The pattern that emerged from this research revealed, first, how completely Andean society, from as early as 500 BC, was patterned on what they saw in the sky and, second, the supreme importance of the Milky Way in Andean religious thought. Called 'Mayu', meaning 'river', the Milky Way was believed by the Andean peoples (as with peoples all over the world to constitute a causeway linking the living to their gods and their ancestors.

The myths decoded by Dr Sullivan clustered around two dates. The first, c. 200 BC - when, due to precessional shift, the Milky Way began to rise with the solstice suns - is identical to the archaeological date for the beginning of agricultural civilisation at Lake Titicaca, to the south of the Inca heartland. The Andean myth for this event is that of a tall, bearded god, Wiraqocha, who created the Sun, Moon and stars at the lake.

The second date, c. AD 650, marks another precessional shift: for the first time in more than 800 years, the Milky Way ceased to rise with the June solstice sun. Andean myth records this event as the moment when the creator god Wiraqocha 'left the earth' at the precise moment when the 'bridge' formed by the June solstice sun in the Milky Way sank into the waters of precessional time. And archaeology tells us that, in about AD 650, generalised warfare broke out for the first time and the militaristic, secular empire of the Wari took control of the Andean region.

This mythical database, to which the Incas were heir, recorded major, simultaneous changes in the social and celestial spheres, appearing to link events above and below. This way of viewing the world would, according to Dr Sullivan, have profound effects on the Incas and the formation of their empire.

Decoding the myths
Glossary
Timeline