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Tribal Art : Spring 2010
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Inca: Origins and Mysteries of the Civilization of Gold
Magazines - Tribal Art Spring 2010
Inca: Origins and Mysteries of the Civilization of Gold
By Antonio Aimi
Introduction Several decades after the Conquest, in Comentarios Reales de los Incas, Garcilaso de la Vega el Inca described the buildings and temples of Cuzco: In every house, one could find gardens and orchards for Inca recreation. They planted all sorts of beautiful and stunning trees, flower beds, and gracious and aromatic plants; in fact, all the sorts that were in their kingdom, reproduced in gold and silver, life-size, whether large or small, with all their leaves, flowers, fruits: those that were beginning to bud, others that were almost mature, and still others that were fully grown … There were animals large and small, also cast of gold and silver, like rabbits, mice, lizards, snakes, butterflies, foxes, mountain cats, as they didn’t have domestic ones … There were birds of every kind … deer and daims, lions and tigers [i.e., pumas and jaguars], and all living animals, walking or flying, that inhabited the earth. |