Andean Civilisations: Full Series

This course by Prof Maria Chester consists of ten lectures over five weeks (Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4pm to 5pm). It is part of a series of courses on Ancient Civilisations of the Americas. There is no need to have attended the previous courses in order to understand and enjoy this study of the empire of the Incas.

The full course costs £30, or you can book individual lectures for £4 each on a separate Eventbrite listing available here.

We shall start with a brief introduction of the XVI century in Europe with an accent on Spain. Then we will explore the first city built in the Americas at the same time Egyptian pharaohs built their pyramids: CARAL, which is located in Peru.

Most of the Pre-Inca civilisations were located in what is today Peru except one: Tiwanaku which is located in Bolivia.

As we previously did with the Aztecs, we will study fabulous civilisations that preceded the Inca themselves: the Moche, famous for their ceramics; the Chimu, from which we have unearthed two fabulous royal tombs similar in richess to that of King Tutankhammon; we will fly over the Lines of Nazca, which can be seen only from above the Pampas and admire the colourful and intricate textiles made by the Paracas.

Finally we shall dedicate the last two weeks to the Inca, who built a fabulous network of roads, bridges and “tampus”, a sort of B&B that were used by the Conquistadors in their way to conquer Cuzco, the capital of the Incan Empire.

Just as the causeways leading to the fabulous Tenochtitlan – the capital of the Aztec empire in Mexico – turned against the civilisation who built them, the network of roads and bridges will turn against the Inca. On their way to Cuzco the conquistadors found barns full of grain and clothes that the perfect “Socialist Empire of the Inca” (as Louis Baudin called them) had always kept to provide its people in times of need.

It was recently agreed to replace the letter H with the letter W in transcribing the Quechua language spoken by the Inca, so Tiahuanaco became Tiwanaku, Atahualpa became Atawalpa, and so on.

Lectures will be delivered via Zoom. If you haven’t used Zoom before, please go to www.zoom.us and look at the tutorials. Once you have booked, you will receive a confirmatory email from Eventbrite, including a link to the Zoom invitation

If you book this course online, we will hold your personal data in accordance with our privacy policy. If you do not wish us to hold your personal data, please book by post (see www.berwickea.co.uk) and do not supply an email address.