Conopa- Inca ArtifactArtifact
Also known as: Illa
Description
A herder kept a stone llama; a farmer, a stone ear of corn. These conopas, fed with chicha and llama fat through cavities carved into the stone, channeled abundance into the household. When the Spanish came to destroy them, families hid them — and many were never found.
Mythology & Lore
Sacred Stones of the Household
Conopas were small carved stone figures kept within Andean households as sources of fertility and protection. They took the shapes of the resources most vital to their owners: llamas for herding families, ears of corn for maize farmers. Each conopa was understood as a concentrated source of generative force that sustained the resource it depicted. Owners fed them with offerings of chicha and llama fat, placed into small cavities carved into the stones for this purpose. Arriaga documented how households maintained conopas across generations, inheriting them as treasured heirlooms.
Targets of Extirpation
Spanish campaigns to extirpate indigenous religion specifically targeted conopas. Priests like Pablo José de Arriaga and Cristóbal de Albornoz compiled detailed instructions for identifying and confiscating these household figures. Thousands were seized and destroyed during the seventeenth century, yet their small size made them easy to conceal. Many families hid their conopas from the extirpators and maintained household rituals in secret. The tradition persists today: small stone figures called illas are still kept in Andean homes and carried by herders.