Pachacutec Five centuries have passed since the Inca Empire was destroyed and yet images and stories of the Incas abound in the world and its region. A lot of history, new stories, and new events are unfolding. The...y have taken place in that time, but the Inca–or at least a single Inca, Pachacutec — reigns supreme both in people’s memory, in stories, in statues, and in textiles.
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Inca art forms had a tendency towards austerity. Weaving, especially in vicuña wool, was of the highest quality, but it lacked the inventiveness of the weaving of coastal peoples. The cutting of semiprecious stones was a widely practiced art, although the Inca stone-cutters depended on the coastal trade for shell and stones. Goldsmithing was an Inca specialty. Almost all the gold mines worked in historical times had been previously mined by the Incas. Smiths who worked gold and silver lived in a special district and were exempt from taxes. The best examples of their art have not survived, since all went into the crucible of conquest; but according to the Spaniards who first saw it, Cusco seemed ablaze with worked gold. Some of the buildings were covered with gold plate imitating...
