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Although there is evidence of ancient communities in Peru dating back many thousands of years, only scanty knowledge about the daily lives of their inhabitants has been gleamed from the scattered remnants of such ancient cultures as the Chavin, Chimu, Huari, Moche, Nazca, Paracas, and Tiahuanacu. The area has been acknowledged as a catalytic crucible for the emergence of a millennia long string of diverse cultures, despite a lack of evidentiary information about Peru and the Andes. For instance, researchers found small metal foils made around 1400 to 1100 BCE at the base of a flat topped, 71 feet high, pyramid at Mina Perdida, a site in the central coastal area of Peru. After viewing the metal foils in the context of the surrounding buildings, where the walls had been decorated with intricate sculptures of deities, the conclusion was drawn that the metal foils were religious in nature. Recent archaeological findings have also shed some light on the religious practices of the Incas. Thousands of five hundred year old mummies have recently been retrieved from a site near Lima, Peru, along with animal skins, food, and pottery. The mummified bodies come from all levels of Inca society, and, the high ranking ones were adorned with feathered headdresses. At another Inca site on top of Mount Ampato, an arrangement of statuettes dressed in feathers and woolens was found where a female child underwent the mysterious practice of "capacocha" (an honored ritual sacrifice to propitiate the gods). Furthermore, anthropologists who discovered the frozen, five hundred year old remains of three Incas on the snow covered, sacred Peruvian peak of Mount Ampato in 1995 ACE, also found artifacts at the site that revealed new information about the Inca, indicating that they used poles and tents rather than the traditional stone structures attributed to them.
Religion and spirituality
were important to all of the Peruvian cultures, both pre-Inca and Inca, who all
believed in immortality. Besides the creator god Vairacocha, there were also a
wide array of Nature Deities. Lakes, rivers, mountains, stones, and agriculture
fields all had "Huaca" who were magical, holy spirits. Temples were made from
gathered Huaca stones which transformed them into sacred places. Religion was a
practical part of daily life.
Pre-Columbian Peruvian South Americans and the Inca called the Nature Spirits and Elementals Huaca. This "apotheosis" or deification of the quintessences of the Natural World was given to fields, lakes, mountains, rocks, streams, and trees who were perceived as magical hallowed spirits. Besides connotating Nature Dieties, the term was also applied to places of reverence like Sacred Springs and Holy Wells. Shamanic Peruvian gods and goddesses who had animistic shapeshifting abilities were also called Huacas and had the term incorporated into their names. The ancient Peruvian and Inca heavenly Higher World was called Hanan Pacha. After crossing a bridge of woven hairs, only the spirits of the ethical, honest, honorable, just, moral, righteous, truthful, and virtuous were able to get into this paradisiacal realm. Vairacocha was the Creator god of the Incas, the Creator god revered by the Huari, and a distant relative of the Chavin sky god. Chronicle records tell the tale of a fair skinned compassionate man with a white beard named Vairacocha who was the chief of the fair skinned Vairacochas who wore long white robes and lived at Tiahuanaco. He was depicted with a sunlike radiant nimbus around his head. According to researchers, the Inca, who called themselves The Children of the Sun, made pilgrimages to the Island of the Sun in Lake Titicaca on the border of Peru where there was a sacred rock from which the Sun and Moon originated. Viracocha (Vairacocha, Vira Cocha) was an Inca Precolumbian father god who was the patron of the arts and crafts, administrative rulers, and shamans. He was called "Peruvian Heavenly Father", "Powerful Divine Protector Intermediary", and "Heroic Shamanic Journey Teacher".
Mamacocha (Mama Qoca, Mama
Cocha) was an Inca Precolumbian South American mother goddess who was the
patroness of coastal areas, fishermen, and mariners. She was called "Peruvian
Bounty of the Sea Mother", "Nurturing Provider of Abundant Sustenance", and
"Shamanic Preserver of Natural Ways"...Continue on
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Peru
Peruvian Ancient Civilization 
