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extended the Inca Empire to include vast
territories and numerous civilizations.
Cusi became known as Pachacuti, He
Who Changes the World.
The World Changer conned Cuscos rivers
to stone channels and had his capital com-
pletely rebuilt. He created the Inca system o
warehouses and roads, with chasquimes-sengers to maintain rapid communication. He
dened the calendar, estivals, customs and
laws or his people to ollow and organized a
warrior class or the conquests to come.
It was Pachacuti who ordered the holiest
Inca site, the Sun Temple or Coricancha, to
be constructed. For that, he gathered the
best goldsmiths and told them to ashion a
lie-sized gure o a young boy, resembling
Machu Picchu beore Bingham
36
Archaeologist Paolo Greer looks atthe history o Machu Picchu beoreit was ofcially discovered byHiram Bingham in 1911
In 1471, the year the Conquistador
Francisco Pizarro was born, Pachacuti Yupanqui
died. Pachacuti was the ninth Inca andAtahualpas Great Grandather. When he was
young, Pachacuti was known simply as Cusi
Yupanqui. Then, the Inca kingdom was small
and their enemies, the Chancas, attacked their
home, Cusco. Cusis Father, Viracocha, and
his six brothers fed, while he, the youngest,
stayed to successully deend the city.
In the decades that ollowed, Cusi
Yupanqui and his sons, Yamque and Topa,
In 1551, the ViceroyMendoza ordered Betanzos
to record the history o
the Incas.....but theinitial eighteen chapterswere lost or more than
400 years.
Here is Berns own sketch of the Flight of Steps fromPutucussi to the ruined towns of the Metalworkers.
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The site o La Maquina is now Aguas
Calientes, the community just below
Machu Picchu.
In 1867, Berns purchased twenty-ve
kilometers o the northern bank o the
Urubamba/Vilcanota River, next to the
amous citadel. His estate, the Cercado
de San Antonio or Torontoy, extended
above and ar downriver rom the present
ruins o Torontoy, and up to the mountain
crests, directly opposite o Machu Picchu.
Even today, this region within plain
sight o the best known ancient city in
the Americas is virtually unknown.
Pre-Bingham Research
I rst walked the popular Inca trail in
1974, several years beore I encountered
history o the area that pre-dated Hiram
Bingham. Like many a good adventure,
this one started with the serendipitous
discovery o an old map.
I came upon the sketch during one
o my numerous trips to the U.S. Library
o Congress. It had no title or date,
although it indicated the locations o
write the Churchs religious conversion
manuals and Spanish-Quechua dictionar-
ies. In 1551, the Viceroy Mendoza ordered
Betanzos to record the history o the
Incas. Betanzos unique work, Suma ynarracion de los Yngas, was nished in1557. However, all but the initial eighteen
chapters were lost or more than 400 years.
In 1987, a complete manuscript, with an
additional sixty-our chapters, was ound in
Palma de Mallorca, Spain. The Inca Garcilaso
produced his Royal Commentaries in 1609,
based mostly on what he remembered as a
child beore leaving Per in 1560.Bernabe Cobo, like Garcilaso, among
the most cited o Inca authorities, relied
on the scant records available in his day,
publishing his history in 1653, nearly
one hundred years ater Betanzos direct
translations rom Atahualpas cousin-wie
and their surviving relatives.
Perhaps, it was then that Cuxirimay,
a.k.a. Doa Angelina Yupanqui, nally
spoke her good ortune by preserving
the history o her vanquished ancestors.
Without the telling o her story by Juan
de Betanzos, and his Narrations recent
rediscovery, much o the Incas own ac-
count might have been lost orever.
The Rediscovery o Patallacta
FromInca Land - Explorations inthe Highlands of Peru (1912) by HiramBingham: On the aternoon o July 23rd
we reached a hut called La Maquina,
where travelers requently stop or the
night. The name comes rom the presence
here o some large iron wheels, parts o a
machine destined never to overcome thediculties o being transported all the way
to a sugar estate in the lower valley, and
years ago let here to rust in the jungle.
The rusted machine that the Yale ex-
plorer wrote about had nothing to do with
sugar cane. It was a sawmill, brought to
Per beore Binghams birth by a German,
Augusto R. Berns, or the purpose o pro-
ducing ties or the Southern Per Railroad.
the brilliantly shining child he had seen in
a vision while protecting Cusco.
Pachacuti personally placed the nished
statue in an interior room o the Coricancha,
where only he, certain lords and special caretak-
ers were allowed to enter to revere the childs
gure, the most sacred icon in the realm.
Like Pachacuti, the golden sculpture
was considered a representative o the sun.
On the same day that Pachacuti in-
stalled the boys image in the Sun Temple,
he had a sugarloa shaped stone, an
intihuatana or sun hitch, placed in the
center o the principal plaza o Cusco. Thespecially carved rock represented the sun,
or one and all to worship.
Although Pachacutis victories stretched
throughout the Incas known world, his
initial invasions were in the Urubamba
Valley. It was there that the aged leader
had a village built or hispanaca or de-scendant amily to care or his tomb and
to serve his memory.
He called the town Patallacta, High
City. It is now known as Machu Picchu.
The Inca History is Recorded
Huayna Capac, Pachacutis grandson,
chose the newborn Cuxirimay (Speaks
Good Fortune) to eventually wed his son,
Atahualpa. Ater Huayna Capacs death,
Cuxirimay was in Atahualpas camp when
he was captured by Pizarro. She stayed
with the imprisoned Inca leader until his
execution by the Spaniards.
Following Atahualpas murder, Cuxirimay
became Doa Angelina Yupanqui, and
Francisco Pizarros mistress. She bore him
two sons, Juan and Francisco.When Pizarro was assassinated in 1541,
Angelina Yupanqui was nineteen years old.
In 1544, Doa Angelina became the
wie o Juan de Betanzos, a Quechua in-
terpreter or the Conquistadors. Following
the conquest o Per, Betanzos became
the most respected translator or the
Viceroyalty. In the same year that he wed
Angelina, Betanzos was commissioned to
Ghrings 1877 citation: the fortsof Chuquillusca, Torontoy and Picchu.
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the ceramics, shards and mummied bones
that Bingham took back to Yale rom Machu
Picchu. I was delighted to read that those
artiacts, at long last, would be returned to
their rightul owners, the Peruvian people
(update: apparently, Perus ormer rst
ladys, Eliane Karp de Toledos, February
2008 editorial to the New York Times, may
have stopped the exchange).
In any case, I am also concerned that a car-
ton o moldy documents, perhaps the greatest
collection o pre-Bingham Machu Picchu inor-
mation, having already been repatriated, may
no longer exist. Much o what I know o Bernsescapades on the Vilcanota came rom my brie
preview o the les I examined in that box.
There were twenty-our olders con-
taining the Germans sketches, notes and
correspondence. He mentioned a Mr. Oliver,
who had been two years living in those
parts. I ound a sample certicate or The
Incas Mines Gold & Silver Mining Company
187-. One older, alone, had ty-seven
envelopes, addressed to potential patrons.
There was a good drawing o Berns camp.
I suspect it was o the Maquina huts that
Bingham saw in ruins, orty-plus years later.
Then, that history was in a University o
Caliornia library. In the interim, it had
been returned to Per. I traced the line o
possession rom Caliornia back to Lima
and eventually ound the unique records,
uncatalogued, in a large cardboard box, ull
o bookworms and home to a nest o mice.
I spent a week, sitting between the
desks o two librarians, pouring over the
rank trove. Regrettably, I was allowed to
copy nothing, nor even to take pictures
(today, the Peruvian National Library
permits reproductions o older books and
ephemera to be made with ones own cam-era or a charge o two dollars per photo).
I took notes, o course, all the time pro-
testing that this national treasure should be
better preserved. In any case, I considered
the opportunity just a tantalizing rst peek.
A couple years ago, the Biblioteca
Nacional o Per opened its new quarters.
Most things probably made the move okay.
One box o musty papers, ull o wormholes
and mouse droppings, apparently did not.
Much has been said and written about
It would have been in the same spot where,
today, Aguas Calientes thrives and hundreds o
thousands o tourists have caught the shuttle
or a short ride up the hill to Machu Picchu.
There were seven handwritten drats
o the Particulars o Torontoy, Berns
detailed advertisement to sell his prop-
erty. From one version to the next, it was
telling how he embellished a word here or
added another lost mine there.
The box even contained Harry Singers
original map, in two colors! Although Berns
own yellow gumi gusty plan was nowhere
to be ound, there were several clear whitecopies. He hand drew lines on them, rom
the Saw Mill to just downriver, where he
hoped the government would build a bridge.
One envelope caught my curiosity as
much as anything else. It contained only
rusted metal shards. It was without expla-
nation and addressed to a Mr. Mahon.
Why would Berns send heavy pieces o
corroded metal to another country?
I had an idea, and it had to do with
crossing the river.
In 1877, Ghring had dispelled his ellow
countrymans incredible claims o mineral
wealth. Still, there was something else,
something easier to work and possibly richer!
A sketch by Poker Harry Singer,Berns partner
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40
The President probably instructed
Palma to support the Germans venture,
encouraging the Director to research
Machu Picchu, long beore Hiram Bingham
stumbled upon the ruins. Another piece
o the Berns aair was brought to light
by historian Mariana Mould de Pease.
In her 2003 book, Machu Picchu y elCdigo de tica de la Sociedad de ArqueologaAmericana, Ms. Mould published a letter she haduncovered among the Yale papers o Bingham.
Dated June 16, 1887, it was rom the
oce o the Peruvian President Cceres to
August R. Berns, giving him permission toloot Inca tombs (construcciones gentilicas).
Ms. Mould published the letter as an
example o the leniency with which Peruvian
ruins were mined in earlier years. What she
did not then know, because the letter gave
no clue, was that the huaca to be spoiled
was the one we now call Machu Picchu.
The government wanted ten percent o the
value o any gold, silver or jewels the German
ound, although it granted the remainder,
as well as any objects o copper, clay, wood,
stone, and everything else, to Berns without
any urther obligations, not even custom ees,
should he expatriate his treasures.
Berns was required to pay or a Cusco o-
cial to make sure the State got its cut, and
the authorities would supply police protec-
tion, i Berns paid their expenses. InIncaLandBingham wrote: With the possibleexception o one mining prospector, no
one in Cuzco had seen the ruins o Machu
Picchu or appreciated their importance. No
one had any realization o what an extraor-
dinary place lay on top o the ridge.
Although Bingham was directed to
Machu Picchu, not by Augusto Berns but by
Albert Giesecke, the head o the Universityo Cuzco, Berns was probably the prospector
Bingham had heard about, the one who had
been to Machu Picchu decades beore him.
Who was buried in Grants Tomb?
It is accepted that Machu Picchu was
built by Pachacuti Yupanqui, the Genghis
From a dierent source, I discovered an 1887
booklet explaining Berns newer project,
a venture he called Compaia Annima
Limitada Huacas del Inca, a company hav-
ing to do with the exploitation o an Inca
huaca or sacred place. This was no longerabout sawing wood or the railroad or mining
dubious claims o gold or silver.
Berns was ater plunder!
On July 16, 1887, he wrote: During
my stay in those provinces or our years
almost continuously, my lengthy investiga-
tions and constant expeditions or the pur-
pose, helped by my proessional knowledgeand casual circumstances, I was able to
discover the existence o signicant rustic
buildings and underground structures that
had been closed with stones, some o
them careully carved, which will undoubt-
edly contain objects o great value, and
orm part o those treasures o the Incas.
This company has the participation o
the Supreme government and is sponsored
by various respectable people o this capital
city, as well as several distinguished cuzque-
os and antique collectors who will orm the
directive committee, all persons o the high-
est honor inspiring the highest condence
and guaranteeing the best results.
The ocers or the enterprise were:
President, Augusto R. Berns; Vice President,
Jos M. Macedo; Cashier, Fernando Umlau;
Secretary, Jose Runo Macedo. Principal mem-
bers o the company were: Luis Carranza, Luis
Esteves, David Matto, Francis L. Crosby, Jacobo
Bakus, Arnaldo Hilker and Ricardo Palma.
Dr. Jos Mariano Macedo was a proessor
o pathology at the San Marcos University
in Lima and an ocer o the National
Medical Academy. He also owned a consider-
able collection o ancient ceramics. Whenthe war with Chile broke out, Macedo took
his collection to Paris and later sold the
bulk o the artiacts to a Museum in Berlin.
Berns partner, Ricardo Palma, was appar-
ently the well known author and director o
the National Library o Per rom 1883-1912.
Berns oten reerred to his close cooperation
and help rom the Supreme Government. By
that, he meant President Cceres.
Even today, this regionwithin plain sight o
the best known ancientcity in the Americas isvirtually unknown.
Paolo, in 1996, on the trail to Machu Picchu. Likethe Incas before me, I had nearly forty kilos (85lbs) in my pack and a tump line on my foreheadto carry the extra weight.
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