Inca Art and Culture in My Collage for LMAC #133

Greetings to everyone on this Monday morning. I'm offering a collage today that was built upon @shaka's template photo in this week's LMAC Collage Contest, #133.

Here is the template photo presented by @shaka

The first thing that caught my eye was the terraced farming in the background. From that I thought of Peru and then, of course the Incas. So the theme of my collage deals with Inca culture.

Fire
Incas believed that fire was sacred. They thought they could contact spirits through fire. An intermediary, a yacarca, would chew cocoa leaves, blow into the flame with tubes, and wait for the voices to speak through him. Also, priests would examine the remains of a sacrificed llama to get instructions about how to proceed in affairs of state. (Derived from Britannica online)

Sun
Incas worshipped Inti, who was the sun god and ruled above other gods. Inti's sister was the moon. The brother was depicted as a human face with sun rays spreading out and the sister was depicted on a silver disc. Inti was considered the ancestor of all Incas and was beloved by farmers because of his life-giving rays. (Derived from Britannica online)

Inti Image

Credit: Anonymous. Public domain.

Sacrifice
Sacrifice was incorporated into the daily routine of the Incas. They sacrificed humans and animals. Each day a fire would be lit and corn toasted as an offering to the rising sun. Many llamas (white) would be sacrificed... a hundred each month. And the largest sacrifice of human children ever found was unearthed at the Peruvian city of Huanchaco.

Male Figure Used in Capacocha Ritual (Sacrifice of Children)

Credit:TomR (Thomas Ruedas) Used under CC 3.0 license

My Collage

Once I decided on a theme that would focus on Inca culture, I began to look for appropriate images. Of course I would need a brilliant sun, and an eye-catching fire. Where to look but in the LMAC Gallery, LIL.

There I found @onyechi's golden orb

And @muelli's dramatic fire.

Now I needed artifacts and background from the Incas and Peru.

A terraced mountain scene

_{Văn Ngọc Tăng on Unsplash}

Ruins from the Sacred Valley of the Incas

_{Sylvia Fang on Unsplash}

Ornaments (stone/stucco?) from Inca culture

_{JustinKello0 on Pixabay}

Gold Ornaments (Gold was precious to the Incas)

_{webtcr on Pixabay}

Carving of a face (perhaps the god Viracocha) in the city of Huanchaco.

_{LorettaLynn on Pixabay}

And the Inca King Pachacutec

_{Azzedine Rouichi on Unsplash}

I added color to the (stone/stucco?) ornament and the carving from Huanchaco. Also added color to one of the stone artifacts from the Sacred Valley ruins. I used GIMP, Paint and Paint 3D to achieve different effects.

Here is a still of how it all came together:

LIL, LMAC and the LMAC Team

I don't compete in the LMAC contest, although I try to make a collage every week. Being part of the community that @shaka created, and leads today, is a source of great satisfaction to me. Please take a look at the community page and view the amazing collages that have come in for this round of the contest.

The LIL library is an outgrowth of @shaka's vision. Of course Lily, our librarian/bot, owes her personality and facility to our master coder/developer, @quantumg. And, the community would sputter without the attention of our bilingual moderator/curator, @mballesteros.

All of Hive is welcome to borrow from LIL and everyone may contribute to the image library. Rules and procedures may be found here. Also, we invite everyone on Hive to join in our contest, when the next round (#133!) begins on Thursday.

Thank you for reading my blog
Hive on!