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Americas

Ancient places can be found all over America. Their fascinating histories and impressive artifacts open intriguing glimpses to times past, and open up a window on America’s history. Visiting such historical places in America can be an unforgettable experience.

Science is constantly discovering new archaeological places and uncovering more evidence into what we once thought we knew about our history, therefore offering new pieces to the ever changing puzzle of humanity’s past and altering how we interpret it. This section will present American history articles, highlighting the most interesting archaeological sites all over America, as well as new discoveries of ancient places that are worth paying a visit.

Discovery of an elite tomb was made ahead of renovation work in a working-class neighborhood in Lima. Source: Reuters / YouTube

Pre-Colonial Elite Tomb Discovered Under Working-Class Home in Lima

In May 2022 I wrote an Ancient Origins news article about the discovery of “42, syphilis -ridden, colonial Spaniards.” These bodies were unearthed at a 500-year-old hospital in Lima, Peru’s capital...
The Condor pot discovered at Chavín de Huántar 	Source: Antamina

Hidden Tunnels Lead to 3,000-Year-Old Condor Gallery At Chauvín de Huántar

When an archaeologist in Peru squeezed into a tunnel at Chauvín de Huántar in Peru, he discovered a hidden 3,000-year-old chamber. At the center of the ancient space he came across a singular...
A skull of one of the Spanish syphilis patients who died in Lima’s fist hospital that was built just 20 years after Pizarro took over the Inca Empire.		Source: Municipalidad de Lima

Syphilis-ridden Spanish Skeletons Found at Lima’s First Hospital

The remains of 42 syphilis-ridden, colonial Spaniards have been unearthed at a 500-year-old hospital in Lima. But it’s suspected that beneath these poor afflicted souls, might lie the lost mummified...
Screenshot from a 3D animation of the Crotoca site where evidence of the lost Amazonian civilization has been found.	Source: Heiko Prümers DAI / CC BY-NC-ND

LIDAR Identifies Vast Complexes Of A Lost Amazonian Civilization in Bolivia

Researchers in northern Bolivia have used lidar to identify a series of raised platforms and pyramids. Interwoven by a complex hydrological network, these abandoned sacred sites are relics from a...
The Fajada Butte Sun Dagger in Chaco Canyon in New Mexico is a spiral petroglyph that is lit up with brilliant streaks of focused Sunlight at key moments in the year.	Source: YouTube screenshot / Mystery History

Connecting Heaven and Earth: The Sun Dagger of Fajada Butte, New Mexico

Near the entrance to Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, USA is an imposing butte that had sacred significance to the ancestral Pueblo culture, who inhabited Chaco Canyon up until about 1150 AD. On Fajada...
Grave with skeletal remains of a pre-Hispanic woman found at Palenque Archaeological Zone.  Source: INAH Chiapas

Archaeologists in Chiapas, Mexico Unearth Remains of Maya Noblewoman

The Chiapas branch of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) has just reported a notable find in the heavily excavated Palenque Archaeological Zone in the southern part of the...
Excavated walls of the Aztec house, and one of the funerary vessels.	Source: INAH

Aztec House and Floating Gardens Discovered Under Mexico City

Archaeologists performing excavations in Mexico City’s Centro neighborhood dug up more than they bargained for when they uncovered the hidden ruins of an ancient Aztec dwelling, which had apparently...
Anthropomorph in regalia (1.81 meters or 5.9 feet high) from 19th Unnamed Cave, which is now the largest Native American cave art site in southeastern North America.		Source: Photograph by S. Alvarez; illustration by J. Simek / Antiquity Publications Ltd.

The Largest Native American Cave Art Site in SE North America Emerges!

The 19th Unnamed Cave in Alabama, first discovered in 1998 in the southeastern US state, was anonymized to keep it safe from the prying eyes of the larger public. It has now turned out to be the...
The Salar de Uyuni landscape in Bolivia. Source: subbotsky / Adobe Stock

The Gods and an Ancient Andean Calendar at the Salar de Uyuni

Within the Bolivia 2020 Pre-Expedition developed in February 2020 by the Akakor Geographical Exploring team under the direction of Lorenzo Epis, the imposing Salar de Uyuni and surrounding areas in...
New study refutes idea that the settling of the Americas took place earlier than previously thought. Source: JohanSwanepoel / Adobe Stock  By Sahir Pandey

Claims for Early Settling of the Americas Challenged By New Study

When were the Americas settled? When did humans first set foot there? These leading questions continue to baffle scientists and historians alike, as ever emerging new evidence sets the date back, or...
Judaculla Rock in Western North Carolina. Source: Onmountain / CC BY-SA 3.0

The Indecipherable Judaculla Rock

In the mountains of Jackson County in North Carolina lies a large mysterious rock covered in petroglyphs that have yet to be deciphered. For the Cherokee Indians, the rock and and surrounding area is...
This dinosaur leg from 66 million years ago was cleanly severed from the dinosaur’s body by the Yucatan asteroid impact event. Nothing like this has ever been found before!		Source: (Video screenshot / BBC)

Fossilized Leg of Dinosaur Ripped Off by Catastrophic Asteroid Impact Found

Scientists now know that a massive Yucatan asteroid struck the earth 66 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous Period, ultimately causing most species of dinosaur to go extinct. It was the...
Indigenous dogs of America. Source: dinopedia

Dog Meat: Jamestown Colonists Killed and Ate Indigenous Dogs

A new study of dog remains excavated from Jamestown, the first English colony in North America that wasn’t abandoned, presented at the American Association of Biological Anthropologists annual...
INAH collaborates in the exploration of a submerged Maya city in Lake Atitlán, in Guatemala.	Source: INAH

Maya City Sunk in Lake Atitlán Explored By Underwater Archaeologists

In the placid waters of Central America’s deepest lake, an international team of scientists has been engaged in an exciting multi-year research project. Under the authority of Mexico’s National...
Representational image of an Aztec warrior holding a double-ended spear. Source: Warpedgalerie / Adobe Stock

Aztec Weapons: The Horrifying Aztec Armory

The Aztecs were a native Mesoamerican culture that thrived in the forests, jungles, and plains of Central Mexico from 1300 until 1521, when their capital Tenochtitlan was seized by Hernán Cortés and...
The Mexican magic mushroom or Teotlnanácatl mushroom is believed to be one or a mixture of these two psilocybin mushrooms of Mexico: Psilocybe aztecorum and | or Psilocybe mexicana.		Source: alexander_volkov / Adobe Stock

Teotlnanácatl: In Search of the Aztec 'God's Flesh' Psychedelic Mushroom

Magic mushrooms, Shrooms, and the ever-famous Liberty Cap are all familiar terms for the same groovy fungus. Popularized in the western world in the late 50s, psychedelic mushrooms have been used for...
Caracol site in Belize. 	Sources: ivanka84 / Adobe Stock

Caracol: The Most Remote and Magnificent Maya Ruins In Belize

Something of a hidden gem, Caracol is one of the largest Maya sites of Central America, and certainly the largest in Belize, yet it receives far less footfall than other ruins in the region. The...
Archaeologists working at the southwestern Belize rock shelter site where the “migrant” skeletons were found, providing new evidence that Maya corn cultivation culture began about 5,500 years ago as a new idea from somewhere in South America.		Source: Erin E. Ray / Science

Maya Were Likely Taught to Grow Corn by Southern Migrants

A team of archaeologists and genetic scientists have just announced the results of a groundbreaking study of DNA obtained from ancient “migrant” skeletons found in Belize. What they discovered helped...
Sign for Machu Picchu in Peru. But, was it really called Huayna Picchu? Source: LUC KOHNEN / Adobe Stock

The World-Renowned Machu Picchu Name Was Unknown to the Incas

Two researchers have proven that the world-renowned Machu Picchu didn’t exist in the Inca world, but Huayna Picchu did. Does this mean that the enormous marketing machine which generates tourism to...
Top Of The Glacial ice wall.		Source: Ramunas / Adobe Stock

Ice Wall Blocked Americas Land Route Until 13,800 Years Ago Says Study

A long-standing debate about the peopling of the Americas has been whether the first humans arrived there over the Siberia-Alaska land mass called Beringia or by traveling along the Pacific coast in...
Will the Llanganatis treasure ever be found? (Mr.mach /Adobe Stock) Insert: Inca gold figure of a man. (Dorieo/CC BY SA 4.0)

Lost Inca Gold: The Quest for the Llanganatis Treasure

In 1532, following a lengthy civil war with his brother Huascar, Inca emperor Atahualpa was captured by Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro who seized the opportunity to conquer the lands of the...
The amazing ruins of Mitla and the San Pablo Church Domes, where high technology is being used to discover the truth behind the legends of subterranean Mitla.	Source: Rafal Cichawa / Adobe Stock

Searching for the Lost Subterranean Worlds of Mitla, Mexico

Ancient and colonial sources speak of an extensive underground labyrinth of caves and tunnels, considered by the ancient Zapotec to be a physical entrance into the Underworld of Lyobaa , located...
The Monte Alban archaeological site in Mexico. Source: WitR / Adobe Stock

Did Social Balance Lead to Success for Pre-Columbian Monte Albán?

Monte Albán in southern Mexico was different from all surrounding Mesoamerican cities, claims a new study. Not only did neighbors share their resources, but the community seemed to exist without...
The return of the moai to Rapa Nui from Chile. Source: Paula Rossetti

The Return of the Moai: Rapa Nui and the Fight for its Ancestors

Rapa Nui, the original name for Easter Island, is most famous for its giant monolithic moai statues. Located 3,512 km (2,182 mi) off the coast of Chile, Rapa Nui has suffered a history of constant...

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