Connecting Places to the Inca World: Exploring the Significance of Capacocha -Related Offerings at Lake Titicaca and Pachacamac
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The Incas territorial expansion process was motivated not only by ideological, political, and economic factors but also involved the ritual integration of ancient sanctuaries through capacocha offerings. Notable examples include the Sacred Rock (Roca Sagrada) of the Island of the Sun (Lake Titicaca) and the Oracle of Pachacamac (Lurín Valley). The antiquity of these two sanctuaries, combined with their roles as destinations for imperial-scale pilgrimages during the Inca period, underscore their significance and uniqueness and the role of the capacocha ritual to connecting places into the Inca world. The material correlates associated with numerous capacocha rituals recorded in the Andes demonstrate that this ritual adhered to standardized conventions and criteria. The canonical archaeological remains of capacocha are characterized by human sacrifices and specific offerings, particularly anthropomorphic figurines made of precious metals or Spondylus . The absence of human corpses in certain contexts can be attributed to taphonomic factors but also to ritual adaptations specific to the locations where they were discovered. In this article, we develop this adaptive model for two of the major sites of Inca cosmology: Lake Titicaca and Pachacamac, emphasizing their close connection to Cuzco, the imperial capital and center of the Inca world.
Source: Latin American Antiquity
Authors: Christophe Delaere, Peter Eeckhout
Institution: Université Libre de Bruxelles
Language: English
Subfield: Visual Arts and Performing Arts
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7126021974