Latest Archaeological sites in Peru Stories
Researchers say that nature lashed out against civilization 3,600 years ago, by using earthquakes and floods, followed by blowing sand, which drove away residents of an area that is now in Peru."This maritime farming community had been successful for over 2,000 years, they had no incentive to change, and then all of a sudden, boom, they just got the props knocked out from under them," anthropologist Mike Moseley of the University of Florida said in a statement.Moseley and other...
The mystery of why ancient South American peoples who created the mysterious Nazca Lines also collected human heads as trophies has long puzzled scholars who theorize the heads may have been used in fertility rites, taken from enemies in battle or associated with ancestor veneration.A recent study using specimens from Chicago's Field Museum throws new light on the matter by establishing that trophy heads came from people who lived in the same place and were part of the same culture as those...
Archaeologists exploring northern Peru's Cerro Patapo archaeological site have unearthed the ruins of an entire city, investigators said Tuesday.The discovery was made about 14 miles from the Pacific coast city of Chiclayo.The find, which likely dates to the Wari culture that existed in the area between 600-1100 AD, may provide the "missing link" between two ancient cultures, scientists said. If the assumption holds true, the discovery would connect the ancient Wari civilization...
The government of Peru has sued Yale University in the U.S. courts seeking the return of Incan mummies, bones and pottery excavated decades ago. Hiram Bingham III, a Yale lecturer in South American history and future U.S. senator from Connecticut, rediscovered the city of Machu Picchu, high in the Andes, in 1911. The Peruvian lawsuit claims that many of the most significant artifacts Bingham removed from the site remain at Yale, violating his agreement with the government, The Hartford...
A mummy was unearthed Tuesday in Peru's Huaca Pucllana ruins, by archeologists who think the findings may have originated with the ancient Wari culture that flourished before the Incas. The tomb also contained the remains of two other adults and a child-who researchers believe was sacrificed.Researchers say the discovery is the first intact Wari burial site at Huaca Pucllana in the capital Lima."We'd discovered other tombs before," said Isabel Flores, director of the ruins....
If any of your readers are looking for a really challenging project in the months ahead, may I suggest they look at our two forthcoming trips to the legendary lost city of Machu Picchu? Marie Curie Cancer Care is organising two 10-day expeditions, leaving in November of this year and May of next, following the spectacular 500-year-old Inca Trail. The 10-day itinerary allows adequate time for acclimatisation and for sightseeing as well as the four days spent on the trail itself. It costs...
The infamous Peruvian Inca citadel - Machu Picchu - may soon join UNESCO's growing list of endangered World Heritage sites. Yearly visits to Peru's top tourist destination have more than doubled in the last ten years to 800,000 people. Conservationists now warn landslides, fires and creeping development threaten the site.UNESCO officials will discuss research into the jungle-shrouded ruins this week at a World Heritage Committee meeting in Quebec City. The goal of conference organizers is to...
LIMA, Peru - The sophisticated design and colorful artwork found in a 4,000-year-old temple unearthed near Peru's northern desert coast suggests that early civilization here was more complex than originally thought, archaeologists said.Ventarron, a 7,000-square-foot site - a bit larger than a basketball court - with painted walls and a white-and-red mural of a deer hunt, points to an "advanced civilization," said the lead archaeologist who excavated the site last week."We have...
LIMA, Peru (AP) - Carbon dating tests and excavation of a colorful pre-Incan temple indicate that it was built thousands of years ago by an advanced civilization, a prominent archaeologist said in comments published Sunday by a Peruvian newspaper.Unearthed in Peru's archeologically rich northern coastal desert, the temple has a staircase leading to an altar that was used for worshipping fire and making offerings to deities, Walter Alva, who headed the three-month excavation, told El...
By Claudia Parsons NEW YORK (Reuters) - Peru plans to sue Yale University to recover thousands of artifacts excavated from Machu Picchu more than 90 years ago, after negotiations broke down and the sides accused each other this week of bad faith. Peru is seeking the return of some 4,900 artifacts from the Inca citadel, including ceramics, cloths and metalwork. Peru says they were lent to Yale for 18 months in 1916, but the New Haven, Connecticut, university has kept them ever since....
