Bronze
altar (or breastplate) from Tiahuanaco with the Cretan spiral
and the arrangement of two animals at the sides of a higher
centerpiece, which is characteristic of the Old World civilization
of Luristan, just north of Sumer.
Much Peruvian
skill in their early days went into the development of an irrigation
system along the dry coastal belt. Here they deflected the rivers
taking the water that ran westwards from the Andes to develop
rich agricultural areas out of the rainless sand. They commonly
did this with the aid of irrigation canals. However, they also
tapped underground waters by digging into the sloping ground
horizontal wells called guanats. Theses were long tunnels with
frequent vertical shafts for ventilation. This very specialised
system for collecting water is used in the Middle East to this
day.
Tradition
held that the Incas were red or brown-haired. Being red-haired
was a characteristic of certain sea-people and was totally foreign
to American Indians. According to legend, when the first Inca,
Manko-Kapak, appeared in Lake Titicaca he declared himself,
atavistically, King of the ‘Four-Corners of the Earth’.
Corresponding to this in the Old World was the king’s title,
‘Lord of the Four Regions of the Earth’.
Both Sumerians
and Incan places a metal disc or obol in the mouth of a corpse.
Artificial tears of various materials were placed on the face-covering
of mummy-masks in South America as in Egypt.
Carbon dating
has given a precision to the prehistory of Peru previously lacking
and has pushed back the dates now given to the commencement
of certain technical developments fixing them many years earlier
than had previously been claimed.
Edward P.
Lanning, in his book Peru before the Incas, gives us
the picture of what recent research has found. For the firs
cultivation of cotton in America he gives, as we have seen,
the date of 3600 B.C. in Central Peru and 3400 B.C. in Southern
Mexico.
The mummies
in the dry parts of South America were allowed to dry out. In
the damper parts, they were eviscerated and treated with resin
and oil, as in ancient Egypt.
The Peruvians
also used cups, plates, spoons and goblets, as in the Old World.
From The
God-Kings & The Titans by James Bailey
