Il6 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



been dug from them and are exhibited in museums in all parts of the 

 world. Archeology as well as historical documents left by the con- 

 quistadores evince an extraordinarily great and powerful native popu- 

 lation. The ancient cities, which are built of adobe on the coast and 

 are so numerous as to be local commonplaces, are many times larger 

 than those of any North American Indians, their tumbled walls often 

 covering scores of acres. The rooms, enclosures and mounds of Caja- 

 marquilla, for example, a small portion of which appears in figure 120, 

 occupy a square mile. Cajamarquilla is not only astonishing for its 

 magnitude but has the peculiar interest, according to some local 

 authorities, of having been built for the dead, not the living. The 

 deceased were elaborately interred in the floor of each room. 



Highland construction was primarily of stone, and many of the 

 sites are renowned for the size of the building- blocks and the skill 

 with which they were fitted (fig. 121). Modern Cuzco, which prior to 

 the conquest was long a center of Inca and pre-Inca civilization, has 

 today scarcely a building the walls of which do not include the masonry 

 of some prehistoric period. The Convento de Santo Domingo, for 

 example (fig-. 122), has incorporated the complete Inca Sun Temple, 

 famous in history for allegedly having been filled two-thirds full with 

 gold as the ransom demanded by Pizarro for the release of the Inca 

 whom he had treacherously captured. 



No less interesting than the ruins are the evidences of prehistoric 

 agriculture. In these days of discussion and controversy about such 

 agrarian matters as dust bowls and marginal land, it is astonishing to 

 view the extensive land-utilization of ancient Peru. The pressure of 

 that huge population which had made possible the construction of 

 cities, temples, and mounds, and which is reckoned to have surpassed 

 the present population in size, required utilization of land which today 

 would be considered less than submarginal. Miles of steep and arid 

 mountainsides were laboriously terraced and water carried for leagues 

 in aqueducts to provide a few extra acres of arable land. 



Thanks must be extended to innumerable officials and scientists of 

 both Ecuador and Peru and to many other friends for their kindness 

 and helpfulness on this trip. 



