PERU 



22 departments, which are sub- 

 divided into provinces ; but local 

 administration is much controlled 

 by the central executive. The state 

 religion is Roman Catholic, but all 

 religions are tolerated. The small 

 standing army, with a considerable 

 reserve, is maintained by conscrip- 

 tion. There is a gold monetary 

 standard : the Peruvian pound, 

 normally equal to the sterling, is 

 divided into 10 soles. Lima has 

 the ancient university of San 

 Marcos, founded in 1551. There 

 are also universities at Arequipa, 

 Cuzco, and Trujillo. 



Mineral Wealth 



The name of Peru is tradi- 

 tionally identified with wealth in 

 the precious metals, particularly 

 silver. Great mineral wealth still 

 issues from the Andine plateau, 

 principally copper. Next in value 

 among minerals comes petroleum 

 from the N. coastal zone ; silver 

 from the Andes ranks third. But 

 the vegetable products far exceed 

 the minerals in value,notably sugar, 

 cotton, and coffee. Guano, once a 

 prolific source of wealth and 

 revenue, is still gathered in reduced 

 quantities. There is a considerable 

 export of alpaca and vicuna wool. 

 There are deposits of coal, still 

 untouched, in various parts. 



In the coastal zone the natural 

 and most convenient transport is 

 by sea; about 25 ports, most of 

 them mere villages with open road- 

 steads, serve this coastal traffic. 

 Callao, the chief port of external 

 trade, is situated on a spacious 

 sheltered bay and possesses fine 

 modern docks and wharves. Mol- 

 lendo, the second port, has little 

 more than a roadstead, but port 

 works are projected. Payta, in the 

 N., possesses a fine natural har- 

 bour. A number of short railways 

 link seaports with centres of pro- 

 duction or distribution. 



The Andine plateau has access to 

 the sea by two mountain railways. 

 One of these, the Callao-Oroya line, 

 traverses a pass in the W. Cordil- 

 lera higher than the summit of 

 Mont Blanc, and descends thence 

 about 3,000 ft. to Oroya, which is 

 linkwl by a N. extension to the 

 great copper mines of Cerro de 

 Pasco. Another extension passes S. 

 to Huancayo, and is meant to be 

 continued through Ayacucho to 

 join the Southern Railway at 

 Cuzco. The Southern Railway 

 mounts from Mollendo to Are- 

 quipa, and thence over the W. Cor- 

 dillera to the N. shore of L. Titicaca 

 at Puno, whence steamers connect 

 it with the Bolivian railway system. 

 A N. extension joins Puno with 

 Cuzco. These two mountain rail- 

 ways, with their extensions, to- 

 gether traverse about 900 m. But 



6078 



much of the transport on the sierra 

 is still carried by troops of llamas 

 driven by Indians. 



The montana depends mainly on 

 river transport. The river port of 

 Iquitos, 2,300 m. from the sea, is 

 visited by ocean steamers. Large 

 river steamers navigate great 

 stretches of the Amazonian afflu- 

 ents ; and it is impossible to esti- 

 mate the immense extent of streams 

 navigable by smaller craft and 

 motor-boats. But vast intervening 

 regions of the montana are still 

 destitute of transport. The con- 

 struction of a rly. from the central 

 plateau to the navigable waters of 

 the montana was being discussed 

 in 1921 when the route followed 

 narrow mule-paths bordering ra- 

 vines and precipices. 



Economic progress in the past 

 has been much impeded by civil 

 disturbances and external wars. 

 During the Great War the high 

 profits obtained by exporting cop- 

 per, sugar, and cotton brought a 

 wave of commercial prosperity, but 

 the country has suffered later from 

 the universal economic crisis. 



P. A. Kirkpatrick 



ARCHAEOLOGY. The material re- 

 mains of pre-Columbian Peru per- 

 tain to a wide geographical region 

 dominated by the Aymara and 

 Quichua peoples. It embraced 

 N.W. Argentina and Bolivia, be- 

 sides impinging in N. Chile on the 

 Araucanian and in Ecuador on the 

 Chibcha region. 



Before our era the Yunca, or rain- 

 less and stoneless coastal valleys, 

 were occupied by fishing tribes, 

 whose vast shell-mounds have 

 yielded their bone implements and 

 basketware. There came among 

 them, traditionally from the sea 

 whether from middle America, the 

 W., or both, is undetermined an 

 agricultural people vho erected 

 truncated pyramidal mounds of 

 adobe for burial and for the plat- 

 forms of residential structures. The 

 N. section, round Trujillo, called 

 early Chimu, is marked by pottery 

 moulded into human, animal, and 

 vegetable forms. The S. section, 

 called early Nasca, is marked by 

 pottery with painted decoration. 



Peoples o! the Uplands 

 In the well-watered Andean up- 

 lands, amply supplied with stone, 

 arose another agricultural people, 

 who domesticated the llama for 

 transport and the alpaca for wool. 

 Using stone tools, they set up re- 

 markable megalithic structures, 

 notably at Tiahuanaco near Lake 

 Titicaca, in the Cuzco valley, and 

 at Ollantaytampo, which guarded 

 the Amazons pass. To this archaic 

 period succeeded a new artistic out- 

 burst which, down to the 8th cen- 

 tury, intermingled with the coast 



PERU 



cultures. It was marked by stone 

 carving, weaving, and goldwork, 

 and a southward migration pro- 

 duced the Diaguite or Calobaqui 

 culture of N.W. Argentina. K 



The remnants of one of the mega- 

 lithic dynasties, apparently under 

 pressure from the coast, took re- 

 fuge in a fastness called Tampu- 

 Tocco, identified by Bingham in 

 1911 with Machu-Picchu in the 

 Urubamba valley. Besides cyclo- 

 pean remains this site yielded pic- 

 tographic stones, showing that an 

 undeveloped system of record pre- 

 ceded that of the later quipus or 

 knotted cords. By about 1100 the 

 Inca tribe, perhaps emerging from 

 Tampu-Tocco, began to dominate 

 the highlands, while the later 

 Chimu and Nasca cultures on the 

 coast independently reached a new 

 zenith of their own, before being 

 absorbed into the Inca empire. 

 Megalithic Remains 



The most imposing megalithic 

 remains are at Tiahuanaco. At 

 Sillustani on Lake Umayo are nu- 

 merous burial-towers or chullpas, 

 and stone circles. From Chavin de 

 Huantar, in the Maranon valley, 

 came a diorite stela 25 ft. high, 

 sculptured to represent a deity. 

 The Inca builders used smaller 

 blocks for their edifices, which were 

 sometimes many-storeyed, as on 

 the islands in Lake Titicaca and at 

 Pachacamac. At Marca Huama- 

 chuco are extensive llama-corrals ; 

 at Huanuco Viejo a series of stone 

 baths. The Inca constructed stone 

 aqueducts and bridges, terraced 

 hillsides for cultivation, and paved 

 highways throughout the empire. 



The dead were desiccated and en- 

 veloped in cotton wrappings or 

 llama skins, called mummy-packs. 

 On the coast occur pyramidal 

 mounds with underground pass- 

 ages to store-chambers and tombs, 

 once holding vast hoards of gold. 

 The grave-deposits, notably at An- 

 con, comprise the same variety of 

 domestic objects as in Egypt. Sim- 

 ple weaving implements, employed 

 for cotton, a sisal-like fibre, and 

 alpaca wool, produced tapestry 

 with bold animal designs. Metal- 

 work included gold and silver gob- 

 lets and breastplates, and copper 

 ornaments, implements, ac>d tools. 



Bibliography. Travel and Ex- 

 ploration in the Land of the Inoas, 

 E. G. Squier, 1877 ; South American 

 Archaeology, T. A. Joyce, 1912; 

 The Incas of Peru, C. Markham, 

 1915 ; A Survey of Ancient Peruvian 

 Art, P. A. Means, 191 7. 



E. O. Harmer 



HISTORY. The Incas during 

 four centuries of domination, by 

 a process of elaborate and steady 

 conquests had brought under 

 their sway an empire measuring 

 more than 1,500 m. from N. to S., 



