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The Incas created the largest Empire in pre-Columbian Americas, called Tahuantinsuyu with the capital in Cusco, dating to the end of the 13th century until 1572 CE. The crucial role in the social organization in PreColumbian Andes was held by the sacred landscape and the relation between the peoples and the gods (huacas). The Incas had to consult all important religious, political, military, and economic matters with deities and dead ancestors. The most important huacas in the Andes were the mountain peaks. They were the center of local religiosity and were frequently believed to represent mythical ancestors, thereby supporting the identity of the local groups. To sustain control over conquered lands, the Incas introduced a new ritual capacocha.

Map of the Inca Empire (Tawantinsuyu) showing marked volcanoes and sites where Capacocha victims were discovered (Besom 2009), along with a view of the walls of the Temple of the Sun (Coricancha) in Cusco.

Capacocha was one of the most important rituals performed in the Inca Empire, in which children and young women were sacrificed. According to the chroniclers, the victims were supposed to come from the provincial elite and be beautiful and unblemished. Capacocha sacrifices were made during important events related to the life of the Imperial court, related to the local natural calamities (such as earthquakes, drought, volcano eruption, and epidemics), and cyclical holidays (such as summer and winter solstice). Capacochas were sacrificed to the most important deities in the Inca Empire, Viracocha, Inti (the Sun), Mama Quilla (the Moon), and Illapa (god of thunder and rain). In the provinces, capacocha was performed for the local huacas, often identified with mountain summits.

Incas sacrificing children to the deities Pitusiray, Sahuasiray (1), Coropuna (2) and Pachacamac (3) from the chronicle of Guaman Poma de Ayala 1980 [1613].

The capacocha ritual was performed at various sacred sites throughout the Inca Empire, including the capital city of Cuzco, Pachacamac, and the Island of the Sun on Lake Titicaca. However, the sacrificial victims associated with these rituals have not been definitively identified at these locations to this day and are known only from chroniclers’ accounts.

The first archaeological contexts of capacocha were discovered accidentally by travelers, mountaineers, or looters. The first capacocha burial was found by the German traveler Wagner at the end of the 19th century on the summit of Chachani in Peru. Two more were discovered in the early 20th century—on Chañi in 1905 and on Chuscha in 1921—in what is now Argentina. Capacocha sacrifices were also uncovered on Isla de la Plata in present-day Ecuador. In 1954, a mummy of an eight-year-old boy was found near the summit of El Plomo. In 1963, a burial of a young woman, along with the remains of ceremonial architecture, was discovered on Pichu Pichu in southern Peru. In 1976, the bodies of two girls (aged 9 and 18–20) were found during road construction on Cerro Esmeralda in northern Chile, and in 1985, climbers found the body of a 7–8-year-old boy on Aconcagua.

Subsequent discoveries of high-altitude capacocha burials in Peru, Chile, and Argentina were made by Johan Reinhard and his team. In September 1995, he and his climbing partner, Miguel Zárate, discovered the first frozen mummy of an Inca girl on the summit of Ampato. Between 1995 and 1999, Reinhard and José Antonio Chávez conducted several expeditions into the mountains of Peru and Argentina, which led to the discovery of additional human sacrifices on (or near) the summits of Ampato, Pichu Pichu, Misti, Sara Sara, Quehuar, and Llullaillaco. In total, human remains belonging to 20 individuals, ranging in age from approximately 3.5 to 15 years, have been found.

The aim of this project is an analysis of components of the capacocha ritual to recognize its religious, social, and political role in exercising power by the state. The primary object of study is to determine the development and density of the architecture associated with the veneration of the mountain in southern Peru during Inca times. The important aspect of the project is the accessibility of the ritual and the ethnic identity of the pilgrims and victims. According to chronicles, the capacocha procession consisted of the victims, priests, family of the victims, Inca nobles, who formed the permanent core of the procession, and local groups that changed along the route. The number of goods named by chroniclers and compared with archaeological findings suggests that most of the goods carried by the pilgrimage attendants were not designated to be buried with the victims. Based on the chronicle sources, feast and accompanying redistribution of the goods could be important reasons for the capacocha performance. The feasts could be celebrated in the main shrines of the mountains, or at the last roadway stations (tambos) located at the cordillera ecozone above 4800 m asl. High-mountain tambos were noted by the archaeologists but were never objects of the complex investigation. The survey of the three tambos located on Pichu Pichu, Chachani, and Misti volcanos conducted by the project leader and her team, revealed the existence of great plazas dedicated to feast, and an upper section with better masonries that could house high-ranking pilgrims and victims.

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