Motion picture film

Museum number:

26-15

Permalink:

ark:/21549/hm21260000015

Accession number:

Acc.3916

Description:

Inca Highway Expedition. Finished film w/ sound track. Refer to accession envelope for full description.

Donor:

Richmond Lawrence

Collection place:

Paracas peninsula, Pisco Province, Department of Ica

Verbatim coll. place:

S. America:Peru; Paracas Peninsula

Culture or time period:

Chimú culture (ca. 900-1470 AD), Inca (1438–1533), and Quechua

Collection date:

before 1984

Object type:

ethnography

Object class:

16mm (photographic film size), Black-and-white films (visual works), Motion pictures (moving images), and Motion pictures (visual works)

Department:

Still and motion photography

Dimensions:

length 900 feet

Comment:

From Arizona state description of finished film: Director: Presumably Jack Douglas Production Date: 1958; airdate January 20, 1958 on ABC (Season 2, Episode 21) Producer: Julian Lesser Narrator: Host, Jack Douglas Run Time: 0:24:21 Establishing shot: Named locations: Chan Chan (9:39); Graveyard of Kings (11:51); Chala (13:42); “Temple of the Sun” (19:05); Machu Picchu (20:14). Major themes covered: expedition search for The Highway of the Sun, the 10,000 mile Inca highway system—as seen on the TV series, Bold Journey Native activities shown: Inca activities implied or alluded to in the film: being “terrifically afraid of water” (11:19); building roads above watermark to avoid flooding (11:30); ditch irrigation system (11:39); burial rites of Peruvian (Inca?) kings (13:12); Inca troops using Chala as rest stop (14:40); running along highway to deliver food, supplies, messages (15:20); putting up wooden bridges over rivers (17:40); covering seats of Temple of the Sun with gold (19:13); collecting tolls from/keeping track of users of highway (19:40) . Chimu activities implied or alluded to in the film: smelting copper, gold and silver (10:11); storing water in reservoirs and letting water out periodically throughout the year (10:37). Quechua activities depicted in the film: loading mules for members of von Hagen expedition (18:15) Unidentified indigenous (presumably Quechua) peoples’ activities depicted in the film: two women wearing bowler hats explaining something to one of the members of the von Hagen expedition (16:20); herding llamas up steps in highway (19: 25). Individuals Named: Atahualpa (19:19).

Legacy documentation: