The Ceque System of Cusco and the Coricancha
The ceque system of Cusco was the sacred geography that organized the Inca capital and its surroundings into a precise calendrical and political diagram. According to the chronicler Bernabé Cobo in his 1653 Historia del Nuevo Mundo, the ceques were 41 lines that radiated outward from the Coricancha, the great Temple of the Sun in the center of Cusco, like the spokes of a wheel, passing through 328 huacas distributed across the landscape of the valley. Each ceque was associated with a particular kin group, called a panaca, and each huaca on a ceque was the responsibility of a particular family within that panaca, who were required to maintain the shrine and provide offerings at the prescribed times. The system was first reconstructed in detail by the American anthropologist Tom Zuidema in his 1964 monograph The Ceque System of Cuzco, which has remained the standard reference for the subject. The ceque system encoded in stone and shrine a cosmogonic history that the chroniclers also preserved in narrative form, and it formed a kind of state memory that was stored in the landscape itself.
The ceque system was, in essence, a form of record keeping that preceded the quipu and that served many of the same functions. The system encoded historical, genealogical, and ritual information in a form that could be read by priests trained in the appropriate oral tradition, and it formed a critical part of the sacred geography of the Andes and of the architecture of Cusco.
The Structure of the Ceque System
The ceque system was organized around the Coricancha, the great Temple of the Sun in the center of Cusco. The 41 ceques radiated outward from the temple in four groups, corresponding to the four quarters of the empire: Chinchaysuyu to the northwest, Antisuyu to the northeast, Collasuyu to the southwest, and Contisuyu to the southeast. The number of ceques in each quarter varied, with the largest number in Chinchaysuyu and the smallest in Antisuyu. Each ceque was a straight line, marked by a series of shrines, fountains, and other sacred features, that extended from the Coricancha to a point on the rim of the Cusco valley.
The 328 huacas on the ceques were of various types. Some were natural features, such as rocks, springs, and hills. Others were man-made structures, such as buildings, walls, and storage facilities. A third category consisted of huacas associated with astronomical phenomena, such as the points on the horizon where the sun rose or set at the solstices and equinoxes. Each huaca had a particular character, a particular set of offerings, and a particular calendrical date on which it was to be honored. The total system encoded a vast amount of information about the religious, calendrical, and political organization of the Inca state.
The ceque system was closely tied to the panacas, the royal lineages of Cusco. Each panaca was responsible for one or more ceques, and the members of the panaca were required to maintain the shrines and provide the offerings on the prescribed days. The largest panaca, that of the reigning Sapa Inca, was responsible for the most ceques, and the smaller panacas of the deceased emperors were responsible for the rest. The system thus served to distribute the religious obligations of the royal lineages across the landscape and to ensure that the shrines were maintained by families with a long-term interest in their proper upkeep.
Zuidema’s Reconstruction and Its Significance
The ceque system was first reconstructed in detail by the American anthropologist Tom Zuidema in his 1964 monograph, which has remained the standard reference for the subject. Zuidema worked from the chronicle of Cobo, supplemented by the accounts of other chroniclers, and he produced a detailed map of the ceque system and a comprehensive analysis of its structure and significance. His reconstruction has been confirmed in its broad outlines by subsequent archaeological work, although many details remain uncertain.
Zuidema argued that the ceques served not only as a sacred map but also as a solar observatory. He showed that the alignment of certain ceques with the rising and setting of the sun at the solstices allowed priests to regulate the agricultural calendar, and he argued that the ceque system was in effect a kind of astronomical instrument encoded in the landscape. He also argued that the ceque system organized the social and political structure of Cusco, since each panaca’s ceque was associated with a particular lineage, a particular direction, and a particular set of ritual obligations. The whole system constituted a kind of written record, encoded not in alphabetic script but in the spatial arrangement of shrines across the landscape.
The significance of the ceque system for the study of Andean record keeping is considerable. The system encoded historical, genealogical, and ritual information in a form that could be read by priests trained in the appropriate oral tradition, and it formed a critical part of the cultural infrastructure of the Inca state. The principles of spatial encoding that produced the ceques also produced the quipu, the system of knotted strings used by the Incas for accounting and possibly for historical record, and the two systems together formed a comprehensive information technology that did not require alphabetic writing.
The Coricancha as the Center of the System
The Coricancha was the religious and ceremonial heart of the Inca state, and it was the center of the ceque system. The temple complex occupied a large rectangular enclosure in the center of Cusco, and it was reportedly sheathed in sheets of gold that reflected the rays of the rising sun. The principal sanctuary contained a large golden disk representing the sun and a similar silver disk representing the moon, and the side chapels held representations of the stars, the rainbow, and the thunder. The temple also contained a garden of golden and silver plants, animals, and people, intended to represent the cosmos in microcosm.
The Coricancha was the destination of the most important pilgrimage of the Inca year, the Inti Raymi, celebrated at the June solstice. The festival involved the gathering of the vassal lords, the presentation of tribute, and the sacrifice of llamas whose blood was offered to the sun. The chronicler Garcilaso de la Vega described the festival in detail in his Comentarios Reales de los Incas of 1609, and the modern revival of the Inti Raymi in Cusco, held each June 24, draws on his account. The Coricancha itself was partially destroyed by the Spanish in the 1530s, who built the church and convent of Santo Domingo on its foundations, but the original Inca walls, with their finely fitted ashlar masonry, are still visible around the perimeter of the colonial complex.
The Coricancha was also the principal shrine of Inti, the sun god, and the home of the most important oracles of the empire. The temple was staffed by a substantial priesthood, including the Villac Umu, the high priest, and a large number of assistants. The temple complex also contained a school for the training of priests, called the Yachaqhuasi, and a series of buildings for the storage of offerings, textiles, and other ritual materials. The economic foundation of the temple was substantial, including lands, herds, and stores of offerings, and the Coricancha was one of the most important economic institutions of the empire.
The Ceque System and Imperial Ideology
The ceque system was a key element of Inca imperial ideology. By organizing the landscape around the Coricancha, the system placed the Inca capital at the center of the cosmos and provided a cosmological justification for the political order. The four quarters of the ceque system corresponded to the four quarters of the empire, and the integration of the two systems helped to legitimize the authority of the Sapa Inca as the ruler of the four quarters of the world.
The ceque system also served to integrate the local huacas into the imperial cult. Each huaca on a ceque was the responsibility of a particular panaca and was maintained according to a prescribed ritual calendar, and the system thus provided a mechanism for the incorporation of local religious traditions into the imperial cult. The Incas did not require the abandonment of local cults but rather absorbed them into a state cult centered in Cusco, and the ceque system was a key element of this policy of religious incorporation.
The system also encoded historical and genealogical information that was used to legitimize the political order. Each panaca’s ceque was associated with a particular lineage and a particular set of ancestors, and the system as a whole provided a comprehensive picture of the dynastic history of the Inca state. The Spanish chroniclers, who recorded the ceque system within decades of the conquest, recognized its importance for the maintenance of the imperial order, and the destruction of the system in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was a major blow to the surviving Inca nobility.