Much of the pottery found on the surface was imported from the Lake Titicaca
region, suggesting that Sacsahuaman’s builders came from that area, famed for
its stoneworkers. Cieza also observed that the scale of Sacsahuaman was so vast
that it could not have been completed. Indeed, studies show signs of work in
progress on the rampart walls; the construction project was perhaps cut short by
the Spanish invasion.
Nearly all the chroniclers stress that Sacsahuaman served as an enormous
storage center. Excavations on the summit unearthed a maze of small rooms,
perhaps the remains of storerooms. According to one early eyewitness, there
were so many storerooms that “10,000 soldiers” could occupy them. No doubt
this is an exaggeration, but nonetheless the array of stored goods claimed to have
been kept there is astounding, including clubs, lances, bows, arrows, axes,
shields, heavy jackets of quilted cotton, and other weapons; clothing; gold and
silver, precious stones, sandals, feathers, skins of animals and birds, coca, and
bags of wool. “Everything anyone had ever heard of,” wrote Cieza, “was in it”
(Cieza 1959 [1553]).
Further Reading
Bauer, Brian S. Ancient Cusco: Heartland of the Inca. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2004.
Cieza de León, Pedro de. The Incas of Pedro de Cieza de León. Translated by Harriet de Onís, edited by
Victor Wolfgang von Hagen. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1959 [1553–1554].
Garcilaso de la Vega, El Inca. Royal Commentaries of the Incas and General History of Peru, Part One.
Translated by Harold V. Livermore. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1966 [1609].
Hyslop, John. Inka Settlement Planning. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1999.
■ADRIANA VON HAGENSÁMANO ACCOUNT
The first encounter between Spaniards and Andean civilization took place not on
land, but at sea. An undated document, signed by Juan de Sámano, a secretary of
the Council of the Indies, and thus referred to as the Sámano account, chronicled
the encounter. The meeting at sea took place in 1525, during Francisco Pizarro’s
second voyage of exploration along the coasts of what are today Panama,
Colombia, and Ecuador. Just south of the Equator, Pizarro’s pilot Bartolomé
Ruíz captured a large balsa raft that was sailing north; the raft was rigged with
cotton sails and manned by a crew of some 20 men. It carried a cargo of gold
and silver objects, semiprecious stones, and fine garments “beautifully worked
with elaborate craftsmanship.” According to the Sámano account, the Native
sailors planned to exchange their cargo “for some sea shells [probably
Spondylus] of which they make beads of a reddish and white color.” Several