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About the disoccupation when discovered |
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The colonial occupation |
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In the excavations Bingham's team carried out in the caves where the dead were deposited in the Inca period, at least two contained remains from after the arrival of the Spanish: in one case (cave 100) what could have been an iron knife - very oxidized - was found; in another, a cow bone (cave 56) together with two peach pits, and, in yet another, the remains of a green glass bead (cave 84). Although they are sporadic finds and all of them come from excavations which were not under the control of an archaeologist, their presence there corroborates what the documents say regarding the site being part of a property assigned to the Spanish and that it had not "disappeared", as suggested by the mythology which arose after the 1911 discovery.
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The facts of not having found anything of gold and all the elegant tombs having been disoccupied point to assuming the destruction of Machu Picchu could have been a product of the campaign of extirpation of idolatry in the sixteenth century. We know the mummy of Pachakutec and those of the rest of the Cuzco sovereigns were taken out of their habitual places along with their treasures and hidden from the Spanish. The same thing happened with the mummies of the coyas - the "wives" of the Inca - and presumably also with those of other members of the court or panaca whose bodies accompanied the Inca in Macchu Picchu. The tombs found close to the main plaza, including one that was "in the shape of a bottle", were empty when Bingham explored. Also there were many caves in the sanctuary prepared as crypts, with fine walls and carved stones, all disoccupied. The only ones occupied by the dead and their meager offerings, were those which were outside the sacred space.
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