INCAS

    The Incas were a South Amercan people who ruled a large empire. Their empire extended through parts of Colombia, Peru, Boliva, Chile, Argentina and part of the Equator. The land they ruled was mostly rocks and hills but included some flat land.

    They built terrences on the sides of the mountians to increase their farm land. They dug canals for water and use. In the desert lowlands, the main crops were tomatoes, tropical fruits, and cotton.

    They also communicated with words because they had no writing. Ihey believed in a god called Viracocho. The ruling family prayed to a god called Inti, and the Inca empire was ruled by the royal dynasty.

    The monument building phase of Inca civilization began as early as 6000 to 3000 B.C. and includes buildings like the ones pictured here in Machu Picchu, high in the Andes Mountains of Peru.

Religious Use of Cocaine
    In 1978, investigators discovered an ancient Incan complex dating from around 5777 B.C. One location on the western slopes of the Andes in Northern Peru turned out to be a site used for the production of lime from calcium deposites in springs at the headwaters of local creeks. The processed lime was most likely used to extract cocaine from the coca plant. This process was ritually sanctioned by Inca society. The use of cocaine alkyloids in religious rituals by the early Incas served as a means of promoting group identy and cohesiveness during the early phases of their civilization.

Flood Myths

    According to ancient Inca mythology only two human beings survived a great deluge at the end of the Fourth Sun: "Destruction came in the form of torrential rain and floods.
The mountains disappeared and men were transformed into fish..." These two humans escaped in a huge boat they had been instructed to build and came to ground on the top of a tall mountain. There they descended and afterwards had many children who were dumb until the time when a dove on top a tree gave them the gift of languages. These languages differed so much that the children could not understand one another.

    Pizzaro, a European, and an army of Europeans killed off the Incas in 1536.


Drugs:
Mesoamerican Plants

Inca Ruins
Olmecs
Aztecs



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