ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS AT KORICANCHA

“

The excavations carried out beneath the Epistle nave, the right-hand side of the church, between the first and second columns, led to one of the most significant discoveries of the campaign: the original foundations of the Hall of the Sun, the highest-ranking space in the whole complex of the Inca Temple of the Sun, whose exact location had been sought by researchers such as John H. Rowe. This Hall housed the twelve golden statues representing the twelve Inca sovereigns, making it a site of great historical importance.

Beneath the level of the Inca floor and the colonial floors, footings and foundation walls appeared, made of large, finely worked and fitted blocks of «green diorite», comparable in quality to the sources located beneath the Sancta Sanctorum. It is a stone different from the grey andesite of Rumiqolqa and Huaccoto with which the temple's Inca masonry was built, and its position, below the Inca level, indicates an earlier construction.

According to archaeologist Ítalo Oberti, who led the excavation, these bases were part of the original foundation of the Koricancha, called «Inticancha». For the Foundation, this would be a sanctuary older than Pachacútec, on which the Incas rebuilt the temple: a discovery that, as we will see below with the research of Dr. Rolf Müller, challenges the founding history and the antiquity of the «Inca Temple of the Sun». Dating the associated contexts and a petrographic analysis of the blocks will make it possible to confirm it.

“

George Kubler (1951) in the report of the mission sent by UNESCO and collected in the book "Cuzco, Reconstruction of the City and Restoration of its Monuments" mentions the existence of four crypts in the High Altar and the Crossing of the Church:

"Under the main chapel and the transept there are no Inca constructions, but four burial crypts from the 17th century"... "The Church rests on a series of colonial-era burial crypts, four of which have been uncovered. Of the two crypts beneath the High Altar, the northern one had to be repaired at its western end, where the keystones had collapsed."

At the time we began work within the church sector, only three of the crypts mentioned by Kubler existed. Over these 50 years, a fourth crypt had disappeared. The information provided by the Ground Penetrating Radar as it passed through the left side of the transept, an area called the Altar of Santa Rosa, the remote sensing equipment observed the presence of a void or inner chamber.

“

In the room that provides access to the bell tower of the Santo Domingo Church, the remote sensing team located evidence of wall-like structures and disturbed elements. Profile analysis showed that the direction of the walls would originate from the center of the church nave towards the bell tower, and it could not be determined if these structures extended beyond the convent or turned towards its interior. After studying the 3D software of the Ground Penetrating Radar, it was decided to open the mentioned area. This work unit was named Pit 01 (area I): 4 × 4 metres and 4.60 metres deep. The excavation was directed by the archaeologists Héctor Walde and Roberto Bustamante.

In this excavation pit, the following stages were detected that gave rise to the stratigraphic reading:

1) Alluvial deposition caused by the overflow of the Tullumayo River (now Av. El Sol). This is the natural layer on which the Inca building is founded, affected by colonial occupation.

2) Early colonial construction that reuses stones from ancient buildings (Killke), probably remnants of the old bell tower destroyed by the 1650 earthquake.

3) Deposition of colonial and republican burials. These burials have been heavily disturbed, initially by subsequent burials and later by the removals caused for the restoration of the bell tower between 1950 and 1966.

4) Modern floor of the church. To achieve a horizontal and stable surface, it was necessary to fill the early colonial wall and the disturbed burials with stone and concrete fills, and then level the surface with a screed or false floor, and finally place the new church floor. This work was carried out in 1966, before the church was reopened by Monseñor Durand, Bishop of Callao.

RESULTS OF THE EXCAVATIONS BELL TOWER SECTOR

After removing the modern floor of the church, highly disturbed colonial burials (mass grave) were discovered, and levels of alluvial ground without cultural occupation were reached. In the southern part, a double superficial wall built with Killke stone was identified. A series of completely aligned skulls (ritual type) were found attached to the wall.

Finding 01. Burial of a young person in an infant's coffin, apparently a secondary burial. The body is incomplete and the skull shows a cut above the brow ridges. The wooden coffin, in poor condition, was filled with a newspaper from 1896.

With the work carried out in this pit, the groundwater levels of the church were analyzed, achieving a very valuable scientific contribution for future analyses of the groundwater table of the Koricancha. The archaeological research in this area was concluded, and the church floor was replaced.

“

Under the Main Altar, there are two colonial crypts from the 17th century with a vaulted stone ceiling built with lithic stones from the pre-Hispanic period. After the earthquake that devastated Cusco in 1950, the entire apse of the church collapsed, affecting both crypts. The architect Oscar Ladrón de Guevara, commissioned by UNESCO, carried out the structural consolidation works.

The objective was to excavate under the Main Altar to search for archaeological remains of the possible ancient Solar Temple and to investigate the existence of interior passages. We named this work unit Pit 02 (area III, 3 × 4 metres).

In this excavation pit, the following moments and/or stages that gave rise to the stratigraphic reading were detected:

1) The deposition of alluvial pebbles, part of the Tullumayo River's cone of deposition. The Main Altar crypts were built on this level and were subject to colonial intrusions for the deposition of burials from that time.

2) Colonial intrusion for the deposition of burials, some with wooden coffins and others shrouded.

3) Archaeological excavations in the 1950s to evaluate the foundations of the church's end wall, behind the altar, and propose structural modifications to the new Main Altar. At the bottom of the pit, disturbed burial bones resulting from the same excavation were deposited.

4) Pit for burying disturbed bones and cleaning the crypt after the 1960s restoration.

5) New floor or level of use for a completely reconstructed crypt.

6) Debris and garbage accumulated by the Church's activities after its reopening in 1966 to date. Until the start of our work, carpets, lights, cables, vases, etc., and many unused objects were kept in these crypts.

RESULTS OF THE EXCAVATIONS MAIN ALTAR CRYPTS

After the superficial cleaning of modern debris and garbage, some colonial burials were recorded a few centimeters below the surface, two of them mutilated by the restoration works of 1950 and others completely disturbed. Under the fill of that 1950s excavation, twelve skulls, lower jaws and several long bones appeared, and three burials were recorded: an adult with neither coffin nor shroud, another in a wooden coffin and a third beneath it, without a coffin, both facing northeast. These remains have been properly packaged and stored for further pathological study.

The existence of interior passages and contiguous structures was ruled out.

“

On the right side of the church, between the Main Altar and the Transept, there is a crypt at the foot of the altar of San Martín de Porres, easily reached through a wooden trapdoor. We named this work unit Pit 03. The main objective was to analyse possible adjoining structures and the subsoil.

In the NE sector of the crypt, an area of 3 × 4 metres was excavated to a depth of 3.50 metres (area II, units 01-02-03, 11-12-13, 21-22-23 and 31-32-33).

Layer A: heavily disturbed colonial burials, from the surface of the crypt down to 1.50 metres below it.
Layer B: alluvial level of pebbles and boulders, 40 to 90 cm thick. It is the level most affected by the intrusion of layer A.
Layer C: alluvial level of compact sand, 60 to 90 cm thick, also affected by the colonial burials.
Layers D to H: alternating alluvial levels of boulders, compact sand and clay, 30 to 60 cm each, with no cultural occupation.

RESULTS OF THE EXCAVATION SAN MARTÍN DE PORRES CRYPT

The following stages can be distinguished in the stratigraphic reading of this pit:

1) Alluvial levels with no cultural occupation, formed by the overflows of the Tullumayo River (now Avenida El Sol), part of its alluvial fan (layers B to H). The colonial burials of the crypt were deposited on them.

2) Level of heavily disturbed colonial burials (layer A). All the human skeletal remains were recorded for analysis.

The existence of adjoining structures was ruled out.

“

After a three-dimensional analysis of the subsoil between the altar of San Vicente and the first pilaster, on the left side of the central nave, the Ground Penetrating Radar identified possible walls and unidentified disturbed elements. After consulting several experts on the result, the area was opened.

The excavation was carried out in arbitrary levels of 20 cm, from the church floor down to a depth of 3.30 metres.

In this test pit, a colonial stone wall was found, probably built to reinforce the foundation of the left side wall of the church, together with another wall from the pre-Inca period (Killke), which the builder of the church preserved as the foundation base of the pilaster and of the left perimeter wall, as a connecting wall.

RESULTS OF THE EXCAVATION SAN VICENTE SECTOR

Down to 3.30 metres, five artificial levels and five natural layers were recorded. Down to 1.42 m there was a loose, dark brown fill layer containing eight graves with no defined burial pattern, identified by the skulls. Given the vertical and horizontal overlapping of the remains, it would be a mass grave.

The uncompacted earth floor results from the interventions in the monument after the earthquakes of 1650 and 1950 and from the restoration works of the COPESCO plan in 1974. Below it, down to 3.30 m, lies an alluvial conglomerate with no cultural associations. Compared with the stratigraphy of the tower and the crypts, the ground is different: we suggest, a priori, that in the distant past a river crossed this sector from NW to NE.

At the end of the work, the Pi Rambla excavation team and the project architect, Ernesto Paz, reinforced the pilaster of the nave, whose base was shallow, with stone walls laid with cement and sand and iron-reinforced columns, following the Athens and Venice Charters and UNESCO international standards.

A pre-Inca (Killke) wall was identified beneath the foundations of the church.