Artifacts from Machu Picchu

The royal estate of Machu Picchu in its heyday held a thriving community of up to six hundred inhabitants during the dry seasons (May to September). The palace royalty were members of the Inca ethnic group from the Cusco Valley but the artisans and household servants belonged to many other ethnic groups and came from throughout Tahuantinsuyo. They devoted their days to mundane activities - cooking, brewing corn beer, cleaning, weaving, and producing metal objects - while the elite dedicated their time to feasting, hunting, and religious worship. Thanks to the Inca custom of burying individuals with their personal possessions, the objects recovered by the 1912 Expedition from the cave burials of the retainers provide us with a vision of the identity and daily lives of these women, men, and children. Other objects that were lost or discarded in the main architectural complex shed light on the activities of the elite. A broad selection of these materials are exhibited here for the first time since Bingham’s excavations.

Metal working under the sponsorship of the Sapa Inca and his royal corporation (panaca) was an important activity at Machu Picchu. Workers from Peru’s north coast and other areas with advanced metallurgical traditions were brought to Machu Picchu to produce metal objects that could be distributed as gifts to reinforce the panaca’s prestige and power. The 1912 investigations recovered metal stock, works in progress, and waste materials left over from metal working, as well as the tools used in the production of metal objects. Excavations at Machu Picchu in the 1990s unearthed evidence of a bronze mace head abandoned in the process of being cast. Most of the evidence recovered at Machu Picchu relates to the creation of objects from tin bronze, an alloy of copper associated with the Inca State, but objects were fashioned of precious metal as well.

Intentional modification of the shape of the head, widespread in ancient South America, was achieved by tightly wrapping the heads of infants with cloth bands, sometimes in conjunction with cloth pads or rigid boards. Early Spanish chroniclers noted the practice and laws were passed in Peru in 1585, and again in 1752, banning it. The Spanish believed the Inca imposed the custom to make their subjects more docile, but more likely it was a market of ethnicity and group membership. Particular head shapes may have been seen as aesthetically attractive as well, as in some modern cultures such as the Shipibo of the Amazon basin, who flatter their infants’ foreheads. Because infant skull bones are thin and flexible, reshaping their heads is relatively simple and poses no risk to the brain. Sometimes cranial deformation happens unintentionally, typically when infants are strapped to cradleboards or sleep in a habitual position on a hard surface. Cradleboarding produces a characteristic flattening of the back of the skull that persists into adulthood.   

The residents of Machu Picchu had a wide variety of jewelry. For the women, the prenedor (tupu) was a principal piece of jewelry in everyday dress. The shape and composition of the women’s tupus tell us about their social status and ethnic origin. Necklaces, bracelets, and ornaments that were sewn to the headdresses were used often. Some of these objects, like the depiladores or knives, were pierced in order to be used like pendants.