Introduction

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The first time I became aware of the term ushnu was through reading John Hemmings famous book of the conquest of the Incas [Hemming 1974]. In it there was an illustration of the Vilcashuaman ushnu with Hemming standing in the doorway. The inscription beneath the picture read 'The author in the gateway to the usno platform at Vilcashuaman, the only surviving structure of its kind in Peru' [Hemming, 1974].

I was immediately fascinated how un-Incan the structure looked, more like a Mexican pyramid than anything Incan I was familar with, with its tiered terraces and stairway. The fact that it was 'the only surviving structure' made it even more mysterious.

Since I have started reading and researching ushnu I have found many more examples than this one at Vilcashuaman, and Hemming himself indirectly acknowledged his mistake, noting several more examples of provincial ushnu in his book on Incan monuments in 1982 [Hemming and Ranney 1982].

However some of the mystery regarding ushnu has remained and there seems to be alot of uncertainity and conflict in the literature of what exactly an ushnu is, and what its function was.

These following posts are an attempt to pull together every early account I could access regarding ushnus and to make sense of what they said. This has allowed me to make a reconstruction of the now-lost Cuzco ushnu, to discuss provincial ushnu (including finding a colonial painting of an ushnu which I believe has never been identified previously in the literature as such) and to discuss how provincial ushnu evolved from the Cuzco model. In addition I have discussed how others have interpreted and used the term ushnu in the modern literature, and I have included a post which contains the text of the early sources I have used (a sort of 'Ushnu Reader') to help others make their own minds up as to whether my conclusions are valid or not.

Link to the next posting in this series - http://ushnu.blogspot.com/search/label/cuzco%20ushnu

Photo Credit

Vilcashuaman ushnu - http//www.baukunst.tuwien.ac.at/abk/aktuelle_abk-vo/08/pages/h26.html

References

Hemming, John. The Conquest of the Incas. 1974, Macmillan London

Hemming, John and Edward Ranney. Monuments of the Incas. 1982, Little, Brown and Co.