A Survey of Ancient Peruvian Art. 337 



• 

 most of these objects come, was thought by Dr. Bingham to bej 

 Tampu Tocco, the "cradle" of the Incas. He also presented; 

 convincing evidence pointing to the fact that the city was Vilca- 

 bamba-the-Old, a celebrated sacerdotal establishment of the Incas 

 in post-conquest times.^^ It should be noted that the work of 

 Dr. Eaton has left very little doubt as to the modernity of this 

 site as compared with that of Tiahuanaco or Chimu. Every 

 class of object found there, every bit of osteological evidence, 

 points to the fact that Machu Picchu was built at some time 

 after the Incas had conquered the coast of Peru and had had 

 time enough to be affected by the influence of coast art.^^ Wc 

 are indebted, therefore, to the Yale Expedition for the unveiling 

 of a city which, though known to travelers for many years, has 

 never, until recently, been photographed and adequately described. 

 Machu Picchu is undoubtedly the most valuable site in the Cuzco 

 region, for it presents an epitome of all that the Incas knew of 

 art, architecture and engineering at a time when they were at 

 the zenith of their power. We shall, therefore, consider Macht^f " 

 Picchu pottery to be representative of all that the pottery of 1 

 late Inca Peru was, and we shall study it accordingly, assuming] 

 Machu Picchu pottery to be all that Cuzco pottery was in theU 

 last part of the Inca period. 



The characteristics, then, of Inca pottery as shown by the 

 Machu Picchu collections, are : ( i ) The predominance of almost 

 classically graceful shapes such as aryballi, pelikai, dishes, bowls 

 and so on. (2) The widespread and often-repeated use of cer- 

 tain fixed and definite geometric decorations. (3) The general 

 scarcity of anthropomorphic decoration. (4) The occasional 

 association of perfectly recognizable Cuzco shapes and decora- 

 tions with some element introduced from the coast, such as 

 modelled anthropomorphic handles on dishes or life-like butter- 

 flies painted on the bottoms of shallow bowls. (5) Cuzco pottery 

 is, in general, lighter in tone than either Tiahuanaco II or Proto- 

 Nasca. As has been said, pottery of a pure Cuzco type is found 

 from Ecuador to Chile.^^ In all this huge area a surprising 



^"Bingham, 1915, pp. 180 ff. 



'^Cf. Bingham, 1913, 1915, 1915b, 1916; Eaton, 1916; Dorsey, 1901, PI. 

 XLII; Joyce, 1912, p. 198; Uhle, 1903; Hrdlicka, 1916c. 



'^Cf. Bamps, 1879, Atlas; Saville, 1907-1910; Rivet, 1912; Oyarzun, 

 1910. 



