A BEAUTIFULLY DECORATED STONE DISK, CARVED OUT OE A SINGLE PIECE OF STONE 



Found in many pieces widely scattered over the ridge near the Snake Rock and the 

 Three Window Temple, undoubtedly pre-Inca and possibly a remnant of the earliest folk 

 who built the pre-Inca structures at Machu Picchu. i/^ natural size. 



distinct styles, probably separated several 

 centuries in development — an earlv pe- 

 riod when the city was small and the 

 structures remarkably fine (one of the 

 finest of which is a masonry wall con- 

 taining three large windows), and a sec- 

 ond period when the structures are of 

 late Inca design, and many of them built 

 on top of ancient terraces and ancient 

 walls ; second, in the pottery we likewise 

 have, in the more recent burial caA'es, 

 Inca-style pottery, and in the excavations 

 in the more ancient part of the citA^ dif- 

 ferent and earlier types of pottery ; third, 

 in the more ancient part of the city, 

 near the Sacred Plaza and the Snake 

 Rock, we find a large number of prob- 

 lematical stone objects or "record stones" 

 not found in the burial caves with the 

 Inca pottery, and whose use does not ap- 

 pear to have been known to the Incas. 

 Finally, if we add to these facts the 

 skeletal evidence, and remember that the 

 bones of the most ancient inhabitants and 

 the builders of the town have probably 

 long since disappeared, and that the re- 

 mains found in good condition in the bur- 

 ial caves must be those of the more recent 

 inhabitants, and remember that these turn 

 out to be chiefly the skeletons of women, 

 some of whom are pronounced to be of 

 the coast types, we are ready to arrive 

 at the conclusion that Alachu Picchu has 

 had two periods of occupancy, and in its 

 last state is probably the place referred 

 to by Calancha as "A'ilcabamba the Old," 

 where the Inca treasured the remains of 

 his religion, restored the University of 

 Idolatry, and kept the Virgins of the Sun 



who had escaped from the ravages of the 

 Spanish Conquerors. 



An examination of the walls of the 

 houses shows that the town was enlarged 

 by the Incas to accommodate its increased 

 population. An examination of the re- 

 sults of excavation shows that the three- 

 windowed temple and its vicinity be- 

 longed to a far earlier period than the 

 east part of the city and the burial caves,, 

 in short probably to the end of the mega- 

 lithic period. 



ABL^NDAXT COXFIRINIATION 



The archeological evidence (the arti- 

 facts, the pottery, and the bones), com- 

 bined with the historical evidence in the 

 incidents brought out by Montesinos, 

 Salcamayhua, and Calancha, besides the 

 testimony of the old men who gave their 

 evidence in the time of the Viceroy Fran- 

 cisco de Toledo, confirms us in the belief 

 that at ]\Iachu Picchu we have the ruins 

 of Tampu-tocco and, superimposed on 

 them, the ruins of Vilcabamba the Old. 



Surely INIachu Picchu, which has made 

 such a strong- appeal to us on account of 

 its striking- beauty and the grandeur of 

 its surroundings, appears to have had a 

 most interesting- history. Selected as the 

 place of refuge for the last of the mega- 

 lithic kings ; chosen as the site for the 

 capital of the little kingdom which their 

 followers set up, and where they reigned 

 for six or seven hundred years ; aban- 

 doned when Cuzco once more flashed 

 into glory as the capital of the great 

 Inca Empire, it was again sought out in 

 time of trouble when the foreign invader 



i8.= 



