Records of early Spanish looting of Inca treasure in Peru.

[Crow]

Greeting all.

Here is reference to Spain officially sanctioning the looting of Inca cemetaries in Peru

Archives des indies: AGI,CONTADURIA,196A,N.6 in the Year: 1615

Target of Excavation: "treasures of silver, gold, jewels, and stones, and any other items"

Description: Augustinian Friar Antonio Martínez authorized to search for treasures "wherever they may be." This document is in the Contaduría (accounting) section of the Consejo de Indias, compiled with a variety of other unrelated records. It appears to come from Peru, but in the copy of the document that I received from the AGI, it does not specify where the document was created. Friar Antonio is required to pay the standard 50% taxation rate, and he claims to be informed of these excavation sites by locals: "[You] have informed me that through your diligence, planning, and much effort and expense, you have persuaded and guided some old Indians, who have been entrusted with the care of the treasures of the Incas and other treasures hidden in guacas, to reveal and uncover them. You now have sufficient knowledge of the places where they are, and you have identified their entrances and secrets in such a way that they can easily be discovered and utilized."

Document Type: Licensing of looting.


Here is another date 1588

Archival des indies : AGI,SANTA_FE,1,N.55; AGI,INDIFERENTE,606,L.1,f.11v-13v Year: 1584



Target of Excavation: "an idol and many vessels, bars of gold, silver, and other valuables."

Description: Franciscan Friar Francisco del Castillo authorized to excavate a "guaca and burial of indios principales." Produced a treasure map which he submitted to the Council of the Indies in Madrid.

Document Type: Licensing

Additional Bibliography? Solórzano Pereira, Juan de. Politica Indiana. 2 vols. Madrid: Diego Díaz de la Carrera, 1647, p. 953–959; Danwerth, Otto. “El papel indígena en la huaquería andina (siglos XVI–XVII).” In Muchas Hispanoaméricas: Antropología, historia y enfoques culturales en los estudios latinoamericanistas, ed. Thomas Krüggeler and Ulrich Mücke, 87–104. Madrid: Iberoamericana, 2001; Danwerth, Otto. “Die indianische Beteiligung an der andinen Grabräuberei im kolonialen Peru (16.–17. Jahrhundert)” In Jahrbuch der Staatlichen Ethnographischen Sammlungen Sachsen, Band XLIII, 69–90. Berlin: Litverlag, 2007.



What is clear from these document is the Spanish state conspired to loot Inca cemeteries. How can Spain lay moral cultural patrimony on shipwrecks over loot treasure?


Crow

 

[newnan man]

Even as a kid in history class I used to think how absurd and incredulous it was that European countries would sail across the ocean and step onto dry land and immediately claim it as belonging to their king. Think of the millions of people who inhabited these continents having absolutely no say in the matter. Illegal immigrants arrived in droves and took over the native occupants land and killed those who dared foughtback to keep it. Spain looted the Aztec and Inca empires for their gold destroying entire civilizations in the process. Most of this was done under the guise of bringing Christianity to the "heathens." For sure many of the Native Americans were not warm fuzzy people living Shangri-la lives. Many were war like and commonly fought each other and the new arrivals. Atrocities were committed and disease completed the genocide of entire civilizations.
Now our civilization once a beacon to the world seems to be decaying from within, karma is a bitch.

 

[Crow]

Even as a kid in history class I used to think how absurd and incredulous it was that European countries would sail across the ocean and step onto dry land and immediately claim it as belonging to their king. Think of the millions of people who inhabited these continents having absolutely no say in the matter. Illegal immigrants arrived in droves and took over the native occupants land and killed those who dared foughtback to keep it. Spain looted the Aztec and Inca empires for their gold destroying entire civilizations in the process. Most of this was done under the guise of bringing Christianity to the "heathens." For sure many of the Native Americans were not warm fuzzy people living Shangri-la lives. Many were war like and commonly fought each other and the new arrivals. Atrocities were committed and disease completed the genocide of entire civilizations.
Now our civilization once a beacon to the world seems to be decaying from within, karma is a bitch.

Ironic as Europe is going through that right now. Empires come and go. occupation and invasion is not just a white mans privilege.

Crow