Ushnu

The truncated pyramids and the circular pillar with a basin−pit system found during the archaeological surveys in Caral date back to the Andean preceramic period (8000 to 1800 BCE) and represent mountain and water cult symbols. After passing through the Chavín culture in the Early Horizon (1000 to 200 BCE) and the Tiwanaku culture in the Middle Horizon (600 to 1000 CE) they might have become the Inca ushnu. Pedro Cieza de León, Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala According to the chronicle of Francisco de Xerez (spelt Bilcas Guaman capac nan) The earliest depictions of ushnus are found in the drawing by Guamán Poma de Ayala (1615) at folios 240, 242, 386 and 400. They are found in Cajamarca, Cusco and Vilcashuamán and he calls them usno while representing them as truncated step pyramids. (1877), and Charles Wiener (1880). (1880) (1847) ==Origin of the name==

Little is known of the Quechua root of the term ushnu. The Quechua−Spanish dictionaries were produced since a few years after the conquest by the Spaniards and they include the word ushnu although written with obsolete spelling. It includes the term ozño with the meaning of «altar for sacrifices where they sacrifice» • The dictionary by Diego González Holguín was published in 1609 and gives the translation of vsnu (u and v were written with the same character) in two different ways, underlining two possible uses: «Judge's Court [made of] stone stuck in the ground» and «Cairn when it is a large stuck stone» • In 1612 the Aymara dictionary by Ludovico Bertonio describes the tern hushnu as «an altar as it is seen in the punas» • The priest Cristóbal de Albornoz at the end of the 16th century in his instructions for discovering idolatry describes the ushnu as follows: «there is another waka (sacred place/shrine) called usno on royal roads and in the squares of the settlements» • According to Catherine Allen, professor emeritus of Anthropology at the George Washington University and to R. Tom Zuidema, late anthropologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, states that in the Department of Ancash the contemporary word ushnu refers to «a place made of stones where water can filter» to the ground. This meaning was then extended to «a place where liquids were offered or place of libations». • Moreover, Pino Matos states that the name ushnu was first proposed in 1965 by the Peruvian anthropologist Manuel Chávez Ballón during a project carried out by the Institute of Andean Research and directed by John Victor Murra. He suggested that the ceremonial platform in the center of the Huánuco Pampa plaza had to be called ushnu according to the local Quechua pronunciation. Then starting from the 1970s the term was currently used by the archaeologist to name altars and platforms existing in the Inca settlements. The ushnu existing in Cusco used to be a place of ceremonial offers, where the liquid poured as an offer into an upper container could drain down to avoid spilling: this way the deity to whom the liquids were offered appeared to be drinking. When the ushnus were built in the new conquered areas, where they adopted the physical form of platforms or pyramids, a drainage was emplaced together with a stairway and in some cases a seat on the top. ==Uses of the ushnu==

The different uses of the ushnus can be summarized as follows ==Structure ==

Except the Cusco ushnu, which was never described by the chronicles as a platform, practically all the other masonry ushnus are platforms either stepped or in a truncated pyramid shape. On the contrary the natural carved stone may have very different shapes depending on the original rock outcrop, with one common point: the seat or throne on top of it. • Bauer says it is «a platform as a truncated pyramid with an access or a stairway to reach its top where a seat or a stone block may exist». • Cavero Palomino gives a more detailed definition: «an architectural structure with rectangular plan having up to four over-posed platforms that have an access in the frontal part and had different functions according to the place in which they were built». • Gasparini & Margolies define the ushnu form the architectural point of view as «The Usñu [their spelling] was a five-tiered pyramid or simply a rectangular elevation where the Inca —in other cases the governor—sat to govern and judge. It seems that the Usñu was the symbol of power and government of the Incas in the conquered towns» • Last but not least Zuidema tries to provide a different view, based on the function: the ushnu «is basin or fountain associated to a gnomon which can be considered the axis mundi (axis of the Earth) for the cult of ancestors, the wakas (shrines, scared places) and other deities of the Andean cosmic world» ==World view and unification==

For the Incas, the world was composed of three planes: • , the world above • , the world here and • , the world of the dead and of what lies beneath the surface of the ground. In Quechua the word pacha means both time and space. Thus the Sapa Inca or his representative, on top of the ushnu, was seating in a central position connecting all the sacred ceques directions. This represented a three-dimensional and a temporal connection between the world below and the surface, with an eye to the sky. Hyslop states that the ushnus were a form to unite the Inca capital to the provincial and administrative centers of the empire. This strategy was working through the Capacocha ceremonies (rites that might involve also the sacrifice of children) which took place on top of or beside the ushnus and «connected the point of sacrifice with the child's origin by straight routes». The ushnu as a well recognizable character of Inca architecture represented one of the main symbols of the central power in peripheral settlements and administrative centers. As a sort of theatricality of power the ushnu was intended to produce a uniform collective consciousness that allowed all person subjected to the Inca to feel connected to the astral deities and to the sacred places. This was primarily intended to ensure ideological domination over the multitudes of newly subjugated peoples in the recently conquered territories. ==Notable ushnus==

There are hundreds of ushnu in the territory of the former Inca empire, many of them have been excavated and described in archaeological publication. Several have been restored and others are being considered for further research especially under the Qhapaq Ñan carried out by the (Ministry of Culture) in Peru. Cusco The main square of Cusco roughly corresponding to the modern and was divided by the river Saphi into two sub-squares called Haucaypata (Hawkaypata) or square of the rest and happiness and Cusipata (Kusipata) or square of the joy. It was also the limit between hanan (upper) and hurin (lower) Cusco. It had an important ritual role and hosted the religious festivals held during the year. This concept is underlined by Zuidema who considers the ushnu as a gate to the Earth that sucks in the rainwater and the offerings. The presence of the river just under the ushnu allowed this opening to function properly. In the 17th century the descriptions of the Cuzco ushnu differ enormously from the chronicles of the preceding century. Thus, Guamán Poma de Ayala The ushnu was also an observation point of the Sun. whose center was the Coricancha (temple of the Sun). This system was composed of a series of ritual imaginary pathways leading outward from Cusco into the territory of the Inca Empire. All along the ceque lines huacas (shrines, sacred places) were found corresponding to spots of ceremonial, ritual, or religious significance. The system was divided into four sectors towards the four provinces which composed the Inca empire and each province had a given number of lines. The first huaca of the fifth ceque of Antisuyu was in the main square and was mentioned as usnu by Polo de Ondegardo (Spanish colonial jurist, civil servant and thinker). It was finely carved to produce seats, niches, drainage channels, basins, and animal shapes. It is regarded as, possibly, the largest existing ushnu. In the south central part of the plaza stands the ushnu. Its shape is that of a single body slightly pyramidal truncated platform with a square plan and a height of . It has an access through the west side front, formed by a stone stairway with 9 steps, which leads to a trapezoidal opening placed in the center of the façade. A bench with stone walls filled with mortar and a seat made of flat slates can be observed on the northern sector of the platform. The construction process of the ushnu is part of an accurate planning of the plaza. Its walls are double with mud filling inside and their blocks were extracted and transported alternately from the nearby hill and river. Before their placement, the stones underwent rudimentary percussion work in order to adapt them to imitate the typical Cusco stonework. This ushnu appears to be the largest built to the South of Cusco. Its measures are a visible sign of the importance of this settlement. According to the Inka ideology, the ushnu was the conceptual scenario where power and alliances between leaders were assumed and consummated. According to Raffino and colleagues it is more than likely that about one hundred years after the end of the Inca empire, the members of the indigenous rebellion of 1630-1636 used El Shincal and specifically its ushnu to consolidate their power in search of a rehabilitation of indigenous rights. This tends to confirm that during the uprising, the symbolism of the Inca ushnu in the local ideology had not yet ended. == Further reading ==