The Inca were a civilization from the 15th century that resided in the area of modern-day Peru. The Inca were one of many ancient civilizations that had created their own constellations based on their mythos and religion. The Inca had a complicated religious system, where there were many gods that they worshipped, however, there was a greater pantheon that they had above the rest of the gods. The main one is known as Viracocha, the creator, who is responsible for creating them and the world. The pantheon also had Inti, the sun, and Chuqui Illa, the thunder god. Already it seems that the Incas had a strong connection to the sky as the sun was one of the main gods that they worshipped and denoted as the supreme god. There is another notable goddess named Mama Kilya, known as the moon goddess. While the worship of the sun and the moon is not special to that of the Inca, they also had interesting constellations that they made in the night sky. They had a great view of the Milky Way and noticed that there were dark spots (now known to be clouds of dust) among the brighter strip of the Milky Way. These dark spots were then made into constellations that the Inca started to recognize, and label based on their shape and the animals that the Incas knew. These dark constellations are Mach’acuay (Serpent), Hanp’atu (Toad), Yutu (Andean Partridge), Urcuchillay (Llama), and Atoq (Fox).
These dark constellations do have special meanings, however, in the broad sense, they all represent something that is alive. The most important of these dark constellations is the llama, as llamas were the main source of food, were beasts of burden, and were sacrifices that they made to the gods. The Incas did not only have these dark constellations that they observed, and these “classical” constellations were seen as inanimate and are similar to the other constellations that the other civilizations would make creating heroes and gods in their sky through the “dot to dot” connections. While the stars in the sky and even the absence of stars were important, it is not the only way that their religious activities were connected to astronomy. They would celebrate certain events on the solstices and perform their sacrifices on these specific dates. The December solstice was celebrated to worship the sun god Inti, as this was the day in the year when the sun was highest in the sky. For these celebrations, they built stone towers that helped mark where the sun would rise and set on the two solstices.
The Incas had many connections between their religion and the night sky that were interesting including the celebrations on solstices, as well as the recognition and worship of dark spots in the sky.
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