Colors

Most walls, niches, doorways, and windows at Tambo Colorado were painted in white, yellow, and red colors in various combinations. Max Uhle made a meticulous inventory of the paintings on the walls, niches and windows of most spaces in Palace I. He observed that the colors and color schemes found at Tambo Colorado are not simple decorations but are, as suspected, also of symbolic significance in relation to the function of a room and different quarters of heaven (9/11:68). Uhle suspects that blue/red signifies the Inca himself (9/11:69), the presence of these niches on the Southwestern Palace would drastically reverse his own idea that Palace I was the all important one. It is worth noting that this particular color scheme with blue/red appears neither as the first nor last coat, but as the second or third. If we bear with Uhle’s interpretation, does that mean that the Inca himself “lived there” at some time, but then was replaced by someone else?

Recording all combination of colors used and understanding the changes may help understand the significance of the colors and color schemes. With this in mind, we proceeded to record all the colors and color schemes and their successions used by the Incas on as many walls, niches and windows as possible in Palace I, This recording reveals that out of the 45 theoretically possible combinations, only 17 were in fact applied. Three additional wall painting schemes of 3 colors and 5 and 6 bands also exist. These have not been plotted against all theoretical possibilities as only single instances with no variations are found in the field. A further, singular scheme does not fit any of the above patterns; it consists of a sophisticated triangle design found exclusively in room 47 as the second coat between an earlier and a later, entirely white coats. The inhabitants of Tambo Colorado over time manifested an obvious predilection for some schemes. The following chart shows the frequencies with which each scheme was used.

Craig Morris and Jean-Pierre Protzen suggested the color schemes on the walls might be linked to Maria Rostworowski’s interpretation of the symbolism of colors in a myth recorded by Antonio de Calancha. The known Inca social ranks of kollana, payan and kayao representing a golden, a silver, and a bronze egg having given rise to elite men, women, and common people respectively (9/11:69). COLOR RANK REFERENCE Gold—yellow Kollana Elite men Silver—white Payan (Elite?) women Bronze—red Kayao Common people

Rostworowski’s scheme is interesting because it adds the social stratification, yet it does not explain the color combinations found at Tambo Colorado. If, indeed, the colors stand for the inhabitant of a space, how is one to understand a room painted in the colors white/yellow/red? Our knowledge of the meaning the Incas attached to colors and color combinations is rather limited and our ability to “read” that meaning is, therefore, purely conjectural and only tentative.