The mummies of the Inca rulers, their history, and the mystery of their current whereabouts are one of the most interesting chapters in the study of the Tawantinsuyu. In Hanan, we are going to compile and review everything we know about Inca mummies in two chapters. This is the first of them, where we will look at their history and importance in Inca society. In the second, we will talk about their disappearance and destruction starting in the 16th century and subsequent efforts to find them, including, of course, current efforts. The first contact the Spaniards had with an Inca mummy was accidental. It occurred in 1533 when Pedro del Barco and Martín Bueno went to Inca Cusco to supervise the first shipments of gold to Cajamarca in the context of Atahualpa’s ransom. The chronicler Cristóbal de Mena narrated that when they were in the Coricancha removing pieces of gold, they saw two mummies together in a room. With them was a woman with a gold mask who cleaned them of dust and shooed away flies. Months later, they would have other encounters with Inca mummies. At the end of that same year, when they arrived in Cusco and raised Manco Inca as ruler, they saw that a series of bundles, as they called them, were placed in the great plaza to witness the ceremony along with a large entourage. But the relevance and social function of the Inca mummies would become increasingly evident. Shortly after his appointment, Manco Inca gathered an army to set out in pursuit of General Quisquis. Before departing for the military campaign, one of the Inca captains begged Francisco Pizarro to intercede for him to convince a great lord to give him one of his relatives as a wife. For some reason, Francisco Pizarro delegated this task to his cousin Pedro Pizarro, the author of the chronicle through which we know this fact. Pedro Pizarro believed he was going to speak with someone alive, but they took him to what he termed the bundle of a dead man. On one side sat a man, and on the other, a woman. When Pedro Pizarro delivered the message through an interpreter, the man and the woman looked at each other in silence, nodded , and responded affirmatively on behalf of the mummy they had between them. Events like this made the Spaniards understand that the nature of Inca mummies was not limited to just paying homage to their deceased rulers, but was an institution upon which a good part of the family economy of the Inca elites and the politics of the Tawantinsuyu was founded. The preservation of Inca bodies was a right of the elites, and those bodies preserved after their death were called mallquis. According to the chronicles, the malkis were embalmed and very well-preserved bodies. They wore fine clothing and the distinctive accessories they had when they were living Inca rulers. In place of eyes, they had gold pieces and were seated on a litter or on their Inca-style chair called a Tijana. Bernabé Cobo described that when the malkis were stored, their faces were covered with a thick cotton cloth. When an Inca ruler died, his body was preserved and kept in a sort of fiction of life. The treatment a ruler received after death was intended to be as close as possible to the treatment he received in life. Not only did they symbolically receive the food and drink they liked in life, but they were also dressed according to the same Inca codes, which included daily changes of clothing, and they were even bundled up or uncovered depending on whether they were thought to be feeling hot or cold. Logically, the duties of government passed to the successor. However, the malki of a deceased Sapa Inca or ruler could fulfill the role of an advisor, whose opinions were transmitted through spokespeople, who were usually a man and a woman from that same Sapa Inca's lineage. In fact, deceased rulers kept their lands, crops, and servants, and these were managed by their own panaca or royal descent group. Thus, his successor inherited practically nothing and had to found his own panaca and acquire new servants, lands, and riches . Apparently, the Malkis occupied the dwellings without enclosures where they used to live and where their panaca still resided. Some sources detailed that they were commonly kept in the Coricancha, but perhaps they resided there only at certain times of the year , or perhaps that applied only to the malkis of Urin Cusco, while those of Hanan Cusco resided in their family enclosures. This would be in line with the fact that we have no clues to the existence of Inca palaces of the Urin Cusco Panacas, with the only exception being that of Manco Capac, whose palace was located in Colcampata, near the current church of San Cristóbal in Cusco. Behind each malki was an entire economy of labor and production that served for the maintenance of the deceased Inca, as well as to supply him with the food that he consumed symbolically when it was burned in front of him. This economy also served for the feeding and sustenance not only of the Malki, but also of the entire panaca, its workers, servants, and yanaconas. A mummy's source of wealth not only came from the direct workers of its panaca, but also relied on the tributary labor it received from the ethnic groups it had conquered in life. This would also explain why the Hurin mummies did not have vast lands, palaces, or servants, since they had not conquered much during their lifetimes. The daily sustenance of the Mallqui, their panaca, and their workforce was especially resource-intensive due to a series of daily rituals in which they had to participate. The most important consisted of the daily care of the body , an activity handled by a select group of women. Among these care tasks was keeping away the insects that plagued the mummies, just as Pedro del Barco and Martín Bueno saw on their first trip to Cusco. Another daily ritual consisted of a communal lunch held in the great plaza of Cusco, Huacaypata. There, the reigning Inca or his representative would toast with the mallquis from all the panacas, who were brought out to have their symbolic lunch. The members of the panacas and their yanaconas, or servants, also ate lunch during this daily ceremony. During these events, the Inca mummies remained within sight of the general population. One of these scenes is illustrated on a quero preserved in the Museum of the Americas in Madrid and was documented by researcher Alicia Alonso Sagaceta in her publication "The Inca Mummies: Their Function and Social Reality." In addition to the daily lunch, another particularly labor-intensive rite was the daily changing of the Mallquis 'clothes, a task that required the production of significant quantities of fine textiles called cumpi. Beyond the daily ceremonies, the mallquis also participated in major events of the Inca Cusco. Chronicles described their participation in certain annual ceremonies, although they do not always agree on which ones those were. However , one of the most prominent ceremonies where we have no doubt of their presence was the Huarachicuy, the initiation ritual for the young nobles or "orejones." There, the mallquis were brought out to drink alongside the young men who were being consecrated into the Inca warrior elite. Another ceremony in which we are certain of their participation was the Ayarca Raimi, celebrated during what corresponds to our month of November, where all the dead were honored, including the mallquis themselves. The political relevance and influence of the Inca mummies were such that they were present at historical or extraordinary ceremonies, like the naming of a new Sapa Inca. The first record of this was made by Pedro Cieza de León regarding the appointment of Manco Inca in Cusco, when the Inca mummies and their relatives were among the guests of honor at said ceremony. The participation of the mallquis in the Inca state was not merely symbolic; it actually exerted real political influence. Through their spokespeople, a man and a woman made known their desires and stances on major family or state decisions. One such aspect was, for example, their consent or refusal regarding marriages of women from their panaca, as we saw in the initial anecdote told by Pedro Pizarro. But there are other examples, such as Huascar, who, when he wanted to ask for Cuxirimay Ocllo, had to send lavish gifts to the malki of Tupa Yupanqui, the grandfather of the intended woman and founder of her panaca. When a Sapa Inca passed away, he was divested of a good portion of his organs. Some of them were preserved in his wauques, which were statues crafted to represent them even while they were alive. Often, these wauques were endowed with the nails or hair of the Sapa Inca. If he died, he could allocate a portion of his vital organs to the wauke, as in the case of Huayna Capac, whose heart was placed in his wauke in Quito. The function of these statuettes could be summarized as the need to multiply the presence of the Sapa Inca in different parts of the Tawantinsuyu and thereby gain more control and closeness to the masses. The wauques were huacas. That is to say, sacred idols and subjects of worship. But the malkis themselves were as well, which is why they occasionally received sacrifices and offerings. However, the cult of the malkis and their institutionalized preservation, in the form we know today, only occurred from the reign of Pachacuti onward, not from the beginning of the Inca Empire. As chroniclers Juan de Betanzos and Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa narrated, Pachacuti ordered that deceased Incas be exhumed to be embalmed. This would explain why the Spanish chroniclers who came to see the malkis noted the deterioration of the oldest ones. It is likely that their deterioration was due not only to their greater age but also to the fact that their embalming took place many decades after their deaths. The preservation technique for the malkis consisted of removing the main internal organs and superficially applying oils or resins, like those reported by chroniclers Jose de Acosta and Garcilaso de la Vega. Both managed to see the Inca mummies with their own eyes. Researcher Alicia Alonso Sagaseta indicated that the proper hydration and constant hygiene of the bodies would have helped their good preservation. These actions manifested, among other things, in the daily change of clothing already mentioned, a practice that helped prevent the proliferation of parasites or larvae. It is possible that these resins used to preserve the skin were natural antiseptics, like those obtained from the molle tree, a very abundant native species in the Andes. It is also possible that the preservation formula included minerals like iron or manganese oxide. Both were found in ancient mummies and were possibly also used by the Incas. In any case, we still have no way to confirm these hypotheses, as the Malqui preservation technique was secret. Garcilaso de la Vega revealed that the Incas were reluctant to give details about it to the Spaniards who tried to inquire about it. At the same time, he regretted not having delved into it himself, believing that because of his Inca ancestry, they would have allowed him to know. Today we know that in the Andes, body preservation was a practice much older than the Incas themselves, but we do not know much about how those bodies were treated in their time. The Moche, for example, built luxurious tombs for their rulers, which were later forgotten and lost for centuries, which gave them more chances of being found in modern times. For their part, the mummies of the Paracas and Nazca were buried in underground caverns. The Wari had funeral bundles preserved in their buildings, and the Tiwanaku preserved them with copper wire ropes wrapped around them. When Pachacuti, who was young and defending Cusco from the Chancas, was able to see how his adversaries treated the mummies of their ancestral founders as if they were still alive. Uscovilca and Huancovilca were carried on litters, even to the front lines of battle. Perhaps this influenced his later decision to establish the cult of the Malquis and the "unearthing," in quotation marks, of the ancient sovereigns. Practically all Inca rulers and their Coya, or principal wives, were mummified. Chroniclers Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa and Bernabé Cobo have chapters dedicated to the life and work of each Inca ruler, and at the end of each chapter, they detailed what was known about their mummies at that time. The exception to the rule was precisely the oldest ruler, Manco Cápac, the ancestral founder who was never embalmed. According to Bernabé Cobo’s informants, when he died his body was petrified, so a richly attired stone statuette was considered by the Incas to be Manco Cápac himself. Starting with his successor, Sinchi Roca, we only then have records of flesh-and-blood mummies. Probably all the ancient rulers, from Sinchi Roca to Yahuar Huacac, were preserved according to ancient custom. Although the Spanish referred directly to burials, it is most likely that it was a form of archaic preservation. The burial probably refers more to being kept in a fixed place away from public view than to being underground. Perhaps the ancient preservation was similar to that of Tiwanaku and without very advanced body preservation techniques. This would explain why chroniclers reported that the oldest malquis were found between copper crowbars and cabuya fiber. Coincidentally, in a kero portrait of a ceremonial lunch, the malky appears to be wrapped in ropes like the setiaco. It was already mentioned that the modern Inca preservation custom was established by Pachacutec. This new provision would arrive too late for the mummies of the Uring dynasty, but in time for the vast majority of the Hanan dynasty mummies. Thus, Viracocha Inca, who was alive during the time of Pachacutec, would have been the first Inca ruler embalmed under the new technique. We do not know very well how malquis were treated in times prior to Pachacutec, but it is likely that their political influence was similar to later times. The daily routine of the Inca mummies was described at length by the chroniclers. We have discussed the main daily rituals and their participation in festivities, but beyond solemn ceremonies, the malquis also took part in the most human activities we could imagine. For instance, it was common for them to visit each other, as in the scene witnessed by Pedro del Barco and Martin Bueno, the first Spaniards to arrive in Cusco. They also tended to request that celebrations be held with dance and drink, in line with the human behaviors attributed to the malquis. There is the story that reached us thanks to the native chronicler Santa Cruz Pachacuti, who said that Huascar's mother, Rahua Ocllo, married Huayna Capac only when he arrived in Cusco as a malky, and she did so to give her son greater legitimacy as a possible successor to the mascapaicha. Regarding their political influence, we can delve into their roles as huacas or sacred oracles with their own voice that advised the acting rulers. So it is likely that they competed over which malky gave the best advice. We can only imagine how much influence the malkis, and deep down, the panacas, had on the most important decisions of the State. Precisely that political weight made them a sort of State power with great influence and demand for resources. When Huascar was raised as Sapa Inca, he began to view with concern the amount of resources and political loyalties that moved around the malquis . As Pedro Pizarro recounted, before the events that pushed him to confront his brother Atahualpa, Huascar hinted that he would have the malquis buried because he should rule for the living and not for the dead. This stance was one of many reasons Hascar began to lose political support in the Tantino, so that unpopularity became one of the main disadvantages he had to deal with during the fratricidal war. It could be said that the destruction of the Inca rulers' mummies began precisely when the civil war ended. The soldiers of Quisquis and Chalcochima captured Hascar and occupied Cuzco. The fury of their armies drove them to lash out at one of the main collaborators of Hascar’s cause, the Kapayu, the panaca of Tupa Hupangi. The Kapayu's affinity with Wascar likely originated after his marriage to Chucki Wispy, who was Tupa Hupanki's granddaughter. Following this political support, Atahualpa seemed to intend to erase the panaca not only from the present, but also from the past, burning kipus and inciting a genocide of kipucamayos dedicated to recording the deeds of Tupa Hiupanki. The northern army’s cruelty concluded with the destruction and incineration of the malky of Tupaf Yupki, along with many objects linked to him, including the loot he brought from his long and mysterious maritime journey. After the dire incident, Tupa Yupanki's ashes were collected and preserved in a jar that his devotees continued to worship and offer sacrifices to. When Hascar was being taken from Cuzco to Cajamarca as a prisoner, he was executed on Atahualpa's orders. According to the chronicles, he was quartered and thrown into a river without undergoing any type of mummification. His rival brother, Atahualpa, did not survive long after this event. Shortly after giving that order, the events that led to his own death sentence were triggered. After his execution, Atahualpa received a Christian burial in Cajamarca, but when the Europeans began their march toward Cuzco, his body was exhumed and taken to Rumiñawi in Quito. Today, there is a hypothesis that his last known whereabouts were in the current province of Cotopaxi, in Ecuador. While this hypothesis is feasible, it still lacks conclusive evidence. In 1533, the Castilians arrived and occupied Cuzco, and from what we have read in the chronicles, they witnessed the daily lunches where the malquis participated, implying they had some tolerance for the mummies, at least initially. In the document of the first foundation of Cuzco, written on August 4, 1534, the true background behind that initial tolerance is specified. In said record, the distribution of Inca spaces to the first Castilians who decided to occupy the city was formalized. In one of its first pages, the document warns that at that time, Francisco Pizarro was in Jauja and that only 40 Spaniards had remained in the city, who were in great danger because they were very few and surrounded by many Indians, as the locals were called. Almost at the end of the document, after having detailed the entire distribution of houses and land, it was ordered that for the next 5 years, no Inca building or Inca storage facility be altered or destroyed. This was to avoid any Inca rebellion. But two years after the signing of that document, the rebellion broke out anyway. The mistreatment and abuses that the Castilians committed against the Inca elites, the general population, and above all the Inca himself, led to his uprising in 1536. The rebellion began with the flight of Manco Inca from Cusco and the organization of his armies in cities like Yucay, Tambo, or Vitcos. It is precisely in Vitcos where the mummies of Cusco, which the Incas had taken with them, sought refuge, and where Diego de Ordóñez, Diego de Almagro, and Gonzalo Pizarro managed to capture them around 1537. From there, we do not know much about the fate of the mummies , only that during the government of Vaca de Castro between 1541 and 1544, they were allegedly confiscated, but they did not disappear. After his government, Vaca de Castro faced a series of fiscal accusations, including illicit enrichment, corruption, and negligence regarding the conversion of the natives to Christianity. With this, it has been speculated that Vaca de Castro may have allowed the Incas to visit their ancestors in exchange for certain payments, and this could have been one of his many sources of illicit enrichment. Years later, Vaca de Castro would end up imprisoned for some years by the Castilian justice system. After that time, the malquis returned to the power of the Inca panacas, often hidden in palaces outside of Cusco. This was the case, for example, of Viracocha Inca, whose mummy was kept in what we now know as Juchuy Qosqo. When Gonzalo Pizarro led the encomendero rebellion in 1548, he passed through that place. Driven by greed and the expectation of finding great treasures next to the mummy, Gonzalo Pizarro located the body after torturing several local Incas and then ordered it burned there. That same year, Gonzalo Pizarro suffered his last military defeat at Jaquijahuana and was beheaded as a traitor by Spanish justice. Just like Tupac Yupanqui, the panaca of Viracocha Inca collected the ashes and kept them in a jar. From 1548 to 1558, the mummies of the Inca rulers that still remained intact experienced relative tranquility. However, the appointment of Juan Polo de Ondegardo as corregidor of Cuzco on December 2, 1558, marked the beginning of the end. With that event, the process of the disappearance of the malquis began, which we will see in the second part of this Inca mummy special, where the process of confiscation and disappearance of the malquis led by Polo de Ondegardo will be covered in depth. I want to thank Stefan Simendov, author of three important academic articles on the search for and identification of Inca mummies. He was kind enough to review the scripts for both videos and contribute valuable insights. He will be our special guest in part two of this special. You cannot miss it. Also, if you are interested in learning some extra facts about the topics covered in this video and other details about my creative process, I invite you to visit the Hanan website, where I have a special article on the subject. For the creation of this video , I have made over 100 illustrations and incurred some research expenses, such as the digitization of some folios from the General Archive of the Indies and their transcription by professional paleographers. If you would like to support me in this project, you can do so through a Patreon subscription, where you will also gain access to some exclusive content. You can also support me by purchasing some items from the Hanan online store, which are also visible on the website. If you would like to provide more specific support, I also have Plin and Yape QR codes that you can use. Thank you very much for watching, Hanan.