THEIR MEMORIAL TO THE GREAT WERE AGRICULTURAL TERRACES INSTEAD OF TOMBS

The building of terraces was developed into a fine art in Peru. The skilled labor that was lavished in ancient Egypt on the tombs of the sovereigns appears to have been applied in Peru to the construction of gardens of special workmanship for raising the food of the royal family. The ancient Peruvians made burial structures for the mummies of their dead, but the chief concern was for the living. The tombs were of modest proportions and were placed in caves or set high on the rocky cliffs in the mountains, not in locations suitable for agricultural purposes.

THE STRUCTURE OF THE TERRACES

That the terraces, including those of the finest construction, were built for agricultural purposes is obvious as soon as their internal construction is taken into account. Each terrace consists, roughly speaking, of three parts the wall and the two distinct layers of earth that fill the space behind the wall. All of the ruined terraces show the same inside structure, wherever the walls are removed. The strata that are hidden behind the walls are artificial no less than the stone facing.

In height the terraces range usually from 8 to 14 feet, the width depending upon the slope. Terraces on very steep slopes or narrow shelves of rock are sometimes only 3 or 4 feet wide, though the usual range is from 8 to 15 feet, or still wider on the more gradual slopes. Banks of 20 to 30 terraces are not uncommon, while 50 or more are found in many cases.

There is a tradition that earth for the Inca garden at Cuzco was brought from a special place near Quito, some 700 miles away. This may be taken at least as an indication that the soil was carried sometimes for long distances, and in such cases it probably was transported on pack animals.

THE WATERING OF THE TERRACES

Water was brought to the terraces from the slopes above in artificial channels or acequias leading down, often for many miles, from the gorges of the high mountains, where they intercepted perennial streams fed by the melting of the glaciers and snow-fields. Careful provision was made to avoid erosion of the soil or injury to the walls.

Three different methods of bringing the water down from one terrace to another are to be seen about Ollantaytambo. Some terraces have narrow vertical channels near the ends of the retaining walls. In other banks of terraces the water was brought down over large upright stones and caught in a basin below.

The third method was to carry the water down along the walls at the ends of the terraces, which were set with double rows of stones to form the water channel between.

Long banks of terraces are interrupted at intervals by passageways that doubtless served the double purpose of roads for reaching the terraces and of drainage channels to bring down surface water from the slopes above, and thus avoid the danger of having terraces washed away by heavy rains.

A LAND-STARVED PEOPLE ACCOMPLISH THE INCREDIBLE

Some of the most laborious terracing is not on the steep slopes, where the terraces are high-walled and narrow, but in the bottoms of the valleys, where the terraces are often very broad. The building of broad terraces required more labor because it involved the filling and leveling of much larger areas behind the walls. Much of the work could have been avoided by making larger numbers of lower and narrower terraces, but the walls would have been more numerous and would have occupied more of the surface.

STRAIGHTENING OF RIVER BANKS AND STREAM BEDS

The natural behavior of swift mountain streams is to cut irregular channels back and forth between the walls of their valleys, but in the terraced valleys of Peru it is the regular condition to find the rivers

and smaller streams confined to channels of definite width, and sometimes kept in straight courses for several miles at a stretch, as in the case of the Urubamba River near Pisac, and again below Ollantaytambo. In the latter instance the river runs for nearly five miles in a straight course, and, although the ancient walls that were built to confine the river have remained intact in only a few places, the artificial nature of the channel is obvious.

MORE PLANTS WERE DOMESTICATED IN PERU THAN IN ANY OTHER PART OF THE WORLD

It was fortunate for the rest of the world that the ancient Peruvians practiced agriculture under so wide a range of natural conditions, since this led to the domestication of a large series of crop plants. More plants appear to have been domesticated in the Peruvian region than in any other part of America. A large proportion of the cultivated species were limited to this part of the world, so that no question can be raised of their having been brought from other regions. Other kinds of crop plants used by the Peruvians were widely distributed in ancient America, more especially the tropical species, those that are grown at low elevations. If these also originated in Peru, that region was responsible for by far the larger part of the American series of crop plants, more than all other parts of America taken together.

Among the more important crop plants that were cultivated by the ancient Peruvians were maize, or Indian corn, potato, sweet potato, and cassava.

6. WHAT IS CIVILIZATION?

The Answer of Ancient America

[August and September, 1925. Herbert Joseph Spinden, "What is Civilization?" in the Forum, LXXIV, No. 2, 162 ff., and No. 3, 371 ff. Reprinted by permission from the author, and from the publishers, the Forum Publishing Company, New York.]

A series of articles giving answers to the question "What is Civilization?" appeared in the Forum during the first eight

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months of the year 1925. All the series contributed valuable information, but the two articles by Dr. Herbert Joseph Spinden were especially illuminating. The writer is one of the leading anthropologists of America and curator of Mexican archæology and ethnology in the Peabody Museum of Harvard University. He is also an author of international standing. . . . my greatest thrills have come," he writes, "from exploring time rather than space. The vista of a thousand years down some of the lesser known vales of history is to my mind finer than any challenge of depths and heights to be found in the Andes." He adds: "As a result of geographical and temporal wanderings I have become both a cosmopolite and chronopolite; this latter word is not yet in the dictionaries, having been invented a minute ago to fill a long-felt want. It is defined by analogy: as a cosmopolite sees good in all people, so a chronopolite sees good in all times." Dr. Spinden is doing an excellent piece of work in calling attention to the cultural achievements of the ancient peoples of the New World. The following excerpts deal with the cultural advance of these peoples.

The progress of humanity towards higher coöperation can now be studied in two independent families of civilizations, one in the Old World, another in the New. In each case it is possible to examine a transformation of human society out of the wandering, predatory herd into the agricultural community, and then, by slow degrees of expansion, into the nation and the master nation.

In the Old World and the New the higher destinies of man were independently solved. But because the nations of western Europe adopted as the best arguments of superiority certain engines of coercion they were able to subdue the most civilized nations of America in a trice. Mexico and Peru were conquered because of their high culture, not in spite of it. The nations of Europe could not conquer the uncivilized peoples so easily because here there were no social orders to usurp, no stores of food to feed armies, and no display of wealth to attract mercenary adventurers into armies.

The display of the great nations of the earth is mostly paid for by compromise or complete negation of their own civilizing principles where outsiders are concerned. The working of that wonderful system of morality known as the ethics of Christian nations makes one group of political entities superior to its own laws when dealing with another group. Ownership and sovereignty were denied to Montezuma and Atahualpa, as they are being denied to the Riffians or the Javanese to-day. This code of privilege is based on a concept of civilization not justified by cultural abilities. When England, setting up as the foremost champion of social justice, provoked the Opium War with China in order to increase a tribute from degradation, her action meant that China was outside the law. Yet China has social personality at its highest, she has arts, ethics, science, covering three times the space of England's life.

Opportunity, or the lack of it, is another name for environment. There are great differences between the natural layout in the Eastern and in the Western Hemisphere which must be given due weight when we compare civilizations. In America few animals were available as helpers of men. The llama was domesticated in Peru, but in Central America and Mexico there was no wild animal capable of being transformed into a burden bearer. In the Old World there were various draft animals, but the horse will perhaps be most notable in human history because of his connection with the extended use of a mechanical device known as the wheel. . . .

Similarly in America there is an earlier arid land civilization with irrigation, and a later wet land phase. The first domesticated plants were maize, beans, pumpkins, and tobacco which passed far and wide. Tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, were later developments in the arid zone. In the wet lands we find an adjustment of several dry land plants and an original domestication of such new foods as manioc, sweet potatoes, cocoa, pineapples, and so forth. In addition there are fibres, gums, and medicines, including cotton, henequen, and cabbage, rubber and chicle, quinine, cocaine, and others. The list of animals and birds is smaller but includes our national feast fowl, the turkey, as well as muscovy ducks, llamas, and various dogs.