In a world full of
information, and enormous numbers of organizations and groups seeking and
disseminating more and more information regarding the past, it is always
interesting to see how certain information gets promoted and other information
is kept hidden, placed on the back burner, or ignored entirely.
In our book Scientific Fallacies and Other Myths, we
show how this has happened on certain scientific beliefs, such as evolution,
the Big Bang Theory, and the Red Shift of the Doppler Effect, as well as many
others. It is also interesting to see how this tendency to ignore knowledge
that doesn’t fit into the mainstream of thinking has woven its way through the
archaeological world, especially when it comes to that of the New World of the
Americas.
According to Tarmo
Kulmar, President of the Estonian Academic Oriental Society, an expert on pre-Columbian
American Religion, especially in Peru and Mexico, and holder of a Doctorate of
Theology and the dean of Faculty of Theology of the University of Tartu, “No
system of government can exist without transcribing verbal information.
Therefore, a state requires for its existence a writing system as a means of
recording and reproducing information. As far as is known, there has never
existed a civilization where such a means has not been used in one form or
another.”
Obviously, the
Peruvian Inca was an effectively functioning empire with a strong central power
and well-organized hierarchy of officials and certainly no exception to this
rule. And according to Tarmo Kulmar, the Inca began using a script writing
system, which had been earlier used in the Andean cultures before that for some
time, according to the ancient chroniclers and data from the period of Spanish
conquest and views of other scholars.
Called Quellqa (ccellcca) a Quechua word, that according to the Quechua
Dictionary by Malaga (1988), means “script.” Also found in literature are the
spellings: kilca, quillca, quellcca, kellca,
qillka. Thus the Inca civilization began with two writing systems, the Quellqa and the mnemotechnical
knot-device quipu (kipu, qquipu,
khipu, k’ipu).
To understand this in its full import,
one needs to know its sources, mainly that of a Spanish priest who
ventured to Peru in the 1600s and was not published for 300 years afterward.
Fernando de
Montesinos (Annals of Peru 1498-1642, published
in two volumes in Madrid by Victor Manuel Mautua and Uribe 1906), was a writer, historian and Spanish priest who spent his time in
the Viceroyalty of Peru, a territory from Cartegena (Colombia) to the Atacama
(Chilean border). He arrived in America in 1628 in the entourage of the Viceroy
Count of Chinchoa, though he was held in Trujillo as the secretary for Bishop
Carlos Marcelo Corne. Due to his degree in Canon Law, he toured the Viceroy of
Peru, covering a good part of South America, and with his avid interest and
vast knowledge in physics and metallurgy sciences, his extreme curiosity to see
old files and collect ancient traditions, he began to acquire a lengthy and
rather complete file on all things Peruvian. He even was able to acquire documents
and news about the Peruvian past while in the viceregal capital in Lima.
Officially, he sat as an ecclesiastical judge in Cajamarca, where he learned
about the capture and murder of Atahualpa, and visited Quito, eventually
returning to Spain in 1644. Drawing on his vast knowledge acquired in Peru
among the Indians, and gaining from Blas Valera’s work, he compiled an
extensive history of Peru that, though criticized by many scholars of his time,
has since been proven correct in most of his statements (Memorias Antiguas, Historiales y Politicas
del Perú, 1642]. Cuzco: Universidad de S.A.A).
In fact,
Montesions’ credibility seems to be far superior to that of other chroniclers
who did not vary from the established pattern of the accepted “Inca line.” He had,
after all, an adventurous spirit and an avid curiosity, traveling
between Peru and Bolivia and crossing the Andes sixty times, visiting the Audiencia y Chancellería real de Lima (Royal Audience and Chancery
of Lima) on several occasions—a superior court created in 1542 by
Emporer Charles V, with jurisdiction over the entire viceroyalty—virtually all
of Spanish-controlled South America and Panama. A
proselyting Jesuit, Montesinos organized an expedition in the Amazon jungle in search
of the legendary Inca lost city of Paititi. Of all of the chroniclers of
ancient Peru, he was the most knowledgeable and had the official records of all
the other chroniclers.
Yet, because of his curiosity
that led him into all sorts of areas of interest, of which he wrote about
profusely, of all the Spanish chroniclers who came
to the New World between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, he is
considered the most mysterious. He was branded a fraud by the unforgiving establishment
because he contradicted the official version of the 15 cuzqueños Incas who reigned only 300 years with his published list
of over 100 Inca kings who ruled in a time span of more than 2000 years from
various places in Peru. But it was his belief that the ancient Peruvians were
descendants of Ophir, the grandson of the biblical Noah that removed him from
any serious consideration by those of his day and since from the established
archaeological community and modern historians. Yet, his chronicles are full of
details that do not appear in any other chronic, such as eclipses of the sun
several days, and views of numerous areas of Peru by a single writer because of
his enormous travels and interactions with the locals of his day.
It
should also be noted that the writings of one who worked for the Spanish
crown, such as Montesinos, was a strenuous job and accuracy was critical for he
reported directly to the king of Spain regarding the status of his new kingdom—if
he went far astray, it would be apparent from the numerous other reports being
sent to the king from other sources.
While the established historian community
calls Montesinos an apocryphal writer, one supportive chronicler wrote of him:
“When one thinks of the years of dedication to his work and the final recipient
to whom it was addressed—the king, it is reasonable to think that the amazing
Inca chronology was not an invention but a very thorough job.”
It
should also be noted that the Inca, themselves, were very careful in crafting
their own heritage and history, mostly for the purpose of creating a favorable
and accredited existence to other cultures of their day. It helped in convincing
another warring tribe to join them when they presented a history of ruling
Cuzco for hundreds of years in an unbroken line; yet they also made sure their amautas (teachers) taught the growing
nobility’s younger generations of the 14 cuzqueños kings, while making sure
they did not know of any others in their linage that did not rule in Cuzco
(actually, an important part of the fourteen actually ruled the Wari cuture in
Ayacucho, but this was ignored). It is often said that history is written by
the victors, and this is especially true of the Inca, whose history today is
well documented, but in their time in the 15th century, was only
known as they claimed it to be.
What
Montesinos, and his unknown informers, claim of the Inca linage is that it
combined numerous cultures and groups into one, i.e., the Wari preceded the
Inca, but were of the same lineage, etc. It was also claimed by him that the
Inca linage, that is the linage of these 100 kings, dated back through various
“modern”names to the time of the Chain and Tiahuanaco, or even before. That
alone would get one ostracized from the modern archaeological and historical
communities who maintain their different cultures belief at all costs.
As
a result, we find an intriguing interest in the written script language called
Quellqa that Montesinos discovered and wrote about as the basis for this series
of articles on that language, and the purpose of its demise and why the Inca
favored the quipo rather than a much more versatile and useful written language,
and were in that sense, illiterate when the Spanish arrived.
(See the next post, “Quellqa:
Ancient Written Language of Peru – Part II,” for more information on both the
Quellqa and Quipo langauges of the Inca and what happened to the written
script)
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