rites performed during the Capac Huchas on the basis of these discoveries.
Unlike the cyclical Capac Huchas described above, these human offerings to
sacred peaks may have marked unscheduled events, commemorating a critical
episode in the life of a ruler. The boys, girls, and young women who were
sacrificed on the mountaintop sanctuaries were sumptuously dressed and
accompanied by rich offerings, such as human figurines made of gold, silver,
and Spondylus shell, as well as figurines of camelids, Spondylus shell, fine
cloth, coca, feathers, and miniature sets of ceramics.
For the populations from which the sacrificial victims—children (aged four to
ten) and young women (often selected from among the acllas, who were around
fifteen years old)—were chosen, these young people may have been regarded as
messengers to the sacred mountains, which controlled the forces of nature and
were often viewed as ancestors. The chronicler Juan de Betanzos remarked that
the children were often the sons and daughters of curacas, local lords, who
considered it an honor for their children to be chosen. Apparently, though, not all
parents considered it an honor. For instance, the chronicler Bernabé Cobo
remarked that some parents were pleased to see their daughters seduced at an
early age, because virginity was a prerequisite for selection as a Capac Hucha.
Further Reading
Besom, Thomas. Of Summits and Sacrifice: An Ethnohistoric Study of Inka Religious Practices. Austin:
University of Texas Press, 2009.
McEwan, Colin, and Maarten van de Guchte. “Ancestral Time and Sacred Space in Inca State Ritual.” In
The Ancient Americas: Art from Sacred Landscapes, edited by Richard Townsend, 358–71. Chicago: Art
Institute of Chicago, 1992.
Reinhard, Johan, and María Constanza Cerutti. Inca Rituals and Sacred Mountains: A Study of the World’s
Highest Archaeological Sites. Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, 2011.
■ADRIANA VON HAGEN
CATEQUIL
The temple of Catequil, which served as the seat of an important oracle and
shrine associated with a weather god, local origin myths, water, and fertility, lies
southwest of the modern town of Huamachuco, in northern Peru. The ruler
Huayna Capac was especially fond of Catequil and its prophecies, which
probably favored him, and he spread his cult as far as Ecuador. This not only
underscores the power of Catequil’s oracle and its acceptance by the Incas, but
also demonstrates the sanctuary’s rise from the status of a regional oracular
shrine to one of empire-wide importance. For not only was it said that Catequil