Inca Land: Explorations in the Highlands of PeruBingham, Hiram
History
Inca Land: Explorations in the Highlands of Peru
Bingham, Hiram
Incas; Peru -- Antiquities; Peru -- Description and travel
The place assigned by all the chroniclers as the location of the
traditional Tampu-tocco, as has been said, is Paccaritampu, about nine
miles southwest of Cuzco. Paccaritampu has some interesting ruins and
caves, but careful examination shows that while there are more than
three openings to its caves, there are no windows in its buildings. The
buildings of Machu Picchu, on the other hand, have far more windows
than any other important ruin in Peru. The climate of Paccaritampu,
like that of most places in the highlands, is too severe to invite
or encourage the use of windows. The climate of Machu Picchu is mild,
consequently the use of windows was natural and agreeable.
So far as I know, there is no place in Peru where the ruins consist of
anything like a "masonry wall with three windows" of such a ceremonial
character as is here referred to, except at Machu Picchu. It would
certainly seem as though the Temple of the Three Windows, the most
significant structure within the citadel, is the building referred
to by Pachacuti Yamqui Saleamayhua.
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FIGURE
The Masonry Wall with Three Windows, Machu Picchu
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The principal difficulty with this theory is that while the
first meaning of tocco in Holguin's standard Quichua dictionary is
"ventana" or "window," and while "window" is the only meaning given
this important word in Markham's revised Quichua dictionary (1908),
a dictionary compiled from many sources, the second meaning of tocco
given by Holguin is "alacena," "a cupboard set in a wall." Undoubtedly
this means what we call, in the ruins of the houses of the Incas, a
niche. Now the drawings, crude as they are, in Sir Clements Markham's
translation of the Salcamayhua manuscript, do give the impression
of niches rather than of windows. Does Tampu-tocco mean a tampu
remarkable for its niches? At Paccaritampu there do not appear to be
any particularly fine niches; while at Machu Picchu, on the other hand,
there are many very beautiful niches, especially in the cave which has
been referred to as a "Royal Mausoleum." As a matter of fact, nearly
all the finest ruins of the Incas have excellent niches. Since niches
were so common a feature of Inca architecture, the chances are that Sir
Clements is right in translating Salcamayhua as he did and in calling
Tampu-tocco "the hill with the three openings or windows." In any case
Machu Picchu fits the story far better than does Paccaritampu. However,
in view of the fact that the early writers all repeat the story that
Tampu-tocco was at Paccaritampu, it would be absurd to say that they
did not know what they were talking about, even though the actual
remains at or near Paccaritampu do not fit the requirements.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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