Evidence of Vitrified Stonework in the Inca Vestiges of Peru

Evidence of Vitrified Stonework in the Inca Vestiges of Peru

• Posted by Dragon Chimes on April 19, 2013 at
  
  

By Jan Peter de Jong & Christopher Jordan



































Vitrified stones are simply stones that
have been melted to a point where they form a glass or glaze. There is
much debate in archaeological circles over the ancient examples under
study for two reasons. Firstly, few cases are known to have been tested
and even if they have, there are many questions over how they were made.

Glassy rocks form naturally under conditions of high temperature and
pressures found in and around volcanoes. Glass or glazes are
traditionally created using a furnace. Furnace or kiln examples are
found on everyday objects such as glassware and ceramics. The ceramics
glazes are created by pasting certain finely crushed stones, sometimes
with tinctures, onto fired pots and plates. The whole is then fired to
temperatures usually in excess of 1000 degrees centigrade.

The difficulty with many of the curious ancient vitrified examples is
that they are found on objects so large that they cannot be placed in a
furnace. The vitrification process itself is quite a mystery. A team of
chemists on Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World subjected rock samples
from 11 forts to rigorous chemical analysis. They concluded that the
temperatures needed to produce the vitrification were up to 1,100°C.
Simply burning the walls with wood interlaced with stone could not
achieve such temperatures. Recent experiments along these lines have had
virtually no success at all.

There are several confirmed cases of unusual vitrified remnants from
across the globe. In Europe, there are several forts and buildings with
vitrified ramparts. The crude stone enclosure walls seem to have been
subjected to the action of heat. No mortar has been found in any of
these structures. Despite this, the rocks seem to be fused together.

This fusion is uneven throughout the various forts and even in a
single wall. Some stones are only partially melted and calcined. Whilst
in others their adjoining edges are fused firmly together. In many
instances, pieces of rock are enveloped in a glassy enamel-like coating,
which binds them into a whole. At times, the entire length of the wall
presents one solid mass of vitreous substance.

It is not clear why or how the walls were vitrified. Some have argued
that it was done to strengthen the wall, but the heating weakens the
structure. Battle damage, as some have proposed, is unlikely to be the
cause. The walls would need carefully maintained fires to ensure
vitrification.



There are about fifty examples that have been discovered in Scotland.
It was thought that these forts were peculiar to Scotland. However,
they are also found in County Londonderry and County Cavan, in Ireland.
On mainland Europe, they have been identified in Upper Lusatia, Bohemia,
Silesia, Saxony and Thuringia. A further example can be found in the
Ucker Lake, in Brandenburg, where the walls are formed of burnt and
smelted bricks. There are also displays in several places in France,
such as Châteauvieux, Péran, La Courbe, Sainte Suzanne, Puy de Gaudy and
Thauron

There are some forts that have been placed on practically infusible
rock. The quartz conglomerates of the Old Red Sandstone at Craig
Phadraic and on the limestone of Dun Mac Uisneachain are good cases.
Here pieces of fusible rocks were selected and carried to the top from a
considerable distance. This demonstrates that the act of vitrification
was deliberate.

There are many more examples from Malta, Egypt, Iraq, Sudan, South
East Asia and others that are speculated to fall into the grouping.
However, these have not all been subjected to scientific testing like
the European cases. They simply appear to be glazed finishes on equally
large objects or on walls that are impossible to fire conventionally. In
many cases, it looks as if there has been the deliberate action of a
great heat.

There has been much discussion about the Inca vestiges in the
Peruvian Andes. It mostly revolves around whether the stones are
vitrified or not. In these cases, vitrification appears to be present on
different kind of stones, and seems to have been caused by deliberate
action. This article will now concentrate on these Peruvian cases where
there are indications of heat treatment.

The vitrified examples under study for this paper come from famous
Peruvian sites, considered to belong to the Incas, in South America. To
the author's knowledge, there have been no scientific tests made on
these stones. This has left the debate open to claims of unusual
polishing techniques, natural degradation, lava flows and many other odd
explanations. The analysis below eliminates some of these ideas.

The vitrified stones of Peru were first brought to popular attention
by Erich von Daniken in the 1970s. He saw the vitrification at
Sacsayhuaman and noted it in his book Chariots of the Gods. Peruvian
Alfredo Gamarra had identified this vitrification earlier. The
identification and cataloging of these intriguing stones has been
carried on by Alfredo's son Jesus Gamara, and Jan Peter de Jong.



In Sacsayhuaman, there are many indications of the use of heat.
Strange marks on the stones like the one on the right can be found;
shiny, completely smooth and with another color to the rest of the rock.

Vitrification appears on different kinds of stones and structures. It
is found on the perfectly fitted walls with irregular blocks. It is
also observed on walls made with regular oblong blocks. It has been
spotted on mountainsides, caves and rocks in situ. The location
arrangements vary as well. Some sites are surrounded or overbuilt by
walls whilst others have single exposed isolated stones. There seems to
have been some very adaptable ancient technology at work. A list of
vestiges where stonework seems to have been treated with this technology
include; Inside the city of Cusco: the walls of Koricancha and Loreto
Street, Sacsayhuaman, Kenko, Tetecaca, Templo de la Luna (or Amaru
Machay), Zona X, Tambo Machay, Puca Pucara, Pisac, Ollantaytambo,
Chinchero, Machu Picchu, Raqchi and in Bolivia in Tiahuanaco.

Archaeologists assume that the perfect fitting stones are the most
developed style of the Incas. Regardless, there is no explanation of the
shiny surfaces that can be observed. These often appear on the borders
where the stones join perfectly. There has been nothing other than
simple geological analysis of these stones to determine what the
phenomenon is. No chemical analysis is known to have been executed. It
is normally assumed that these parts were simply polished by the Incas.


During many visits to the vestiges mentioned, Jesus Gamarra and Jan
Peter de Jong have examined these stones with highly reflective
surfaces. They have captured many of them on video. Through personal
observations and analysis of the video material, they have concluded
that something other than polishing must have occurred.

The material convinces in several ways. Many cases display some or
all of the following qualities mentioned below. The vitrified spots show
discoloration and smoothness around the particular areas. They clearly
look like the stone has been melted just in those spots.

A simple flashlight test was developed, which helps to identify the
layers of glaze or glass. Filming was carried out at night with a
flashlight beam passing through the glaze. This shows the reflection and
diffraction of the light as it passes through the surface.
Sacsayhuaman, Kenko and Loreto Street were all filmed at night using a
flashlight or the nocturnal illumination to capture the effect.



Identifying Vitrified Stones.


The following traits help to identify vitrified stones:

• The melted effect is obvious
  
• Reflection is high
  
• The layer refracts, diffracts and diffuses light
  
• A separate vitrified layer is present on the surface
  
• Damaged layers show a ´film´ on the stone
  
• The glazed layer is independent of rock type
  
• The surface is smooth to the touch even if the surface is irregular
  
• There is often associated heat discoloration surrounding the glaze
  

The diffraction effect can be seen in the video of 'the Inca Throne'
at Sacsayhuaman. The rainbow effect is clearly captured by the camera.
This is directly linked to the light passing through the glass layer and
splitting into its constituent parts. After noticing this effect, it
was also detected on videos of other vitrified stones. This can be
viewed on this short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae_8ri2fiwI, and on the DVD that will be available shortly.

The DVD "The Cosmogony of the 3 Worlds" shows an overview of this phenomenon in the chapter on Vitrified Stones.

This is available on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x81-5SWVtUQ

VITRIFIED STONE SAMPLE ANALYSIS


In order to get a clear idea of what the make up of these intriguing
layers of stone are, a sample has been tested. A small sample from the
Peruvian site called Tetecaca has been collected for further analysis.
This smooth layer has been analyzed by the University of Utrecht,
Holland.



The sample is from a rock outcrop above Cuzco. Inside a cave there is
an altar formed from rectangular shapes made of the rock. Several lines
in the rock have a shiny surface, as if they were branded into the
rock. They are on right lines on the wall of the cave. The walls are cut
out with curved and rectangular forms in them. These are man made
structures, which rules out natural phenomena.

Pictures from inside of the cave, walls with long, straight reflecting lines and an altar structure:

Below is a picture of the spot where the sample was found.

The
white line indicates where the thin section was made. The smooth layer
on the picture is about 2 cm wide and 1.3 cm deep. The sample was
carefully cut into two parts and a thin section was taken for analysis
in the Microprobe, jxa 8600 Pioneer. Several points were measured on the
inside of the sample and on the smooth surface.

RESULTS


Microscope Photos

Photo 1: The Vitrified Surface of the Stone

The sample as photographed by the microscope. It shows two distinct
regions, the surface layer and the body stone. There is a less distinct
intermediate area between the two that seems to transition from stone
body to surface layer. Samples from all three regions were subjected to
detailed analysis.

(The line at bottom is 21 micrometer)

Spectral analysis

Composition of the Surface Layer

Note: The full set of photos, spectra and tables can be found in the full article

The main body of the stone shows the spectral composition for
limestone. High levels of calcium, carbon, oxygen and minor trace
elements are the constituents of limestone. This is not unusual since
the University of Cusco recognize the Sacsayahuaman archaeological park
as being a karst landscape. Many cave systems are made in limestone
bedrock and the sample was from this sort of cave. However, this cave
was worked on by people in the past as is clear by the photos above.

The Vitrified Surface of the stone shows a very different spectrum of
elements to the limestone body. The glaring difference is that Silicon
is the predominant component with much higher concentrations. The trace
elements of Aluminum and Magnesium are also significantly higher than
the body of the stone. Oxygen is also present in double the quantities
found in the body. The quantities of Calcium and Carbon are much lower
than the body sample.

The Silicon, Aluminium and Magnesium seem to indicate that a material
was added to the surface of the stone. The oxygen may have been part of
this matter or it may have been introduced as part of oxidation during
an aerobic heating process. This could have been during the formation of
silicate, SiO2.

The analysis of the intermediate region between the surface and body
of the stone shows a gradation of compositions. This is a surprising
result, it implies either the surface layer was somehow ground and mixed
with the body of the stone. The body limestone somehow merged/melted
with the surface layer. Lastly and most unlikely, the limestone
constituents could have been a part of the added surface layer. If this
last one were true the second and third spectra would have been more
similar.

CONCLUSIONS


The body stone is limestone, but the surface is more complicated. Its
spectrum shows some similarity to Wollastonite, which forms when impure
limestone is subjected to high temperatures and pressures. However, the
impurities that are seen in the surface are not present in similar
amounts in the stone body. This indicates that the compounds in the
surface layer were most likely added. Other stone types may be
comparable, but they cannot have formed naturally in the layer on the
man made surface. It appears they were applied and treated with heat.
This option does have some merits, but it is moving towards the arcane
world of the ceramist.

If an antique ceramic sample is compared to the spectra of the glaze above there is little to separate the two. In the Paper X-Ray Techniques Applied to Surface Paintings of Ceramic Pottery Pi...
there are several comparable results. The samples are from pottery
pieces from Argentina so an exact match is unlikely. These researchers
tested a variety of different colored samples from Argentine pottery
shards, which had residual gold leaf on the surface. The spectra are
surprisingly similar if the gold leaf is ignored along with the
Manganese (Mn) and Iron (Fe). The latter two elements have oxides that
are common colorants in ceramic pastes. This is the source of the
various colors in their research paper. The key constituents Silicon,
Aluminum, Magnesium, Carbon and Oxygen are present in the same ratios.

Whilst the spectra do not show explicitly that the surface is
vitrified, the composition is that of a glaze. It has a different makeup
to the limestone body. This means it is very likely that the glaze was
made from a ceramic paste applied to the limestone surface. This is
clear from the comparison with the ancient glazed ceramic pottery
shards.

The microscope photos above of the surface do not show the amorphous
state of the layer. This can be shown explicitly by electron microscopic
analysis. Further analysis needs to be carried out to confirm the state
of the layer. The different chemical composition makes it very unlikely
that these surfaces were created by polishing. The layer has the
composition, sheen, hardness and glassy texture of a glaze.

The results strongly indicate that heat was used to produce the
surface, which raises several questions. Even if a layer of a ceramic
paste was applied, how was the whole heated to the requisite
temperatures without cracking the limestone? It tends to shatter at
these sorts of heats.

How was the heat produced to treat these structures? Whilst this
sample is from a cave, there are similar structures that are outside
with the same kind of glaze. The same conclusion cannot necessarily be
applied to these other cases.

Chemical analysis is needed, but the similarities with the
investigated sample and other photographed cases, are clear. It is
likely that these other cases are also vitrified. The amount of heat
needed to fire the huge stones on which these glazes are found is
enormous. In furnaces, the whole body has to be raised to the
temperature of the surface glaze. This is done slowly over the course of
many hours. How the heat would have been produced is unknown.

The stones pictured above provoke much debate. Explanations on how
they were produced vary from the use of advanced machines, simple metal
or stone tools, molded stonework, concentrated sunlight and fire
methods. Whilst the analysis above says little about the way the shapes
were made, it does eliminate some ideas on the means of producing these
exquisite finishes.

The finish on the stone sample was not the thickest, shiniest or the
glassiest of the examples. However, its composition and morphology are
the same as a ceramic glaze. This means that heat was somehow applied to
the stone. How the heat was applied is not clear. What is clear is that
an unknown technology has been used. To create ceramics on this scale,
the heat production must have been greater than the normal ceramic
methods.

The most referenced work on the stonework of Peru was produced by
Protzen. His work deals primarily with the carving of the stones with
primitive tools. However, Protzen has looked at these effects and has
suggested it could be achieved with polishing. To date, only Andesite
has been attempted with very limited success. After the analysis of the
surface layer above, it is clear that polishing alone will not produce
the requisite heat needed to produce a ceramic glaze. This eliminates
polishing as a means of creation.

The scale and form of the phenomena also precludes carving and
polishing. It would take truly incredible amounts of time to produce a
single vestige, let alone the thousands that dot the landscape.

Peruvian Alfredo Gamarra has identified vitrification on many stones
and has argued that the ancients had a technology to treat stone with
heat and that the stone was soft at the moment of construction. The
comparison at the spectrum level with clay and ceramic pastes is
interesting. Ceramic pastes and clay are soft prior to being treated
with heat.

Conventional geological understanding is not compatible with this
idea. However, the impression from the vitrified stonework is that the
stone was once soft. In many of the stones, there are places where it
looks as if objects or molds were pressed into the stone. The perfect
fitting stones in the walls of Cusco and the other Inca vestiges could
have been obtained more easily this way.

If the stones were fired in a kiln like bricks, the glaze could be a
result of the extremely high temperatures. It is not uncommon for the
bricks in ancient kilns to get so hot they melt. This usually occurs
near the top of the chamber where the heat rises. The knowledge of
ceramics in ancient Peru suggests this is a distinct possibility. This
prospect however, only arises with the stones that can be placed in a
kiln or stonework that is part of a kiln.

The examples laid onto the sides of huge natural rocks cannot have
been produced by standard fire techniques. The European studies of
vitrified forts and experimental work show that it is not possible to
create the consistent heat required for the smooth finishes. Compared to
the European examples there must have been a much more controlled
process, since the layers in Peru are even over large parts of the stone
surfaces. The scale of giant perfect fitting walls and some vitrified
mountain walls makes the technology question even more complicated than
in Europe.

Another option is the use of sun dishes and concentrated sunlight by
the ancients. This is briefly discussed by Prof. Watkins in his 1990
paper on fine Inca stonework. He did consider these stones to be
vitrified, ''The rock surfaces on Inca stones are similar to those that
have been thermally disaggregated. Indeed, some of the slick surfaces on
the Inca building stones are glazed, so it becomes apparent that the
Incas must have used thermal disaggregation.''

In this seminal paper, his chief concern was the methods of cutting
the stone. Since he was proposing intense heat to cut the stones, it was
not a large step to consider the stones melted. His conclusions have
been much maligned since there had been no analyses performed.

The analysis above does point in this direction, but the location of
the test sample raises issues. Clearly the stone was not moved before or
after the glaze was created. The ceramic paste had to be heated whilst
on the stone vestige. This means light would have to be reflected deep
into the cave. Whilst it is possible that the ancients were capable of
producing flat mirrors for the task, it does seem overly complicated.
This method could work for stones on the surface, but is clearly limited
in its use deep within a cave.

One last possibility is that the cave itself was a kiln. Pots or
vases may have been fired in the cave and the ceramic pastes may have
been applied to protect the stone mass of the structure. There is a lot
of stone discoloration within the cave and innumerable glazed areas.
There are several things that could confirm this view. There would be a
route for the smoke to exit. There would be evidence of soot deposits,
though they may have been washed away over the years. The comparison to
Inca vestiges with vitrification found out in the open air or in places
without a smoke escape, leaves many open questions.

On balance, it has to be admitted that a method is difficult to
define. Further analysis of samples from the various locations needs to
be undertaken to confirm the use of heat in all of the sites. However,
the sample tested shows explicitly that the similarity to ceramic pastes
is near certain. It is obvious to conclude that heat was used. The
treatment method may have been similar to the technology used for
ceramic pastes, only on a much larger scale. It is suggested that
further investigations are carried out at the geochemical level to shed
more light on what happened to these stones and what technology was
used.




Tags: ancient, civilizations, megalith, peru, stones, stonework




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