They also granted audiences to their successors, who consulted them on any aspect of the Tahuantinsuyu government, and could even act as ambassadors of the reigning Inca, and were sent to negotiate treaties or any other type of political and military management to any corner of the Empire.
Deceased Incas also visited other dead rulers and participated in public banquets where they “drank” and toasted their descendants. These mummies were hidden from view of all, except on special occasions, when they were taken out in procession and taken to the Coricancha or Temple of the Sun, in Cuzco, the capital, where they were placed on a small throne. After a month, after the mandatory funerary ceremonies –which included human sacrifices: the wives and main concubines of the monarch and some child or young man of the local nobility–, the body was placed in its final resting place, usually the palace in the one who had lived, in the care of servants.Įach king had his own butler, who saw to feeding him In addition, some women took care that the insects did not settle on the deceased and could spoil the mummy, and they also took care of dressing, washing and giving him a drink ( the Incas thought that it was necessary to dress and provide food and drink to the mummies of their ancestors to preserve the cosmic order and thus be able to guarantee abundant harvests and the fertility of livestock). 1583-1615.Īpparently, when a king died, his body was squatted on a seat, with his knees bent under his chin, bits of gold in his mouth, cuffs and chest, and he was dressed in magnificent robes.
It shows the transfer on a litter of the mummy of an Inca ruler, dressed in his best clothes.
#INCA RULERS SERIES#
The chronicler Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala made a series of engravings in which he showed many of the traditions of the Inca people. The eyes were made of bread of gold so well placed that there was no need for the natives … His hair was gray and none of it had disappeared, as if he had died that very day, although in reality his death had occurred more than sixty and eighty years before”. Father José de Acosta, who had the opportunity to see the body of the Inca Pachacuti around 1590, describes it as follows: “The body is so well preserved, and with a certain resin, that it seemed alive. Researchers now believe that the mummies were prepared with Tolu balm (a resin named after the Peruvian region where it comes from), menthol, salt, tannin, various alkaloids, saponins, and resins.Īnd although the mummies have not been preserved, we do know from some descriptions what they looked like.
We do not know for sure what techniques were used to achieve the mummification of the rulers, although we have some reference to it such as that of the Jesuit Blas Valera: “When the king died they removed his intestines and embalmed his body with the balm brought from Tolú”.
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