The Story of Tampu-tocco, a Lost City of the First Incas
It will be remembered that while on the search for the capital of the
last Incas we had found several groups of ruins which we could not
fit entirely into the story of Manco and his sons. The most important
of these was Machu Picchu. Many of its buildings are far older than
the ruins of Rosaspata and Espiritu Pampa. To understand just what we
may have found at Machu Picchu it is now necessary to tell the story
of a celebrated city, whose name, Tampu-tocco, was not used even at
the time of the Spanish Conquest as the cognomen of any of the Inca
towns then in existence. I must draw the reader's attention far away
from the period when Pizarro and Manco, Toledo and Tupac Amaru were
the protagonists, back to events which occurred nearly seven hundred
years before their day. The last Incas ruled in Uiticos between 1536
and 1572. The last Amautas flourished about 800 A.D.
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FIGURE
Puma Urco, near Paccaritampu
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The Amautas had been ruling the Peruvian highlands for about sixty
generations, when, as has been told in Chapter VI, invaders came
from the south and east. The Amautas had built up a wonderful
civilization. Many of the agricultural and engineering feats which
we ordinarily assign to the Incas were really achievements of the
Amautas. The last of the Amautas was Pachacuti VI, who was killed by
an arrow on the battle-field of La Raya. The historian Montesinos,
whose work on the antiquities of Peru has recently been translated
for the Hakluyt Society by Mr. P. A. Means, of Harvard University,
tells us that the followers of Pachacuti VI fled with his body to
"Tampu-tocco." This, says the historian, was "a healthy place" where
there was a cave in which they hid the Amauta's body. Cuzco, the
finest and most important of all their cities, was sacked. General
anarchy prevailed throughout the ancient empire. The good old days
of peace and plenty disappeared before the invader. The glory of the
old empire was destroyed, not to return for several centuries. In
these dark ages, resembling those of European medieval times which
followed the Germanic migrations and the fall of the Roman Empire,
Peru was split up into a large number of small independent units. Each
district chose its own ruler and carried on depredations against
its neighbors. The effects of this may still be seen in the ruins of
small fortresses found guarding the way into isolated Andean valleys.
Montesinos says that those who were most loyal to the Amautas
were few in number and not strong enough to oppose their enemies
successfully. Some of them, probably the principal priests,
wise men, and chiefs of the ancient régime, built a new city at
"Tampu-tocco." Here they kept alive the memory of the Amautas and
lived in such a relatively civilized manner as to draw to them,
little by little, those who wished to be safe from the prevailing
chaos and disorder and the tyranny of the independent chiefs or
"robber barons." In their new capital, they elected a king, Titi
Truaman Quicho.
The survivors of the old régime enjoyed living at Tampu-tocco,
because there never have been any earthquakes, plagues, or tremblings
there. Furthermore, if fortune should turn against their new young
king, Titi Truaman, and he should be killed, they could bury him
in a very sacred place, namely, the cave where they hid the body of
Pachacuti VI.
Fortune was kind to the founders of the new kingdom. They had chosen
an excellent place of refuge where they were not disturbed. To their
ruler, the king of Tampu-tocco, and to his successors nothing worth
recording happened for centuries. During this period several of the
kings wished to establish themselves in ancient Cuzco, where the great
Amautas had reigned, but for one reason or another were obliged to
forego their ambitions.
One of the most enlightened rulers of Tampu-tocco was a king called
Tupac Cauri, or Pachacuti VII. In his day people began to write on
the leaves of trees. He sent messengers to the various parts of the
highlands, asking the tribes to stop worshiping idols and animals,
to cease practicing evil customs which had grown up since the fall
of the Amautas, and to return to the ways of their ancestors. He
met with little encouragement. On the contrary, his ambassadors were
killed and little or no change took place. Discouraged by the failure
of his attempts at reformation and desirous of learning its cause,
Tupac Cauri was told by his soothsayers that the matter which most
displeased the gods was the invention of writing. Thereupon he forbade
anybody to practice writing, under penalty of death. This mandate was
observed with such strictness that the ancient folk never again used
letters. Instead, they used quipus, strings and knots. It was supposed
that the gods were appeased, and every one breathed easier. No one
realized how near the Peruvians as a race had come to taking a most
momentous step.
This curious and interesting tradition relates to an event supposed
to have occurred many centuries before the Spanish Conquest. We
have no ocular evidence to support it. The skeptic may brush it
aside as a story intended to appeal to the vanity of persons with
Inca blood in their veins; yet it is not told by the half-caste
Garcilasso, who wanted Europeans to admire his maternal ancestors
and wrote his book accordingly, but is in the pages of that careful
investigator Montesinos, a pure-blooded Spaniard. As a matter of fact,
to students of Sumner's "Folkways," the story rings true. Some young
fellow, brighter than the rest, developed a system of ideographs
which he scratched on broad, smooth leaves. It worked. People were
beginning to adopt it. The conservative priests of Tampu-tocco did
not like it. There was danger lest some of the precious secrets,
heretofore handed down orally to the neophytes, might become public
property. Nevertheless, the invention was so useful that it began to
spread. There followed some extremely unlucky event--the ambassadors
were killed, the king's plans miscarried. What more natural than
that the newly discovered ideographs should be blamed for it? As a
result, the king of Tampu-tocco, instigated thereto by the priests,
determined to abolish this new thing. Its usefulness had not yet
been firmly established. In fact it was inconvenient; the leaves
withered, dried, and cracked, or blew away, and the writings were
lost. Had the new invention been permitted to exist a little longer,
some one would have commenced to scratch ideographs on rocks. Then it
would have persisted. The rulers and priests, however, found that the
important records of tribute and taxes could be kept perfectly well
by means of the quipus. And the "job" of those whose duty it was to
remember what each string stood for was assured. After all there is
nothing unusual about Montesinos' story. One has only to look at the
history of Spain itself to realize that royal bigotry and priestly
intolerance have often crushed new ideas and kept great nations from
making important advances.
Montesinos says further that Tupac Cauri established in Tampu-tocco
a kind of university where boys were taught the use of quipus, the
method of counting and the significance of the different colored
strings, while their fathers and older brothers were trained in
military exercises--in other words, practiced with the sling, the
bolas and the war-club; perhaps also with bows and arrows. Around the
name of Tupac Cauri, or Pachacuti VII, as he wished to be called,
is gathered the story of various intellectual movements which took
place in Tampu-tocco. Finally, there came a time when the skill and
military efficiency of the little kingdom rose to a high plane. The
ruler and his councilors, bearing in mind the tradition of their
ancestors who centuries before had dwelt in Cuzco, again determined to
make the attempt to reestablish themselves there. An earthquake, which
ruined many buildings in Cuzco, caused rivers to change their courses,
destroyed towns, and was followed by the outbreak of a disastrous
epidemic. The chiefs were obliged to give up their plans, although
in healthy Tampu-tocco there was no pestilence. Their kingdom became
more and more crowded. Every available square yard of arable land was
terraced and cultivated. The men were intelligent, well organized,
and accustomed to discipline, but they could not raise enough food
for their families; so, about 1300 A.D., they were forced to secure
arable land by conquest, under the leadership of the energetic ruler
of the day. His name was Manco Ccapac, generally called the first Inca,
the ruler for whom the Manco of 1536 was named.
There are many stories of the rise of the first Inca. When he had grown
to man's estate, he assembled his people to see how he could secure new
lands for them. After consultation with his brothers, he determined
to set out with them "toward the hill over which the sun rose," as
we are informed by Pachacuti Yamqui Salcamayhua, an Indian who was
a descendant of a long line of Incas, whose great-grandparents lived
in the time of the Spanish Conquest, and who wrote an account of the
antiquities of Peru in 1620. He gives the history of the Incas as it
was handed down to the descendants of the former rulers of Peru. In
it we read that Manco Ccapac and his brothers finally succeeded in
reaching Cuzco and settled there. With the return of the descendants
of the Amautas to Cuzco there ended the glory of Tampu-tocco. Manco
married his own sister in order that he might not lose caste and that
no other family be elevated by this marriage to be on an equality with
his. He made good laws, conquered many provinces, and is regarded
as the founder of the Inca dynasty. The highlanders came under his
sway and brought him rich presents. The Inca, as Manco Ccapac now
came to be known, was recognized as the most powerful chief, the most
valiant fighter, and the most lucky warrior in the Andes. His captains
and soldiers were brave, well disciplined, and well armed. All his
affairs prospered greatly. "Afterward he ordered works to be executed
at the place of his birth, consisting of a masonry wall with three
windows, which were emblems of the house of his fathers whence he
descended. The first window was called Tampu-tocco." I quote from
Sir Clements Markham's translation.
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FIGURE
The Best Inca Wall at Maucallacta, near Paccaritampu
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FIGURE
The Caves of Puma Urco, near Paccaritampu
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The Spaniards who asked about Tampu-tocco were told that it was at or
near Paccaritampu, a small town eight or ten miles south of Cuzco. I
learned that ruins are very scarce in its vicinity. There are none in
the town. The most important are the ruins of Maucallacta, an Inca
village, a few miles away. Near it I found a rocky hill consisting
of several crags and large rocks, the surface of one of which is
carved into platforms and two sleeping pumas. It is called Puma
Urco. Beneath the rocks are some caves. I was told they had recently
been used by political refugees. There is enough about the caves and
the characteristics of the ruins near Paccaritampu to lend color to the
story told to the early Spaniards. Nevertheless, it would seem as if
Tampu-tocco must have been a place more remote from Cuzco and better
defended by Nature from any attacks on that side. How else would it
have been possible for the disorganized remnant of Pachacuti VI's army
to have taken refuge there and set up an independent kingdom in the
face of the warlike invaders from the south? A few men might have hid
in the caves of Puma Urco, but Paccaritampu is not a natural citadel.
The surrounding region is not difficult of access. There are no
precipices between here and the Cuzco Basin. There are no natural
defenses against such an invading force as captured the capital of
the Amautas. Furthermore, tampu means "a place of temporary abode,"
or "a tavern," or "an improved piece of ground" or "farm far from a
town"; tocco means "window." There is an old tavern at Maucallacta
near Paccaritampu, but there are no windows in the building to
justify the name of "window tavern" or "place of temporary abode"
(or "farm far from a town") "noted for its windows." There is nothing
of a "masonry wall with three windows" corresponding to Salcamayhua's
description of Manco Ccapac's memorial at his birthplace. The word
"Tampu-tocco" does not occur on any map I have been able to consult,
nor is it in the exhaustive gazetteer of Peru compiled by Paz Soldan.