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A lidar map of the city of Kunguints in the Ecuadorian Amazon reveals ancient streets lined with houses.

Oldest Known Ancient Amazonian Cities Uncovered in Ecuador!

An extensive civilization like nothing ever discovered before has been revealed in the Amazon jungle of Ecuador! This latest discovery is believed to be the oldest human settlement known in the...
Papier mache masks on sale for making effigies or “monigotes” to burn during New Year’s Eve celebrations in Ecuador. Source: Iryna / Adobe Stock

Ecuadorian Effigies Share Last Will and Testament on New Year's Eve

In Ecuador, New Year’s celebrations are steeped in unique traditions and peculiar rituals. One such eccentric custom is the creation and burning of Año Viejo effigies on the night of the 31st...
A shrunken head of Jivaro on display.  Source: Tylwyth Eldar / CC BY-SA 4.0

Jivaro's Macabre Mastery: The Enigmatic Shrunken Heads of Jivaro

Headhunting is a practice that has been carried out by numerous cultures throughout the world. For instance, during the Qin Dynasty in ancient China, it is claimed that soldiers collected the heads...
Representational image of man with slingshot. Source: emerald_media / Adobe Stock

Andean Pucara Was a Deadly Slingshot Contest to Ensure Fruitful Harvest

Southern Ecuador was once home to a fascinating indigenous game which was a literal battle for survival. Deeply rooted in the cultural traditions of the provinces of Azuay and Cañar, Pucara , also...
Man wearing iconic “Panama hat,” which is actually an Ecuadorian toquilla or Montecristi hat. Source: Steve Cukrov / Adobe Stock

Panama Hat’s Are Not from Panama, But Pre-Hispanic Ecuador

The iconic Panama hat entered public consciousness by gracing the heads of cherished film stars like Gary Cooper and Humphrey Bogart. But did you know that the Panama hat actually originated in...
Isabel Gramesón survived alone in the Amazon jungle during her quest to be reunited with her husband. Source: Chernyakov Aleksandr / Adobe Stock

Isabel Gramesón Walked 3,000 Miles Across The Amazon For Love

Back in the 1730s, a group of daring Frenchmen embarked on a mission to calculate the true size and shape of the Earth. Led by Charles Marie de la Condamine as part of the famed French Geodesic...
Utagawa Hiroshige's Sailing Boats at Arai (Public Domain)

Did Ancient Japanese Fishermen Reach South America 5,000-Years-Ago?

The notion that pre-Columbian cultures from Europe, Africa, or Asia sailed across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to discover America, is a popular theory backed by numerous books and television...
Left; Ecuadorian tsantsa or shrunken head on display at the Chatham-Kent Museum in Chatham, Right; Micro-CT scan of the same. Source: Left; PLoS ONE, Right; Andrew Nelson/Western University

Canadian Researchers Prove Old Shrunken Head Found in Museum is Human

A team of Canadian researchers have accomplished a feat that up to now had proven impossible. As they explain in an article just published in the journal PLOS One , they used clinical computed...
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...
Are the Yumbo lost forever? Source: Ammit / Adobe Stock.

Pre-Inca Tulipe and the Yumbo: Traders Ahead of their Time?

The Yumbo of Ecuador first came to their Sacred Valley of Tulipe in around 800 BC. They were at that time peace-loving farmers. But what they left behind showed that, with their skills as merchants...
Large ceramic funerary urns discovered within a mound found in the Los Ríos province of Ecuador. Source: Instituto Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural/YGV Prensa Digital

Ancient Indigenous Funerary Urns Unearthed in Ecuador [Images]

This week an unassuming Ecuadorian hacienda became a site of archaeological interest. Workers accidentally discovered a mound containing multiple Pre-Hispanic ceramic funerary urns while using heavy...
The Great Inca Emperor Pachacuti: The Famous “Earth Shaker” Of Peru

The Great Inca Emperor Pachacuti: The Famous “Earth Shaker” Of Peru

Embarking on the journey of establishing your very own empire is without a doubt a hefty and daunting task. But for the famous Inca ruler Pachacuti, it was a fated endeavor. Through ruthless conquest...
Aerial view of the ancient Inca cemetery recently discovered in Ecuador.

Mysterious Artifacts Found in Ancient Inca Cemetery in Ecuador

The construction of a long-awaited irrigation water tank will have to wait a little longer for farmers living in the central region of Ecuador. When work began they found ancient human remains and...
Students make protective plaster wrappings for asphalt-preserved giant sloth bones at the Tanque Loma tar pit locality in southwestern Ecuador. (Martin Tomasz / La Brea Tar Pits)

Giant Sloth Death Pit Reveals Death By Feces Ingestion

The fossilized remains of 22 Ice Age, elephant sized sloths have been found preserved in 20,000-year-old asphalt in Ecuador. The discovery of this giant sloth death pit is revealing a virtual Bible...
There were two main goals to the Tayos expedition 2019 – exploring cave entrances and discovering more about the rock formations. Source: All images are copyright Ancient Origins.

Cueva de los Tayos Expedition 2019: Finding Answers in Amazonia

The Cueva de Los Tayos Expedition 2019 was an adventure no one will forget! Our expedition had two main goals – to find more cave entrances and to solve the mystery of the rock formations we called...
An artistic representation of the Yamanasaurus lojaensis. (Jorge González) Some of the fossils of the titanosaur that were found in Loja province, Ecuador. (Federico Kukso/Twitter)

A Titanosaur in Ecuador? New Dinosaur Discovered!

The fossils of a previously unknown titanosaur have been found in Ecuador. The medium to small-sized dinosaur lived 85 million years ago, during the Upper Cretaceous period. Its remains were...
Infant discovered at Salango, Ecuador, with a skull helmet. Source: Twitter.

Ecuadorian Infants Discovered Wearing Child Skull ‘Helmets’

Archaeologists in Ecuador have found two buried infants wearing “helmets” fashioned from the skulls of two other children. The ritual complex and funerary platform of Salango on the central coast of...
A fake shrunken head.

Headhunting and Shrunken Heads: Gruesome Ancient War Trophies

Headhunting is a practice that has been carried out by numerous cultures throughout the world. For instance, during the Qin dynasty in ancient China it is claimed that soldiers collected the heads of...
Example of a typical Valdivia ceramic figurine. (Alicia McDermott)

Curious Ceramics: Traces of Mysterious Pre-Hispanic Culture Emerge in Ecuador

Archaeologists working at the pre-Hispanic site of Real Alto near the coast of Ecuador have discovered the remnants of a mysterious culture dating to the earliest stages of inhabitation in the...
An uncontacted tribe in the jungle of Brazil

The Uncontacted Frontier: Tribes of the Amazon Want To Be Left Alone

The Amazon rainforest is home to more uncontacted tribes than anywhere else in the world. It is hard to imagine that even today, there are more than 100 tribes who have never seen anything outside...
A Las Vegas culture skull excavated in Loma Atahualpa, Ecuador in 2018 is part of the oldest burials found in the country to date.

Newly Discovered 10,000 Year Old Las Vegas Culture Burials are the Oldest in Ecuador

Las Vegas doesn’t just refer to the ‘city of lights’; for archaeologists in Ecuador Las Vegas also denotes an ancient culture that once thrived on the Pacific coast. But just because a culture is...
A corridor in the Tayos Caves

Who Stole the Gold? Part 3: Blow Smoke and Look the Other Way…

[Read Part 1] [Read Part 2] This is the thrilling conclusion to the investigation on the true mystery regarding the Tayos Caves – what has happened to the pure, prestigious, and lustrous golden ore?...
Left: Father Crespi with a metallic artifact at the church of Maria Auxiliadora. Right: Nivello, Hall, Moricz, Pena & Punin 1975.

Who Stole the Gold? Part 2: There is a lot of Smoke, But are There Any Smoking Guns?

[Read Part 1] This investigation acknowledges that more than one party was in involved in illegal gold extraction, and that gold may have been extracted in more than one form. That said, let’s...
The open chamber near the first descent in the Tayu Jee branch of the Tayos Caves.

Who Stole the Gold? The Smoke Clears Around the Tayos Caves in Ecuador

The Tayos Caves ( Cuevas de los Tayos in Spanish) in Ecuador are a subterranean complex that forms part of the incredible Napo System of Caves stretching from Venezuela to Chile. The Tayos Caves have...

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