An intihuatana (sometimes spelled intiwatana, or ynti-watana) is a type of shrine (huaca in the Quechua language) that is somehow related to the astronomical and religious activities of the Inca Empire (1250-1532 CE). They are found on most of the major Inca sites in South America, and, according to German archaeologist Max Uhle (1856-1944), similar carved stone seats are also found at Tiwanaku Empire sites in Bolivia (ca. 500-1100 CE). Cuzco was settled by refugees from Tiwanaku, and the Lake Titicaca region is Inca ancestral homeland. The intihuatana vary a great deal in size, form, and detail, but, typically, they consist of a large slab of carefully sculpted bedrock in an elevated patio or plaza, and often include a protuberance (the "intihuatana stone") jutting up above the base.

In his survey of 11 intihuatana near the Inca capital of Cuzco, Uhle described the variability of the monuments as "covered with countless seats, steps, niches, depressions shaped like tubs or bowls, small chambers with niches, channels, etc., all molded to the natural rock formation, which explains their irregular arrangement. Despite this, the work was meticulously carried out in every case observed." (Uhle 1998:287)

Intihuatana at Machu Picchu, from the same general direction as the Bingham picture above. Image Credit: Pavel Špindler, CC 3.0.
Intihuatana at Machu Picchu, from the same general direction as the Bingham picture above. Image Credit: Pavel Špindler, CC Attribution 3.0


The Spanish colonial forces destroyed or damaged much of the cultural heritage of the Inca. Therefore, since Machu Picchu was not known to the Spanish, the Intihuatana there is the best preserved of the known examples. Located on a small plaza, the Machu Picchu intihuatana is carved from gray granite bedrock, and it measures between 1.7-2 meters (5.6-6.6 ft) tall and about a meter (3.2 ft) in diameter. The part that juts upward about a half meter (1.5 ft) is broader at the base (about 31.5 cm x 53.5-57.5 cm or 12.4 x 21-22.4 in) than at the top (22-23 x 41.5-44 cm, 8.7-9x16.4-17.3 in) and, according to German astronomer Dieter B. Hermann (2011), the protuberance tilts about 14 degrees.

There are a few questions still puzzling scholars these days: who named them the Intihuatana and where does that name come from, and what in the world were they used for?

Naming the Intihuatana

Intihuatana at Pisac. Image Credit: E.G. Squires, 1877, in the public domain.
Intihuatana at Pisac. Image Credit: E.G. Squires, 1877, in the public domain


The preeminent Inca scholar US archaeologist John Howland Rowe (1918-2004) argued that the name intihuatana is "not ancient and is not recorded until the 19th century" (cited in Wright & Valencia Zeggara 2004). And indeed, the first mention in European literature by scholars actually visiting Peru was in 1856, by Clements Markham (1830-1916). Markham described one at Ollantaytambo as "a huge block called the Ynti-huatana, or place for observing the sun." U.S. journalist and diplomat E.G. Squier (1821-1888) mapping at Pisac and the Temple of the Sun at Titicaca, Bolivia, called them "places where the Sun was tied up." Hiram Bingham (1875-1956) rediscovered the one at Machu Picchu, and, based on comparisons to Squier, named it the Intihuatana. Not everyone is convinced.

This Next Bit is Admittedly a Rabbit Hole

Intihuatana at Machu Picchu, from a different direction, and with a tourist for scale. Image Credit: Jordan Klein CC 2.0.
Intihuatana at Machu Picchu, from a different direction, and with a tourist for scale. Image Credit: Jordan Klein CC 2.0


The etymology of the word intihuatana is definitely Incan. According to the "Royal Commentaries of the Inca", published in 1609, and written by Incan-Spanish scholar Garcilaso de la Vega (1539-1616), "inti" means sun, and "huata" as a noun means "year" and as a verb, means "attach." After this, Garcilaso wrote "however, most people counted the years by their harvests," which seems to suggest that things called inti-huata were used to track seasonality. He describes, but doesn't assign a name to, "a very richly carved stone column, which stood in the middle of the parvis (e.g. patio) of each of the Sun temples," which was used as a gnomen (sort of a sundial) to verify the equinoxes (de la Vega 1961:72). But Rowe was right: Garcilaso never referred to the gnomen as "intihuatana" nor used the term anywhere in his writings. Best to read it for yourself: the book is freely available in the Wayback Machine, Book 2, pages 71-73. It's great reading.

Is it likely that 19th and early 20th century European researchers got their hands on de la Vega's Royal Commentaries? Absolutely. Markham, a member of the Hakluyt Society, published "Expeditions into the Valley of the Amazon, 1539, 1540, 1639," in 1859. In that book, Markham compiles English translations of the primary accounts of the Spanish expeditions into South America, including part of de la Vega's text from Book 2 of the Royal Commentaries. Several Renaissance and Enlightenment writers (such as Hakluyt, Locke, Bacon, Defoe, Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Jefferson) owned copies of the Royal Commentaries, and used the text in their own writings. It has been a go-to reference work for Incan history and philosophy since its publication, and despite its having been banned in Peru for a period beginning 165 years after his death.

Finally, Hermann mentions an armchair archaeologist named William Prescott writing in 1847, who clearly quoted from the Royal Commentaries. In the end, many scholars simply state that they were told that name by the locals. But, as far as I'm concerned, any rabbit hole that includes a mention of Garcilaso de la Vega is a very good one to run down into.

What was the Intihuatana For?

Machu Picchu Intihuatana, acting as an image rock of the mountain Huayna Picchu. Image Credit: McKay Savage 2.0.
Machu Picchu Intihuatana, acting as an image rock of the mountain Huayna Picchu. Image Credit: McKay Savage 2.0

There is so much variation between the intihuatana that each one likely had its own meaning and function. Nevertheless, people have persisted in attempting to make sense of the beautiful monuments. All of the ideas bear thinking about by nosy, er curious people.

  1. A gnomon, used for tracking the shadows to establish or track a solar calendar (Bingham 1930:52-53 at Machu Picchu; Markham 1856:181 at Ollantaytambo)
  2. A gnomon, used for tracking the solstices or equinoxes (Hermann 2011, Magli 2010:329, de la Vega 1961:72-75, Squier 1877:369)
  3. A performative space, a marker for horizontal observations (Ziólkowski and Kosciuk 2022:193-195, Gullberg 2020:50-52, Kauffmann-Doig 2019)
  4. An "image rock", meant to echo the shape of the surrounding mountains and thus facilitate their adoration (Reinhard 2007:63-70)
  5. A focal point of the location in a sacred space used as a public gathering place (Reinhard, Gullberg cited above)
  6. An altar or ancestral shrine dedicated to the Sun (Uhle 1998)

A Few Archaeological Sites with Intihuatana

These sites have bit of information about some of the sites, although little to no information about intihuatana there.

Project Takeaways

We may never have a definitive answer about what the intihuatana monuments provided for the Inca and their ancestors at Tiwanaku. The Inca are known for their exquisite engineering and masonry, and intihuatana are clearly great examples of that. In terms of the Staring into Space project, it seems to me that intihuatana were most likely tooled for specific purposes about the population's relationship to the natural and supernatural world. We just don't know precisely what. Archaeological is simply not as good at engineering as the Incas were.

Figure Sources


Sources

  • Bingham, Hiram. Machu Picchu: A Citadel of the Incas. Report of the Explorations and Excavations Made in 1911, 1912 and 1915 under the Auspices of Yale University and the National Geographic Society. Yale University Press, 1930. Memoirs of the National Geographic Society.
  • ---. "Explorations in Peru." The National Geographic Magazine, vol. 23, no. 4, 1912, pp. 417–22.
  • de la Vega, Garcilaso. The Inca: Royal Commentaries of the Inca. edited by Alain Gheerbrant, translated by Maria Jolas, Avon Books, 1961.
  • Gullberg, Steven R. "Orientations at or near Cusco, at Tipon, and at Saihuite." Astronomy of the Inca Empire: Use and Significance of the Sun and the Night Sky, Springer International Publishing, 2020, pp. 145-202. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48366-1_7 https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-48366-1_7
  • Herrmann, Dieter B. and Esther Laubsch. "On the Intihuatana at Machu Picchu." Leibniz Online, vol. 12/2011, 2011
  • Kauffmann-Doig, Federico. "Gentilmantarimay: La Función Que Desempeñaban los Intihuatanas, Como el de Machu Picchu." Yachay, vol. 8, no. 1, 2019, pp. 613–16, doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.36881/yachay.v8i1.208
  • Magli, Giulio. "At the Other End of the Sun's Path: A New Interpretation of Machu Picchu." Nexus Network Journal, vol. 12, no. 2, 2010, pp. 321–41, doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00004-010-0028-2
  • Markham, Clements R. Cuzco: A Journey to the Ancient Capital of Peru; with an Account of the History, Language, Literature, and Antiquities of the Incas. Chapman and Hall 1856.
  • Reinhard, Johan. Machu Picchu: Exploring an Ancient Sacred Center. 4th ed., Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California at Los Angeles, 2007.
  • Rowe, John Howland. "An Account of the Shrines of Ancient Cuzco." Ñawpa Pacha, vol. 17, no. 1, 1979, pp. 1-80, doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1179/naw.1979.17.1.001
  • Squier, E.G. Peru: Incidents of Travel and Exploration in the Land of the Incas. Harper & Brothers, 1877.
  • Uhle, Max. "Acerca de la Interpretation de los Intihuantas." Max Uhle Y El Peru Antiguo, edited by Peter Kaulicke, Fondo Editorial de la Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru, 1998, pp. 283-300
  • Wright, Ruth M. and Alfredo Valencia Zegarra. The Machu Picchu Guidebook: A Self-Guided Tour. Revised ed., Johnson Books, 2004.
  • Ziółkowski, Mariusz and Jacek Kościuk. "Astronomical Observations at Machu Picchu: Facts, Hypothesis and Wishful Thinking." Machu Picchu in Context: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Human Past, edited by Mariusz Ziółkowski et al., Springer International Publishing, 2022, pp. 167–236. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92766-0_5
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-030-92766-0_5.pdf

This article is part of the Staring into Space project.
Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Contact me at Email Screenshot