Guatemala
Quechua
(the so-called Xinca language)
BRIEF SUMMARY Is it possible that a sensational truth about pre-Columbian history lies behind an idiom like Xinca, which is now considered extinct? This is what Vittorio Binda promises to reveal with this scientific and popular study on Xinca, an idiom localised in some departments of Guatemala, which nowadays counts no native speakers any more but only “semi-speakers”. It is a small language family that, curiously enough, has no genetic affiliation with the other idioms of the Mesoamerican region. Addressing not only experts (historical and general linguists, dialectologists, and ethno-linguists), but also a non-specialist audience, the Author intends to prove that Xinca is nothing more than a dialect of the Quechua language or, to be more precise, one of the many idioms that make up the Quechua language family: the language spoken by the Incas. According to the famous Peruvian anthropologist and linguist Alfredo Torero, there are thirty-seven dialects (or languages) that make up Quechua. Xinca would therefore represent the thirty-eighth dialect variant or language of the family. The book is the result of an in-depth comparative investigation between Xinca and Quechua, at a morphological, syntactic, and lexical level. Thanks to field studies, knowledge of Quechua, and the use of dozens of dictionaries and grammars of Quechua and Xinca, the Author leads us by the hand in the linguistic exploration of an idiom that has so much to tell us about the history of the greatest civilisation of the New World: the inca civilisation. By cross-referencing the study of Xinca with the discovery of the Pakasqa Codex — the secret writing of the Incas — Vittorio Binda is actually able to demonstrate that the thirty-eighth Quechua dialect represents the heritage of the language spoken by a colony founded by the Incas in the 15th century in present-day Guatemala, a settlement composed mainly of soldiers, known as military mitimaes. Through a detailed lexical analysis featured in this book, based on a comparison of Xinca with the various Quechua dialects still spoken today, it is possible to precisely establish the places of origin of the Tahuantinsuyo soldiers who made up this outpost created in Mesoamerica. They mostly came from the highlands of Bolivia, but also from the coastal and Andean regions of south-central Peru and, to a lesser extent, from Ecuador and Colombia. What were tens of thousands of military mitimaes doing in this region of Central America? The Author's sensational thesis — which would lead to rewriting entire pages of pre-Columbian history — is that the Inca empire was preparing for the invasion and conquest of Central America and the Aztec empire. A purpose that failed only because of the unexpected and tragic arrival of the Spanish conquistadores in the decades following the European discovery of America. The violent battles fought against the Spanish army led by the brutal and cruel Pedro de Alvarado, the terrible epidemics that raged in Mesoamerica, the deportations to other regions, the fierce enslavement in the mines, salt marshes, and plantations, and the atrocities perpetrated by the Spanish encomenderos led to a dramatic decline of the Inca military mitimaes. After a century of Spanish rule, they were reduced to a few thousand individuals. A too small number of inhabitants to be able to safeguard their own linguistic and cultural characteristics and traditions over time. This book, a linguistic document of extraordinary importance for historians, will also have an unprecedented impact for the indigenous communities of eastern Guatemala and western El Salvador who define themselves as ethnic Xinca. They will be able to ascertain that there are no Xinca people, let alone any Xinca language. The truth is another: they are descendants of the Inca warriors who settled in Mesoamerica from the second half of the 15th century. Guatemala Quechua (the so-called Xinca language) is a text destined to radically change past and present history.
The Incas
The Children of the Sun
Túpac Inca Yupanqui: the “Christopher Columbus”
of Oceania
BRIEF SUMMARY This book definitively demolishes a “myth” of Western official historiography, the European discovery of Oceania. The story told here is well known: on his voyage to circumnavigate the globe between 1519 and 1521, Magellan reached the Mariana Islands in the Pacific. About three decades after the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, Europeans had thus discovered the existence of a new part of the world. It would then take two and a half centuries — until the English explorer James Cook — to have an exact representation of the immense Oceanian continent. Nevertheless… Nevertheless various chronicles from the 16th century report a different story. For example, according to what the Spanish explorer and writer Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa writes in his Historia de los Incas, Túpac Yupanqui, the future Inca emperor, set out to conquer the Pacific Ocean with an impressive fleet of balsa rafts, carrying more than twenty thousand experienced soldiers in 1465. Other chroniclers of the time report similar news: the writer Miguel Cabello de Balboa and the friar Martín de Murúa. What is the truth? Evidence is needed to prove the veracity of a thesis. Scientific evidence. This is what Vittorio Binda — a modern-day explorer — does in this passionate book full of surprising historical reconstructions. The Author cites all the clues and evidence that would already be available to the scientific and academic world on the relationships between the peoples of South America and those of Polynesia in pre-Columbian times. For example, the diffusion in Polynesian and Melanesian archipelagos, such as the Gambier, Marquesas, and Tanga Islands, of legends concerning a leader called Tupa, who came from the east and commanded a fleet of boats and numerous soldiers. Or the presence, on Easter Island, of a façade of a ceremonial centre strikingly resembling the unique architectural style typical of the Inca buildings of the imperial era. Or, again, the “enigma” of the presence of sweet potatoes in the Pacific Ocean, which has been definitively solved thanks to a recent extensive genetic study that clearly revealed that there is a South American genetic signature in the sweet potato varieties found in Polynesia. Considering the many evidences of contacts between the peoples of South America and the peoples of the Polynesian islands in the pre-Columbian era, there has been an effort, in the academic world, to affirm that, if there were any relationships, these were due to the exploits of the Polynesians, expert navigators, and certainly not to the initiative of peoples like the Incas, who lacked the necessary skills and technology to attempt ocean crossings. Binda dismantles this historical falsehood, bringing to attention evidence concerning the great seafaring skills of the Manteños-Huancavilcas and Chinchas civilisations, located on the coasts of present-day Ecuador and Peru. Treated by the Incas more as allies than subjects, the expert navigators of these seafaring cultures were virtually unrivalled in crossing the Pacific Ocean with their efficient, fast and unsinkable vessels, the balsas. They guided and transported Túpac Yupanqui and his twenty thousand soldiers to Oceania. As the book relates, repeated crossings of the Pacific Ocean have been made from South America to Polynesia, Melanesia, and Australia in recent times, using rafts built precisely on the model of the ancient South American balsas, to demonstrate that transoceanic voyages were not only possible, but were not too complicated either in pre-Columbian times. For example, the Spaniard Vital Alsar made two incredible crossings from Ecuador to Australia in 1970 and 1973, with one and three balsas respectively, definitively demonstrating the feasibility of this type of voyage across the Ocean and blatantly debunking the skeptics, who were left speechless. In these two fantastic feats, he travelled a total of 32,924 kilometres, only 7,152 kilometres less than the maximum circumference of the Earth (the terrestrial equator measures 40,076 kilometres). But the queen, indisputable proof of the arrival of the Incas on the islands of the Pacific Ocean lies in the presence of numerous petroglyphs, of sure Andean origin, engraved on the stones of various islands in Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia. Through a capillary and documented reconstruction, the Author shows how all the main ideograms (semantic logograms) of the Pakasqa Codex — the secret writing of the Incas, discovered by the Author himself, who is the last surviving amawt'a (amauta) — are unequivocally carved in the Oceania rocks. By following the petroglyphs on those islands, he is even able to show the reader the most probable route followed by the Inca fleet: South America, Marquesas Islands, Gambier Islands (deviation of part of the fleet to Easter Island to establish an outpost), Society Islands, New Caledonia Archipelago, New Guinea Island, D'Entrecasteaux Islands, Bismarck Archipelago, Pohnpei Island (Ponape) and Weno Island (Chuuk Islands), South America. After more than five centuries, the time has come to re-establish the historical truth. In 1465 Túpac Yupanqui, the future Inca emperor, successfully conducted the largest transoceanic crossing ever attempted up to that time, and can be considered, to all intents and purposes, the “Christopher Columbus” of Oceania. Ironically, Túpac Yupanqui discovered the “Very New World”, Oceania, almost thirty years before the European discovery of the “New World”. This book is the story and together the scientific demonstration of that incredible adventure.
The Incas
The Children of the Sun in Central and North America.
The Mysterious Yuraq Llaqta (Ciudad Blanca)
BRIEF SUMMAY There is an epic of a people forgotten for centuries. There are some characters, among the greatest of mankind, who have been completely neglected. There is a great story never told before. That is what this book does, breaking oblivion and leading readers on an adventurous journey across the American continent. We are in the decades between the 15th and 16th centuries and the protagonists of this adventure are the Incas, the people of the most important and powerful empire of the pre-Columbian era. An empire driven, in its expansionist aims, by an immense thirst for power, but also by the frantic search for gold, the sacred metal sent by the God Inti, the Sun God, the most important divinity of the Inca pantheon. Exploring, for the “Children of the Sun”, meant seeking new riches, new gold: a way to get closer to the divine. It was probably Túpac Yupanqui, the Inca emperor in those years, and, subsequently, his son Huayna Cápac who wanted these explorations. As disclosed by Vittorio Binda, Túpac Yupanqui certainly carried out incredible sea expeditions and long land campaigns before and during his reign. Sailing in the Pacific Ocean, he reached Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia in 1465, before the Europeans and before the discovery of America itself. He personally led military campaigns beyond the borders of the empire, going as far as the extreme south of Chile, what he considered the “end of the Earth”. A lust for expansion which seemed to have no limits in the decades of the reign of Túpac Yupanqui and his son Huayna Cápac, with the empire turning its attention to the rest of the American continent. The Inca troops thus embarked on an unprecedented series of exploratory journeys, from the lands of South America to Central America, from the Caribbean islands to North America and perhaps even as far as Alaska. The Author takes us side by side with the men of the Inca army, the military mitimaes, along the probable exploration routes undertaken in those decades. He does so by reporting historical evidence, archaeological clues and proofs, demonstrations of linguistic heritage, tales and valuable knowledge collected directly on the territory over years and years of research. From the central-northern Colombian departments, we follow the path of the Incas to Venezuela, and then to the Caribbean islands; we accompany their journey through the dense and still impenetrable jungle of the “Tapón del Darién" towards Panamá and Costa Rica, with their rich gold mines, and from there into the Honduran Mosquitia jungle, also called “Little Amazonia” because of its wild and inaccessible forest, where a real city was founded, Yuraq Llaqta (Ciudad Blanca), the Inca El Dorado of Central America. The book shows us the Inca military mitimaes set up a large colony in western El Salvador and southern Guatemala. According to the Author's estimates, at the time of the Spaniards' arrival, some fifty thousand Inca soldiers lived in those territories, ready to invade Central America and the Aztec empire, a plan that failed only due to the unexpected and tragic arrival of the conquistadores in the decades following the European discovery of America. The legacy of their presence is the so-called Xinca language, nowadays practically extinct, but spoken until a few decades ago by indigenous communities in south-eastern Guatemala, who still mistakenly define themselves as ethnic Xinca. This language, as the Author himself discovered, is nothing more than a dialect of Quechua (the thirty-eighth), the language spoken by the Incas. From that founded outpost in Mesoamerica, the same military mitimaes probably reached, in various exploratory expeditions, Mexico, the South-West and North-West of the United States, and, in all probability, even icy Alaska. But how could the Author know that the Incas went beyond the borders of the Andean kingdom to scout such an immense continent in anticipation of future military invasions? Why has no historian told this fact before him? Binda is the discoverer of the Pakasqa Codex, the secret writing of the Incas, which remained hidden from our eyes after the implosion of the Tahuantinsuyo empire following the unexpected arrival of the Spanish conquistadores. Contrary to what is stated in history books, the Incas had their own pictographic-ideographic written language. It was a writing made up of thousands of primary and secondary symbols engraved on the rocks, the meaning of which was decoded and interpreted by the Author himself after decades of study and research. These ideograms carved on stones represent a very special type of rock art, destined to last for centuries, with completely different characteristics from other kinds of petroglyphs present in the world and that are surprisingly only located in three distinct continents: South America, North America, and Oceania. The reason is very simple: the Incas never trod the soil of the other continents. These petroglyphs contained — this is the heart of the matter — messages addressed to the Inca army about the socio-environmental context of the explored territories, useful in view of a possible future campaign of conquest. It is precisely following the presence of the Inca petroglyphs that — in this book — an extraordinary historical truth can be revealed: the Incas, in preparation for possible invasions, explored South America, Central America, and North America on several occasions. The book reconstructs the routes, also with GPS coordinates of the places mentioned, providing precise and detailed evidence that can be ascertained by any scholar with good will and intellectual honesty. After five centuries, this book restores to the world the knowledge of one of mankind's greatest adventures: the exploration of the American continent by the “Children of the Sun”, decades before the Genoese Christopher Columbus discovered it.
The Incas
The Children of the Sun
in Brazil
The legendary Paititi
BRIEF SUMMARY The ancient South American path of Peabiru, two fortresses of enigmatic origins, one in the tropical jungle of the Bolivian department of Beni and another in the Brazilian forest of the State of Rondônia, the mythical city of Paititi, the archaeological mystery of the “Pedra do Ingá”. There are many mysteries that this book, a true journey through time and space, tackles and solves. As you will discover as you read on, there is a common protagonist: the Incas people. And there is a period in history that is still shrouded in fog, that is the decades preceding and following the arrival of the first European conquistadores in South America, events that led to the disappearance of the Inca empire, the greatest civilisation in the New World. The places in Brazil, where Vittorio Binda takes us with the passion of an explorer and the scientific accuracy of someone who has studied that world for decades, represent pieces of a greater history, a history waiting to be rewritten. It is that of the explorations and conquests of the Inca people outside the imperial borders of the Andes. Explorations that, as Binda reveals in his other works, led this incredible pre-Columbian people to trample the distant lands of Central and North America and even those of several islands in Oceania, well before Christopher Columbus and Magellan. The outlined picture shows an empire with powerful expansion ambitions (and it does so by researching gold and precious metals above all), so the book can only start with one road: the Peabiru path. It is the ancient and mysterious indigenous route, thousands of kilometres long, that connected the Atlantic with the Pacific. A sort of very long highway, the most important in pre-Columbian America, which crossed forests, swamps, mountains, and plains. It was through the Peabiru — as reported in the book — that the Portuguese adventurer Alejo Garcia, in 1524-25, that is eight years before the conquistador Francisco Pizarro, penetrated the Inca territory, the first European to do so. What the book reveals is how the Peabiru path was used by the Inca emperor's soldiers in his plans to expand towards the Atlantic, into Brazilian territory towards the end of the 15th or beginning of the 16th century. This is proven, not only by archaeological evidence, but also by a surprising discovery: the presence, in several places along this communication route, of numerous petroglyphs of certain Inca origin. For instance, in the current Brazilian state of Santa Caterina, which overlooks the Atlantic Ocean, there are numerous petroglyphs made by Tahuantinsuyo warriors on their exploration journeys. This revelation — new to historiography and explosive in its consequences — was made possible by the discovery, made by the Author himself, of the Pakasqa Codex, the secret writing of the Incas. An ideographic writing that was engraved by Inca explorers on very hard stones and that had the purpose of describing the socio-environmental situation of the places they crossed, a fundamental source of information in anticipation of any conquest military expeditions. Page after page, we then follow the tracks of the Incas in the thick Bolivian jungle of the department of Beni, until we reach the Amazonian rainforest of the Brazilian State of Rondônia. Along the way we come across two ancient stone fortifications, now in ruins: the “Las Piedras" Fortress and the “Serra da Muralha" Fortress. Two archaeological sites of unclear origin up to now, in territories particularly rich in gold and cassiterite, fundamental metals for Inca metallurgy. Thanks to the presence and interpretation of several petroglyphs of certain Andean origin, it is finally demonstrated how these two fortresses were part of a vast defensive system located on the border of the Tahuantinsuyo empire. The journey in the forest of Rondônia continues along the banks of the Guaporé river, up to the ruins of the enigmatic Labyrinth City (Cidade Labirinto), a singular construction made up of various compartments that obey an unknown logic. Here too, through historical and archaeological evidence and, above all, thanks to the unprecedented interpretation of the rock carvings found on the site, the Author explains once and for all what is really behind the legend of the city of Paititi, the mythical golden city of the Incas located in the Amazon jungle east of the capital Cusco, which from the 16th century until today has been the destination of many expeditions organised by pseudo-scholars, researchers, and adventurers, all infected by the “gold fever”. The reality, as exposed in the book, is quite clear and really disappointing: the Paititi was nothing more than a simple Inca outpost hidden in the jungle surrounding the banks of the Guaporé river, on the edge of the empire, and corresponded to the Labyrinth City. This modest archaeological complex, formed by rustic defensive walls containing crude stone buildings inside, is said to have housed numerous indigenous people who fled Peru after the fall of Cusco to the Spaniards. The real golden city, the El Dorado, spasmodically sought by entire generations of explorers for centuries, was identified by Binda and is the ancient city of Manoa, hidden in the heart of the dense and unexplored jungle of Venezuelan Guyana, at the foot of a gigantic tepuy (i.e. table-top mountain). A completely different story and a completely different place. Always following the indications of the Inca petroglyphs, we retrace the route of the soldiers of the Andean empire along the entire Amazon River and its major tributaries. This brings us to the most important rock art site in all of Brazil: the 'Pedra do Ingá', a large monolith on which many petroglyphs are engraved, and have never been interpreted until now. For the first time, thanks to the discovery of the secret writing of the Incas, it is possible not only to prove the inca origin of this great archaeological site, but also to decrypt its message. Therefore, this book offers us the chance to undertake an exciting journey of exploration. To experience a unique adventure through his captivating narration. An adventure that forces us to review what we know of the past and to redraw the geography and history of the most important pre-Columbian civilisation and one of the greatest ever to appear in the history of mankind, that of the “Children of the Sun”.
PAITITI: INCA MILITARY OUTPOST IN RONDÔNIA (BRAZIL). Discovered by the Author the legendary Lost City of the Incas.
THIS BOOK IS AN EXCERPT FROM THE LARGER PUBLICATION: THE INCAS. THE CHILDREN OF THE SUN IN BRAZIL. THE LEGENDARY PAITITI
BRIEF SUMMARY Everything revolves — as incredible as it might seem — around El Dorado, a place — according to legend — overflowing with gold and immeasurable treasures. Starting from the discovery of the New World, it has been the cause of obsession and delirium for entire generations of adventurers and explorers, who pursued the “golden dream” exploring the Andes mountains inch by inch, travelled the immense Amazonian plains and went up rivers throughout South America. A legend that has remained — precisely — a legend, due to the failure of all the expeditions that have followed one another over the years. Today, after five centuries, this legend is replaced by a solid reality. A truth that Roberto Binda is ready to reveal, with precise and indisputable data and details, in this sensational book. Page after page, we follow the tracks of the Incas in the thick Bolivian jungle of the department of Beni, on the border of the Tahuantinsuyo empire, until we reach the Amazonian rainforest of the Brazilian State of Rondônia. Along the way we come across two ancient stone fortifications, now in ruins: the “Las Piedras" Fortress and the “Serra da Muralha" Fortress. Two archaeological sites of unclear origin up to now, in territories particularly rich in gold and cassiterite, fundamental metals for Inca metallurgy. Thanks to the presence of ample evidence and interpretation of several petroglyphs of certain Andean origin, it is finally demonstrated how these two fortresses were part of a vast defensive system located on the edge of the Inca empire. The journey in the forest of Rondônia continues along the banks of the Guaporé River, up to the ruins of the enigmatic “Labyrinth City” (Portuguese name: “Cidade Labirinto”), a singular construction made up of various compartments that obey an unknown logic. Here too, through historical and archaeological evidence and, above all, thanks to the unprecedented interpretation of the petroglyphs found in the area, the Author explains once and for all what is really behind the legend of the city of Paititi, the mythical golden city of the Incas located in the Amazon jungle to the east of the capital Cusco, which from the 16th century until today has been the destination of many expeditions organised by pseudo-scholars, researchers, and adventurers, all infected by the “gold fever”. The reality, as exposed in the book, is quite clear and really disappointing: the Paititi was nothing more than a simple Inca military outpost hidden in the jungle surrounding the banks of the Guaporé River, on the edge of the empire, and corresponded to the Labyrinth City. This modest archaeological complex, formed by rustic defensive walls containing crude stone buildings inside, is said to have housed later numerous indigenous people who fled Peru after the fall of Cusco to the Spaniards. The real golden city, the one and only El Dorado, spasmodically sought by entire generations of explorers for centuries, has been identified by Binda and is the ancient city of Manoa, hidden in the heart of the dense and unexplored Venezuelan jungle, at the foot of a gigantic tepuy (i.e. table-top mountain). A completely different story and a completely different place. Here, the reality far surpasses any fantasy. We will have to wait for the publication of the Author's next book (The Incas. The Children of the Sun. Manoa (El Dorado): the story of a fantastic discovery) to find out all the details of this incredible adventure that has something of the clamorous.