monuments of Tiahuanaco. It is the American Stonehenge. The stones
defining it are rough and frayed by time. The walls between its rude
pilasters were of uncut stones; and although it contains the most
elaborate single monument among the ruins, and notwithstanding the
erect stones constituting its portal are the most striking of their
kind, it nevertheless has palpable signs of age, and an air of
antiquity which we discover in none of its kindred monuments.
Of course, its broad area was never
roofed in, whatever may have been the case with smaller, interior
buildings no longer traceable. We must rank it, therefore, with
those vast open temples (for of its sacred purpose we can scarcely
have a doubt), of which Stonehenge and Avebury, in England, are
examples, and which we find in Brittany, in Denmark, in Assyria, and
on the steppes of Tartary, as well as in the Mississippi Valley. It
seems to me to have been the nucleus around which the remaining
monuments of Tiahuanaco sprung up, and the model upon which some of
them were fashioned.
How far, in shape or arrangement, it may
have been symbolical, I shall not undertake to say; but I think that
students of antiquity are generally prepared to concede a symbolical
significance to the primitive pagan temples as well as to the
cruciform edifices of Christian times.
We can hardly conceive of remains so extensive as those of
Tiahuanaco, except as indications of a large population, and as
evidences of the previous existence on or near the spot of a
considerable city. But we find nowhere in the vicinity any decided
traces of ancient habitations, such as abound elsewhere in Peru, in
connection with most public edifices. Again, the region around is
cold, and for the most part arid and barren. Elevated nearly
thirteen thousand feet above the sea, no cereals grow except barley,
which often fails to mature, and seldom, if ever, so perfects itself
as to be available for seed.
The maize is dwarf and scant, and
uncertain in yield; and the bitter potato and quinoa constitute
almost the sole articles of food for the pinched and impoverished
inhabitants. This is not, prima facie, a region for nurturing or
sustaining a large population, and certainly not one wherein we
should expect to find a capital. Tiahuanaco may have been a sacred
spot or shrine, the position of which was determined by an accident,
an augury, or a dream, but I can hardly believe that it was a seat
of dominion.
Some vague traditions point to Tiahuanaco as the spot whence Manco
Capac, the founder of the Inca dynasty, took his origin, and whence
he started northwards to teach the rude tribes of the Sierra
religion and government; and some late writers, D’Orbigny and
Castelnau among them, find reasons for believing that the whole Inca
civilization originated here, or was only a reflex of that which
found here a development, never afterwards equaled, long before the
golden staff of the first Inca sunk into the earth where Cuzco was
founded, thus fixing through superhuman design the site of the
imperial city.
But the weight of tradition points to
the rocky islands of Lake Titicaca as the cradle of the Incas,
whence Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo, his wife and sister, under the
behest of their father, the Sun, started forth on their beneficent
mission. Certain it is that this lake and its islands were esteemed
sacred, and that on the latter were reared structures, if not so
imposing as many other and perhaps later ones, yet of peculiar
sanctity.
But before starting on our visit to that lake and its sacred
islands, I must relate some of the incidents of our stay in
Tiahuanaco.
AT Tiahuanaco, AND TO THE
SACRED ISLANDS
CHAPTER XVI
Suspected of
Treasure-hunting.-The Guardian of the Tapadas.-The
Potato-feast and Corpus Christi.-The Indian
Celebration.-Music, Dancing, and Costumes.-Departure
from Tiahuanaco.-Village of Guaque.-Cattle feeding in
the Lake.-Tortora Bridge over the Outlet of the
Lake.-Entry into the Village of Desaguadero.-A Convivial
Cura.-Hospitalities of the Caballeros and Señoritas.-Mine
Host the Comandante.-Zepita.-Scenes on the
Road.-Comparatively Fertile Region.-Village of Yunguyo.-A
Pressing Invitation.-A Dinner Compliment. -A Legal
Luminary. |
I HAVE no doubt, the Cura of Tiahuanaco believes to this day that
our visit to the ruins was for the purpose of digging for treasures,
and that we had some itinerario, or guide, obtained from the
archives of Old Spain to direct our search.
What the Indians themselves thought, they did not tell us. But on
our very first day among the monuments, and within an hour after we
had pitched our photographic tent and got out our instruments, we
became aware of the presence of a very old man, withered, wrinkled,
and bent with the weight of years. His hair was scant and gray, his
eyes rheumy, and his face disfigured by a great quid of coca that he
carried in one cheek.
He wore tattered pantaloons of coarse
native cloth, made from the fleece of the llama, kept together by
thongs; his poncho was old and ragged; and the long woollen cap,
that was pulled low over his forehead, was greasy from use and stiff
with dirt. He had an earthen vessel containing water suspended from
his waist, besides a pouch of skin containing coca, and a little
gourd of unslacked lime. In his hand he carried a small double-edged
stone-cutter’s pick or hammer.
He paid us no perceptible attention, but
wandered about deliberately among the blocks of cut stone that strew
the ground, and finally selected one of a kind of white tufa, which
he rolled slowly and with many a pause up to the very foot of the
great monolith, then seated himself on the ground, placed it between
his legs, and after preparing a new quid of coca, began to work on
the stone, apparently with the purpose of cutting it in halves. He
worked at it all day with small effect, and during the whole time
neither noticed us nor responded to our questions.
Just before returning to the village, in
the edge of the chill night, I prevailed on one of our arrieros, who
could speak Aymara, to ask him what was his occupation. He got the
curt answer from the old man, that he was "cutting out a cross."
Every morning he was at the ruins before us, and he never left until
after we did at night. All day he pecked away at the stone between
his knees, apparently absorbed in his work and oblivious of our
presence. After a time we came to look upon him as an integral part
of the monuments, and should have missed him as much as the great
monolith itself.
One evening I mentioned the old man to the cura, who again put on
mystery, took me out for a turn in the plaza, and explained in
whispers, heavy with fumes of cañaso, that the old man was nothing
more nor less than a spy on our doings, and that we made no movement
in any direction that he did not carefully observe.
"He is," said the padre, "one of the
guardians of the tapadas. He is more than a hundred years old.
He was with Tupac Amaru when he undertook to overturn the
Spanish power, and he led the Aymaras when they sacked the town
of Huancane, and slew every white man, woman, and child that
fell into their hands. He is a heathen still, and throws coca on
the apachetas. Ah! if I only knew what that old man knows of the
tapadas, señor," exclaimed the cura, with fervor, "I should not
waste my life among these barbarians! You can pity me! And for
the love of God, señor, if you do come across the treasures,
share them with me! I can’t live much longer here !"
And the padre burst into a maudlin
paroxysm of tears.
Von Tschudi, when he was at Tiahuanaco,
found or obtained some ancient relics—small stone idols, if I
remember rightly—but had not proceeded many miles on his way to La
Paz before he was surrounded by a party of Indians from the town,
and compelled to surrender them. We suffered no molestation,
although there is no doubt we were closely watched, and that the
deaf and apparently almost sightless old stone-cutter was a spy on
our actions.
I have already said that our visit to Tiahuanaco was coincident in
time with the Chuño and Corpus Christi. The population of the place,
as indeed of the whole region, is Indian, the white priests,
officials, and landed proprietors being so few as hardly to deserve
enumeration. These Indians are of the Aymara as distinguished from
the Quichua family, and are a swarthier, more sullen, and more cruel
race........
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