Spanish conquistadors couldn't believe their eyes while exploring the rugged terrain of the Andes during their invasion of Peru. On entering Inca territory in the 16th century, they were bowled over...
In 1996, Jose Luis Delgado Mamani, a local tour guide in Peru, discovered an ancient archaeological site carved into Hayu Marca Mountain near Lake Titicaca, in the Andes Mountains of Peru, near the...
A brilliant new study on unkus , a type of standardized Inka tunic, has shed light on a rather important matter of socio-political organization – that of centralization of power. Based on the unku...
A long time before the Inka reigned, there were in those parts men in the manner of giants, as grown as they showed the figures that were sculpted in the stones. Pedro de Cieza de León Crónica de...
The Inca were an impressive people. From the 1400s to 1532, they created an empire so large it spread from modern Ecuador to central Chile. Master builders that rivaled the ancient Egyptians, their...
The Inca Empire was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. From their capital, Cuzco, in the central Peruvian Andes, the empire stretched over 2,400 miles (3860 kilometers) along the length of...
Indigenous peoples in the Amazon and Andes regions of South America have been chewing coca leaves for as many as 8,000 years. But did you know that these leaves were only transformed into highly-...
The blessed Virgin Mary has a long and dignified reputation within the Catholic church ever since her first appearance in the Biblical narrative of the Annunciation (Luke 1:26), where she is...
One need not search too long ago into South American history to identify a range of consumable drinks that would challenge and defeat, hands down, any of their modern derivatives - which are mostly...
Since the dawn of humanity, countless civilizations have engaged in ritual sacrifice. Often, these sacrifices involved other humans, and were so common they were considered a normal aspect of life...
If you thought the Greek gods had a monopoly on selfishness, rape, deception and other shady derring-do, you were wrong. Take, for instance, the Inca god Coniraya (also Cuniraya), who might have fit...
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 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...
The medicinal use of plants and the collection, dissemination, and application of traditional knowledge surrounding plants (ethnobotany) is an indigenous practice from the Americas well documented to...
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...
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...