Jul
1
Ancient Inca Sun Pillars Still Mark June Solstice
Filed Under Incas, Recent Discoveries, Machu Picchu
(Above: The Torreón at Machu Picchu is a tower built around a stone that still has a carved groove in it. Once a year, the groove is illuminated as the rising sun shines through one window each June solstice. The window also frames the Pleiades constellation, which was used by the Incas to decide when to plant potatoes. At its height in the early 16th century, the Incas’ 2,500-mile-long empire was littered with celestial observatories, which aided the Incas in the precise sowing and reaping of various crops–KM).
When the Sun Hits the White Granite Boulder, it’s the Solstice
By Nicholas Asheshov
Caretas
On June 21, just over a week from now, the winter solstice, easily the most important day in the ancient Andes, falls due and brilliant rays of sun will be flooding just after dawn through carefully-designed Inca windows onto sharp once-a-year marker stones…
May
29
1,500-Year-Old Moche Indian Lord’s Tomb Discovered in Peru
Filed Under Northern Kingdoms of Peru, Recent Discoveries
“King of Bling” Tomb Sheds Light on Ancient Peru
National Geographic News
April 10, 2009
Packed with treasure in the styles of two ancient orders, the 1,500-year-old tomb of the Moche Indian “king of bling” is like no other, according to archaeologist Steve Bourget.
Discovered in Peru at the base of an eroded mud-brick pyramid, the tomb gradually yielded its contents last summer.
Among the finds: 19 golden headdresses, various pieces of jewelry, and two funerary masks, as well as skeletons of two other men and a pregnant woman.
Apr
21
Ancient Painting Discovered on Giant Rock at Machu Picchu
Filed Under Recent Discoveries, Machu Picchu
UCA Professor Finds Ancient Rock Painting in Peru
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
April 17, 2009
CONWAY - A University of Central Arkansas professor said Thursday that he has discovered an ancient rock painting at an Inca burial site in the Peruvian Andes and believes the work could be anywhere from 500 to 2,000 years old.
Apr
14
Eliane Karp-Toledo and her husband, Alejandro Toledo, at his inauguration in 2001 at Machu Picchu
Peruvian Blasts Yale
Yale Daily News
April 7, 2009
As a crowd of students, faculty and even a few Peruvians hissed and clapped, Eliane Karp-Toledo, the former first lady of Peru, called for the immediate return of all Inca artifacts housed at Yale last night.
Mar
4
Brad Pitt Slated to Star in the Amazonian Mystery Thriller, “The Lost City of Z”
Filed Under Amazon Jungle, Recent Discoveries
(Note: Paramount Productions has announced that Brad Pitt will star in an upcoming film set in the Amazon (and filmed in Bolivia) called “The Lost City of Z,” based on the non-fiction book of the same name. In the film, which Pitt’s “Plan B” production company will produce, Pitt will portray the English explorer, Percy Harrison Fawcett. The latter disappeared somewhere in the Brazilian Amazon in 1925 while hot on the trail of a supposed “lost city.” No trace of Fawcett or of his travelling companions was ever found–KM)
Feb
17
Massive Amazon Oil Discovery Threatens Peru’s Uncontacted Indians
Filed Under Amazon Jungle, Uncontacted Tribes
Groups say Peru oil project threatens Indians
The Associated Press
January 26, 2009
LIMA, Peru: The development of a remote oil field in Peru’s Amazon jungle could threaten the survival of isolated Indian communities in the region, an Indian rights group said Monday.
This month, Peru’s Finance Ministry approved plans submitted by Anglo-French oil company Perenco SA to invest $1 billion over the next three years to extract crude from an oil field in the northern province of Loreto near Ecuador’s border.
An international tribal-support organization and local Indian rights groups say the oil field is the ancestral home of up to three nomadic Indian communities living in voluntary isolation.
Jan
14
“Spider God” Temple Found in Peru
National Geographic News
October 29, 2008
A 3,000-year-old temple featuring an image of a spider god may hold clues to little-known cultures in ancient Peru.
People of the Cupisnique culture, which thrived from roughly 1500 to 1000 B.C., built the temple in the Lambayeque valley on Peru’s north coast.
Dec
18
Debate Continues Over Whether A German Discovered Machu Picchu
Filed Under Did a German Discover Machu Picchu?, Peru-Yale Controversy
The ruins of Peru’s Machu Picchu in 1913 (photo by Hiram Bingham)
Debate Rages in Peru: Was a Lost City Ever Lost?
December 8, 2008
NYT
CUSCO, Peru — From the postcards bearing his swashbuckling, fedora-topped image to the luxury train emblazoned with his name that runs to the foot of the mountain redoubt of Machu Picchu, reminders are ubiquitous here of Hiram Bingham, the Yale explorer long credited with revealing the so-called Lost City of the Incas to the outside world almost a century ago.
But in recent months, a confluence of contrary events has threatened to upend the legacy of Mr. Bingham, the ostensible model for the fictional Indiana Jones…
Dec
14
Peru Files Lawsuit Against Yale University Over Machu Picchu Artifacts
Filed Under Peru-Yale Controversy
Peru sues Yale University to recover “Machu Picchu” artifacts
Living in Peru
December 10, 2008
Peru has quietly filed a lawsuit against Yale University, officially turning a nearly century-long dispute over the rightful ownership of Inca artifacts into a legal battle, reported Wednesday Yale Daily News…
Dec
2
Inca-Era Mummy Discovered Near Machu Picchu
Filed Under Peruvian Mummies, Did a German Discover Machu Picchu?, Recent Discoveries, Machu Picchu
(Note: Readers of this blog will recall that a German adventurer, Augusto R. Berns, claimed to have discovered a cave full of Inca mummies on a piece of property he… Read more