Encyclopedia of the Incas

Atahualpa’s earlier exploits and later imprisonment by the Spaniards in
Cajamarca—no doubt the voice of Cusirimay Ocllo—and Manco Inca’s siege
of Cuzco in 1536.

Further Reading
Betanzos, Juan de. Suma y Narración de los Incas. Edited by María del Carmen Martín Rubio. Madrid:
Ediciones Atlas, 1987.
———. Narrative of the Incas. Translated and edited by Roland Hamilton and Dana Buchanan. Austin:
University of Texas Press, 1996 [1551–1557].
Mannheim, Bruce. “Diez de Betanzos, Juan (?–1576).” In Guide to Documentary Sources for Andean
Studies, 1530–1900. Edited by Joanne Pillsbury, vol. 2, 186–90. Norman: University of Oklahoma
Press, 2008.
■ADRIANA VON HAGEN

BINGHAM,    HIRAM

As the offspring of Protestant missionaries in Hawaii, Hiram Bingham defied
family expectations by becoming one of the pioneers of Inca archaeology. His
education at Yale and Harvard focused on nineteenth-century Latin American
political and economic conditions, and he was appointed as Yale’s first
professor specializing in Latin American history. He achieved lasting fame,
however, through his early archaeological investigations of three major Inca
sites: Machu Picchu, Vitcos, and Espiritu Pampa (see Vilcabamba).
Inspired by a 1909 visit to Choquequirau, an Inca settlement perched high
above the Apurimac River west of Cuzco, Bingham organized an expedition
to the forested region of Cuzco in search of the last capital of the rebellious
neo-Inca state, in Vilcabamba. In July 1911, Bingham and his team descended
the Urubamba River following leads from informants in Cuzco. Although
local farmers were aware of Machu Picchu and the other Inca sites
encountered by Bingham, it was the publication—especially an entire issue of
National Geographic devoted to Machu Picchu—that made Machu Picchu
famous. In 1912, Bingham returned to follow up on his “scientific discovery”
by clearing and mapping the well-preserved royal estate, and excavating
many of its buildings and burials. Bingham returned to the area again in
1914–1915 to study the road system and other neighboring settlements, but an
adequate explanation of Machu Picchu’s function continued to elude him.