I have previously written about Qenqo in Peru (a three-dimensional carved boulder resembling a landscape with land contours and waterways) speculating as to whether or not it is a map. On August 17, 2013 I published MAPS IN ROCK ART – 3-D CARVED MAPS, and on May 8, 2021 I also mentioned Qenqo in A CARVED SLAB IN FRANCE IS CLAIMED TO BE THE OLDEST MAP IN EUROPE. These columns focused on the carved features resembling a landscape on the carved boulder. This, and similar carved boulders in the Incan empire were called huacas (or wak’as).
“In the Quechuan languages of South
America, a huaca or wak’a is an object that represents something refered,
typically a monument of some kind. The term huaca can refer to natural
locations, such as immense rocks. Some huacas have been associated with
veneration and ritual. The Quechua people traditionally believed every object
has a physical presence and two camaquen (spirits), one to create it and
another to animate it.
Huacas are commonly located in nearly all regions of Peru outside the deepest parts of the Amazon basin in correlation with the regions populated by the pre-Inca and Inca early civilizations.” (Wikipedia)
Choquequilla huaca. Internet photograph, public domain.
Not all, but many Inca huacas are large boulders or rock outcrops with carving, but not all possess landscape like features (like Qenqo). Even more common than the miniature landscapes are seat-like shelves carved into the rock, and some possess carving that looks like false doorways. One of these is known as Choquequilla Inca Huaca.
Found “within a cave opening near the present-day
village of Pachar in the Sacred Valley of Peru” (HeritageDaily) it consists
of a huge black granite boulder that is unmodified on the outside, but on the
inside facing into the cave it has been intricately carved. The “Sacred Valley of Peru” is the Urubamba
Valley North of Cusco. “When observed
from the outside, it has a natural appearance, but the interior face suggests
an important ceremonial purpose. This is flanked by a wall containing two rows
of four double jamb niches, whilst on the opposite side of the cave is a large
double jamb window. Researchers have called the site, ‘the cave of Choqequilla,
the Golden Moon’, and the ‘Moon Temple of Choqequilla’, suggesting the site has
a lunar connection (which is illuminated by moonlight at night), although the
exact purpose of the shrine is still speculated.” (HeritageDaily)
Choquequilla huaca. Internet photograph, public domain.
Ethnography,
and some old Spanish accounts tell us that huacas are focal points of shrines
intended for many purposes. As stated above some have miniature landscapes with
waterways apparently intended for rituals. Qenqo is believed to have been
associated with the burial of an Inca ruler, Pachakuti Inca Yupanqui, the
founder of their empire. Other huacas seem to mirror in their contours the
physical shapes of mountains around them. The mountain peaks around Incas were
considered to be of great significance.
Choquequilla huaca. Internet photograph, public domain.
Most importantly “the dramatic experience of high and low in the Andes was and is phenomenologically inspired – by which I mean that it is timeless and universal and can still be felt by living beings – and then became socially anchored. In Quechua worldview, the high-low opposition was manifested by male mountains and fecund female valleys.” (Christie 2012:620)
In light of this notice the view from the cave of the Choquequilla huaca, if the carved shelves of the huaca are indeed seats the peaks would provide an impressive backdrop, possibly mirroring the contours of the boulder it is carved into.
NOTE
1: For more detailed information on Inca huacas I recommend the sources listed
below, especially the paper by Christie.
NOTE 2: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.
REFERENCES:
Christie, Jessica Joyce, 2012, A New Look at Q’enqo as a Model of Inka Visual Representation, Reproduction, and Spatial Structure, Ethnohistory, Vol. 59, No. 3, pp. 597-630.
HeritageDaily, 2021, The Choquequilla Inca Hauca, August 2021, https://www.heritagedaily.com.
Wikipedia,
Huacas, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huaca
- accessed 22 September 2021.
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