386 ■ Philip Ainsworth Means, 



In South America, what do we find? We find a series of cul- 

 tures following one another in logical succession. We find that 

 the earliest are the most like the Middle American cultures. 

 We find, besides, two independent criteria which enable us to 

 build up an approximate chronology. Each will be described in 

 turn. 



The list of "kings" of Peru given by Fernando Montesinos 

 on the authority of Bias Valera has only lately begun to receive 

 the attention it merits.® While it emphatically cannot be accepted 

 as real history, it is, nevertheless, important as indicating that 

 popular legend in the time of the Incas preserved the memory 

 of many generations of rulers. Counting the Incas, the ''kings" 

 on the list number 102. Markham, an accomplished historian in 

 other fields as well as in the Peruvian, considers that 27 years is 

 a fair average for the length of a reign. Accepting this in its 

 totality for the nonce, we find that the list of rulers is thought 

 by Montesinos to cover a period of 2,754 years, or, in other 

 words, that the first ruler flourished about 1224 B. C. (1530 A. D. 

 minus 2,754). This date, then, is the very earliest that even 

 Montesinos is willing to accept. Everyone will agree that this 

 date is hardly tenable. As Markham says (1912, p. 41), we 

 must allow for repetitions, overlappings and other errors. Let 

 us, then, be conservative and consider that there were but seventy 

 reigns. This gives us about 1,900 years as the period covered 

 by the list, and it puts the earliest ruler about 350 B. C. Sir 

 Clements Markham (loc. cit.) prefers the initial date 200 B. C. 

 We may say, then, that in all probability, the earliest "king" of 

 Tiahuanaco I (it was of the moimtain races that Montesinos 

 wrote) flourished about 200 B. C. Probably, however, culture 

 was low and local for many generations. We find that the 

 "first dynasty" of Montesinos is frequently marked by the name 

 Pirua. It consists of eighteen rulers. Let us call it fifteen; 

 15 X 27 = 405 years; or, in other words, the Pirua "dynasty" 

 came to a close about 200 A. D. Was not this perhaps the end 

 of the Tiahuanaco I period? The next "dynasty" is marked by 

 the name Amauta in many cases. Montesinos gives it forty-five 

 rulers. Let us call it thirty; 30X27 = 810; this brings us 



* Montesinos, 1840, 1882 ; Markham, 1912, p. 303 ff. 



