Capacocha was one of the most important religious rituals in the Inca state. It invo0lved sacrificing children and young women to deities and sacred places, on mountain or volcano peaks. So far, only a few capacocha sacrifices have been discovered, mainly on mountain peaks in northern Chile, southern Peru and northwestern Argentina.

The ritual was preceded by a procession, which usually started in Cusco and could last many months before reaching provincial sanctuaries and mountain or volcanic peaks.

'It is worth emphasising the extraordinary contribution of the state to the organization of these pilgrimages, because building roads to the peaks, and platforms on these peaks, certainly required a lot of effort. Special workers had to be assigned to this, who simply did exclusively this for some time', Dagmara Socha, PhD, from the Center for Andean Studies of the University of Warsaw describes in an interview with PAP.

In 2022, an international research project was launched on places associated with the last stages of such pilgrimages. Researchers analysed the way the tambos space was organised on the Chachani and Pichu Pichu volcanoes in Peru.

The research was conducted by Dagmara Socha, PhD, from the Center for Andean Studies of the University of Warsaw and Dominika Sieczkowska-Jacyna, PhD, from the Silesian University of Technology. The paper on this topic was published in Antiquity: a review of world archaeology. .

'Tambos is a general term for inns located on Inca roads. The Incas built thousands of kilometres of roads that connected the entire Empire, and tambos were located at specific intervals. They were places where grain was stored, and messengers were also stationed there', the researcher describes. 'In the case of mountain peaks, tambos were built in a religious context and were intended to serve only such religious and pilgrimage purposes'.

Tambos located at high altitudes were the last stops for pilgrims before reaching the summit; some of them were located at an altitude of over 4,800 m above sea level. The tambo on the top of the Licancabur volcano (on the Chilean side) had over 150 structures and could accommodate several hundred people.

On both volcanoes studied by the UW archaeologists, Chachani and Pichu Pichu, the tambos were divided into two zones: a lower one and a higher one.

The lower part of the Chachani tambo consisted of 14 buildings, arranged in two groups around a courtyard. There was a 250 m2 plaza in the centre. The upper part was a single building built against a large rock.

The distance from the upper tambo to the summit of the Chachani volcano is estimated to be about six hours' climb. Along the path leading to the summit, the Incas built additional small shelters where pilgrims could rest.

The main plaza of the lower tambo on the Pichu Pichu volcano faced the valley and overlooked the nearby peaks. Eight buildings have been identified there. The upper Pichu Pichu tambo is located 140 m to the southeast of the lower tambo. It consisted of a single building with three separate rooms.

The size of the main plazas in the lower parts of the tambos suggests that they were built to accommodate many pilgrims, even hundreds of them, although it is unlikely that so many people would stay there at any one time. The squares could also have been designed as ritual sites that pilgrims could observe from the outside, from a designated area.

'The second tambos were located at a certain distance from the first ones. Higher-ranking pilgrims probably stopped here, for example priests with sacrificial offerings, separated from the rest. It may also have been used as an oracle site, because the role of children did not end with their sacrifice. Later, pilgrims would also go to them to ask various questions and treated them as oracles of sorts', Socha describes.

She explains that isolated fragments of the tambo were used by pilgrims who could not go to the very top. 'Such a climb was quite complicated, and these places were still relatively easy to reach. Of course, this is still our working hypothesis, which we will develop in subsequent research seasons', describes the researcher from the University of Warsaw.

In the future seasons, the researchers plan to conduct more detailed exploration of both newly discovered and previously known sites using non-invasive documentation methods and traditional excavations. At the same time, they are working on examining samples to determine the chronology and course of rituals.

Ewelina Krajczyńska-Wujec (PAP)

PAP - Science in Poland

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