Oberlin, Ohio
I am interested in learning about Incas. This topic
includes Inca structures and their religion. It also
includes the disappearance of the Incas. I chose this topic
because I have always been interested in Incas. Also I have
seen many TV shows about them. The thing that really got me
interested was that they mysteriously disappeared. During my study of Incas I hoped to learn about their
culture and religion. I also wanted to find out if anyone
knew why they disappeared. I also wanted to learn if they
had a written language and what it looked like. I learned
pretty much what I wanted to learn. Some things turned out
as I had expected and others didn't. My research went as
planned but sometimes I was not working as hard as I should
have been. My project was hard to do but very fun anyway.
Mostly I did my research by reading a book or magazine until
I found some useful information. Then I would write down
that information and read on. I kept doing this until I was
finished with the book. Then I would start a new book. I
found most of my information in books from the school and
public libraries. I found some information in articles from
the Internet and I also found an article from a magazine
about the Incas. The Incas were very hard workers so they did not have
very much time to spend with their families. When a young
couple married, they moved into a house that had been built
for them. For their first year of their marriage, they did
not have to pay taxes. When they had a child, they were
given more land. The Inca law said that all men had to marry
by age twenty. When a child was born, the mother washed
herself and the baby. When the baby was about four or five
days old, the mother put it on a cradle-board, or quira.
When the baby was one or two, it received a name and the
naming was celebrated. Then the baby's oldest uncle cut his
own hair and offered it to the gods with a prayer for the
baby. At about age ten, some of the girls of nobility were
selected for service at the temple. These girls were called
Chosen Women, and they were placed in one of four provinces
of the Inca Empire. The girls learned things women were
supposed to learn like sewing garments and cooking food.
Some of the Chosen Women married nobles, but some never
married because they were so loyal to the Sun God. Schooling
for boys started at age twelve and went on for four years.
After that, until they were fifty, the men had to
participate in mita. The Incas smartly calculated how much
mita each man had to do. First the men had to work in the
fields of widows, sick people, and the wives of soldiers.
Next, they worked on the temples and in the curcas fields.
Finally, they worked in the Sapa Inca's fields. All
together, each man worked four fields each day. In a
farmer's household, everyone depended on the women to cook
and sew for them. The women wove abasca to make new clothes
for their families. I can't even imagine how different their
family lives were from ours. The Inca rulers were called Sapa Incas. They lived in the
capitol city of Cuzco. Inca's had a government system called
"give-and-take." The royalty taxed the workers, and the
workers paid with not money, but labor or crops. The Sapa
Inca had to keep track of who owed and who had paid taxes.
The first Sapa Inca ordered that a Sun Temple be built in
every city, but the main Sun Temple was in Cuzco. When the
Inca king died, the prince fasted for 3 days in a house
built for the occasion. Then he was given the sign of
royalty, a headdress with red tassels and gold tubes. A
great feast followed. This feast lasted for days. The Sapa
Inca often had several hundred wives, but his one true wife
was the queen called a coya. Often, the coya was the Sapa
Inca's oldest sister. How weird! The most promising son of
the coya was the heir to the throne. The Sapa Inca had to
approve every large plan, such as a battle. No towns or
buildings could be built without his permission. Inca rulers
had a lot of power over their people. The Incas were so religious that sometimes their faith
clouded their minds from the truth. The " True Incas " or
the Incas who had descended from the first Inca tribe, lived
grandly in a place called Cuzco. There were about 4,000 of
these " True Incas." They had privileges that other Incas
did not have. The Incas believed that their ruler, the Sapa
Inca, was a descendant of their Sun God, Inti. During the
Festival of the Sun , the Sapa Inca went into the temple.
There he took off his crown and prayed to the Sun all night.
The Incas worshiped Inca deities but were still allowed to
worship their own gods. Inca Supremes, servants of the
royalty, sometimes took important local wakas hostage as a
way to control the people who believed in them. The Incas
also worshiped huacas, mountaintops and ruler's palaces.
Statues were also sacred to the Incas, and they believed in
good and evil spirits. The Incas saw good omens in rainbows,
falling stars, or the shape of a cloud. The Chosen Women
were sent to live in houses called allaguaci where they
slept and ate. The five major gods of the Incas were:
Pachamama, the earth mother; Apu Illapu, the rain giver;
Mama Kilya, the moon mother; Mama Qoca, the sea god, and of
course, Inti, the Sun God. The Incas had a lot of customs
and gods in their religion. Inca structures were very strong and some have lasted
until present day. Before starting to build any structure,
an architect made a model of the finished building. At the
site, the architect would explain his design to the surveyor
and stonesman. Then workers quarried the giant stones by
drilling a hole along the rocks fault line to weaken it.
Then, they levered the splintered stones out. The stones
were transported on a series of rollers in a carrying frame.
Hundreds of people took part in this hard work. The
irregularly shaped blocks were pounded with a stone ball and
scrubbed with a stone slab until the block's surface was
smooth. An earth ramp served as a way to haul the stones up
to the wall of the building. The largest stones were placed
at the bottom and smaller ones towards the top. A skilled
craftsman often chiseled the final touches in the fine
rectangular blocks in the most important parts of the
building. The king's palace had walls that were plated with
silver and gold. One room contained the throne, which was
probably a low red wooden stool covered with beautiful
cloth. Aside from the stool there was little furniture in
the palace. A new palace was built for each new ruler
because the old palace contained the old Inca king's mummy.
In Machu Picchu the undestroyed city of the Incas, there are
two hundred different buildings. Some of the blocks weighed
ten to fifteen tons. The Incas never needed cement for their
buildings because the stones fit together perfectly. The
Inca houses were made of grass. Inca structures were very
interesting to learn about. The Inca's disappearance was the most interesting thing
to study. Many Incas were killed by the Spanish in the
1530's during the Spanish Conquest. The Incas had resisted
the Spanish for forty-five years. To see first if the Incas
had the riches spoken of, the Spaniards captured the Sapa
Inca and asked for a ransom of gold and silver. Many Incas
had tried to flee their homes but either they got very sick
or got caught. Some escaped but were never seen again. When
the soldiers were fighting the Incas, they wore armor called
escapuil. This armor was made of cotton but still resisted
the blows from the Inca's battleaxes and slingshots. The
Spanish destroyed and brought down the Inca Empire with only
seventy soldiers on horses. Only five soldiers died in the
first battle. The Spanish forced the Inca rulers to obey the
Spanish rulers then looted them. The only Incas who survived
the Spanish's last attack were the ones who jumped off the
walls because the Spanish were climbing up the walls on
ladders. When the Spanish were done looting and destroying
the Incas, they melted down all the gold which weighed two
and a half tons. The silver weighed fifty one and a half
tons. Only one fifth of this went to Spanish royalty. The
soldiers split the rest amongst themselves. The main thing
that killed the Incas, however, was smallpox. This disease
spread and spread killing many Incas. The Incas
disappearance might not have been so mysterious if they had
had a written language but they did not. I learned many interesting facts but the most interesting
thing was about Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu was the only
undestroyed city of the Incas . Machu Picchu had many
temples for all the gods. The stones that were used for
Machu Picchu were larger than a man. They had been polished
until they were as smooth as glass. It is possible that
hundreds of craftsman worked carving and polishing the
stones. The amazing thing is that some modern day buildings
that were built using newer tools, have fallen while the
Inca structures still stand. The city of Machu Picchu is a
city of three square miles. The city is still the same as
when the Incas lived in it. The Spanish never got to Machu
Picchu because it was so high up in the mountains. Experts
do not know why Machu Picchu was built. But they knew this:
the Incas built Machu Picchu only sixty miles away from the
capital city of Cuzco. They must have had some reason for
building it there. I was very intrigued with this piece of
interesting information about Incas. There are a few careers that are associated with my
topic. One job is a historian. To be a historian, one needs
to go to college. An historian also needs to study history
and archives. Someone could also be an author that writes
about Incas. To be a writer, one needs to learn to write in
school. It is also helpful to study about the topic of the
writing. The most important job for my topic is an
archaeologist. To be an archeologist, one needs to learn
about different artifacts. They also need to study how to
preserve these ancient artifacts. Knowing the culture of the
people who lived in the place you are exploring might help
you on your expedition. These are just some of the jobs that
made my research on Incas possible. I enjoyed doing this project immensely. Doing this
project was hard work, but taught me that you have to work
to achieve something good. It was a struggle at times but
easy at others. If I had had more time, I would have
researched more. I also would have written a longer more
detailed report. I would also have made more quality
projects. This project was not as hard of work as it was
last year, but I had a great time doing it all the same. I
can not wait until I do this project next year. Glossary Abasca - The coarse cloth used by Incas for ordinary
clothes. Acllaguaci - House of Chosen Women. Apupanacas - Comissioner assigned by the Sapa Inca to
pick out Chosen Women. Coya - The Inca rulers one true wife, or called the
queen.. Escaupil - A suit of armor made from cotton. Huacas - A sacred place that Incas worshiped. Mita - A different name for plowing and tending to the
fields. Provinces - A temple of the Sun God, where only Chosen
Women, priests and sometimes royalty were allowed in. Quira - A cradle. Waka - A sacred religious object, natural or
humanmade. Bibliography Blecker, Sonia (1960). The Inca. New York. Burland, C.A. (1978). The Incas. Morristown, New
Jersey. Coba, Bernard. (1990). Inca Religion and Custom.
New York. Hemming, John. (1935). Machu Picchu. New York. Mann, Elizabeth (2000). Machu Picchu. New
York. Mconnel, Loraine F. (1979). Machu Picchu. New
Jersey. Rienhard, John. (1998). National Geographic Reaserch
Update: New Inca Mummies. National Geographic. Pages
128-135. Ogburn, Dennis E. The Incas. http.//www.milville.org
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John Memmott at
jmemmott@oberlin.k12.oh.us
or Kim Koos at
kkoos@oberlin.k12.oh.us
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