Pachacútec's tomb?

On January 19, 2013, the Peruvian newspaper El Comercio headlined its front page with "Indagan si en tumba de Machu Picchu hay oro", that is to say "They are looking for gold in a tomb of Machu Picchu". The daily then explains on the front page that "the discovery of gold and silver objects in a funerary chamber of Machu Picchu opposes a group of explorers to the Ministry of Culture who refuse to grant them a permit to continue their research". Then the daily, in its page A16, explains on four columns the discoveries made in April 2012 by Thierry Jamin’s team and the "conflict" that now opposes them to the officials of the Ministry of Culture. The tone is deliberately sensationalist. Journalists insist on the "presence of large quantities of gold and silver".

On 7 February 2013, the Peruvian news website Rumbos published a large article on the discoveries made a few months earlier by the Inkarri – Cusco team. This detailed and objective article sets the powder on fire.

This time the national media are taking up the topic again. Many local and national radio stations, such as RPP, television channels, like ATV, and numerous newspapers seized the affair.

El Comercio

January 19, 2013

On February 8, 2013, the newspaper El Diario del Cusco ran the headline on its front page "Afirman que hallaron tumba de Pachacutek en Machu Picchu. Hipótesis de franceses fue cuestionada por autoridades peruanas", that's to say "They claim to have discovered Pachacuti's tomb at Machu Picchu. The French hypothesis has been questioned by Peruvian authorities." The Cusco newspaper detailed the discovery of the underground cavities uncovered by Thierry Jamin's team in April 2012. However, it presented the hypothesis of Pachacuti's tomb as a certainty. And of course, it didn't forget to mention the presence of gold and silver deposits: "Frenchman Thierry Jamin claims to have discovered an Inca mausoleum containing large quantities of gold and silver, as well as more than a dozen sarcophagi." These are comments taken the day before from Thierry Jamin, but largely distorted.

In the same issue, local authorities from the Ministry of Culture (Direction Régionale de Culture de Cusco) assert that "it is impossible to discover hidden treasure in the Inca citadel". And Peruvian archaeologist Luis Lumbreras " puso en duda el anuncio del francés, y asegura que el lugar fue saqueado durante la Colonia y señala que Jamin no es un personaje conocido " i.e. "He disputes the Frenchman's claims that the site was looted during the colonial period and points out that Jamin was not a well-known figure ".

On the same day, in the Perú 21 newspaper, David Ugarte further dramatizes and declares that information about the discovery of cavities in the basement of the Temple of the Three Gates should be handled with great caution, " porque podríamos originar un saqueo o el desprendimiento de alguna infrastructura de nuestro principal ícono turístico ", "because we could provoke looting or damage certain infrastructures of our main tourist emblem."

For its part, the Correo newspaper of February 8 devoted an article on page 3 to the Machu Picchu affair. Once again, officials from the Regional Department of Culture - Cusco do their utmost to discredit the discovery. The article is headlined: " Francés asegura que se trataría de contexto fúnerario de Pachacuteq. DRC desvirtúa hallazgo de tumba real ", "The Frenchman claims that it is the funerary context of Pachacútec. The Regional Directorate of Culture refutes the discovery of a royal tomb."

See also on page 10 of the daily Trome, February 8, 2013, the article entitled "At Machu Picchu, they may have found Pachacútec's tomb."

Throughout this period of intense controversy, the attitude of Peruvian archaeologist Luis Guillermo Lumbreras was more than a little puzzling. Indeed, this Lima-based archaeologist spent a large part of his life searching for proof that Machu Picchu was indeed the Llactapata of the Incas, as described in the Suma y Narración de los Incas by the chronicler Juan de Betanzos. And it was in this Llactapata, according to Betanzos (Chapter XXX) that Emperor Pachacútec ordered his tomb to be built, for himself and his descendants. This was also the main hypothesis of Lumbreras.

In 2005, Luis Guillermo Lumbreras contributed to the collective book Machupicchu. Historia, Sacralidad e identidad. In a very long article entitled "Machu Picchu, el mausoleo del emperador" (pp. 14 - 38), he writes, for example: "There is no doubt that a sanctuary of the highest rank was located here. If ^16th-century documents are to be believed, all the numerous agricultural installations were intended to produce goods for the Inca cult of the dead. Machu Picchu is over 100 km from Cusco by train. It may well be Patallaqta ("city on high"), the place where the mummy of the Inca Pachacútec was preserved and venerated."

And yet, Luis Guillermo Lumbreras is about to declare the opposite of everything he's ever said in his career!

Local officials from the Ministry of Culture will compete to denigrate the work of Thierry Jamin and his team.