Alba Menéndez Pereda

ALBA MENENDEZ PEREDA, then a graduate student at University of California, Los Angeles, California, was approved funding in April 2024 to aid research on “Making and Experiencing Sacredness: The Architecture and Ephemerality of the Coricancha,” supervised by Dr. Stella Nair. The project examined how the Inca and their descendants conceived of, materialized, and experienced sacredness at the Coricancha between 1440 and 1650 C.E. Located in the former imperial capital of Cuzco, present-day Peru, the Coricancha served as the center of Inca state religion before being converted into a Catholic convent. This historical context makes it an ideal site through which to inquire into Inca sacredness under different cultural systems. The grantee adopted a holistic and non-invasive methodology. Thus, in collaboration with local archaeologists and museum professionals, a multimedia approach that combined the investigation of extant architecture at the site, its acoustics, as well as the analysis of legacy archaeological collections, and documentary sources was embraced. Preliminary results indicate that changes to the architectural fabric of the Coricancha-Convento have been constant since its initial construction; not only was the architecture of the Inca sacred center carefully designed but so were its acoustics; the artifacts examined within this project provide evidence of the cultural diversity of the people who interacted with the temple during imperial Inca times; and, finally, notarial records shed light on colonial-period Inca descendants’ active engagement with the convent.