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Dance platform at a modern but traditional Inti Raymi celebration. Early Andeans created a dance floor to imitate the sound of thunder when danced on. Source: Youenn JACQUIN/Adobe Stock

Ancient Andean Thundering Dance Floor Uncovered in Peru

An open-air “sounding” dance floor in Peru has been discovered, designed to mimic a drum-like sound, perhaps for a thunder god when stomped upon! Built sometime between 1000 and 1400 AD, the site...
3,000-Year-Old Corridor in Peru Temple Yields Massive Condor Statue

3,000-Year-Old Corridor in Peru Temple Yields Curious Condor Statue

Archaeologists in Peru used cameras mounted on robots to explore the entrance to a 3,000-year-old sealed tunnel at the Chavin de Huantar archaeological site in Peru. The excitement was static when...
Shrine at Naupa Iglesia. 	Source: © Freddy Silva

Naupa Iglesia: An Egyptian Portal in the Andes?

Halfway up a near-vertical ravine in the Andes, someone carved an inverted V-shaped entrance into the mountainside. Then they sliced the bedrock with great precision to create a shallow door that...
Left, Nazca geoglyphs recently discovered using artificial intelligence show figures of a pair of bird legs, a humanoid and a fish at Nazca in Peru. Right, Examples of various types of Nazca image creation techniques.	Source: Yamagata University Institute of Nasca

New Nazca Geoglyphs Uncovered in Northern Pampa Using AI Tech

What do a humanoid figure, a bird, a fish, and a pair of legs have in common? Japanese scientists and archaeologists, using a deep artificial intelligence learning model technique, have discovered...
The new 3D printed reconstruction of the face of the Lady of Cao (Peru Ministry of Culture)

How the Face of the Lady of Cao was Brought Back to Life (Video)

The iconic Moche mummy, the Señora de Cao , had her face reconstructed through the remarkable collaboration of science and technology. Employing forensic science techniques, her remains underwent...
The unearthing of the U shaped Miraflores stone temple in Huaral, Peru. Source: Global News/ YouTube Screenshot

Incredibly Ancient Temple Found in Peru with Mysterious Cross Symbol

While exploring in and around Lima, a team of Peruvian archaeologists from the National Major University of San Marcos (UNSM) uncovered the remains of a U-shaped stone temple that was somewhere...
Inca quipu. Source: Claus Ableiter / GNU Free Documentation License.

Unraveling the Mystery of the Inca's Knotted Strings (Video)

The Inca Empire left behind many mysteries that continue to intrigue and captivate historians and archaeologists today. One of these mysteries is the Quipu , a unique way of communicating and keeping...
Chan Chan, Peru. Source: gavioneta / Adobe Stock.

The Tragic Story of Chan Chan, Peru's Lost City (Video)

In the vast expanse of the Peruvian desert, lies the remains of one of the greatest cities of human history: Chan Chan. Built over a thousand years ago, the city was once the thriving capital of the...
Bust of Fransisco de Orellana (Ricardo Algár/Adobe Stock) Amazon rainforest (William Perez/Adobe Stock)

Francisco Orellana’s Accidental Discovery Of The Amazon

Among the daring exploits of those early Spanish conquistadors intent on claiming the New World for their own, none are as dramatic as Francisco Orellana’s perilous nine month journey to the Amazon...
The two-faced Moche man figure painted on the lower part of the pillar. Two images of two-faced men have been discovered at the Moche site of Pañamarca, Peru. Source: Lisa Trever/Panamarca

Peruvian Archaeologists Uncover Two-faced Moche Men with Cosmic Connections

Painted on a pillar within a ceremonial hall, archaeologists have found a 1,400-year-old “two faced man”, with cosmic associations. The Moche culture was a pre-Columbian civilization that thrived...
Peruvian mummy bundles, representational. Source: Bayamin / Adobe Stock.

Burial Bundles with Painted Bodies in Fabric Found in Peru Pyramid

Archaeologists in Peru have uncovered a monumental temple site where they discovered unique human burials wrapped in fabrics printed with bizarre zoomorphic designs. These bundles contain the remains...
Woman crossing the Queshuachaca Inca rope bridge near Huinchiri in Peru. Source: Danita Delimont / Adobe Stock

Dizzying Inca Rope Bridges Were Grass-Made Marvels of Engineering

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...
The mummy delivery, in the delivery cool bag, confiscated by police.	Source: EFE/Ministry of Culture Peru

Man in Peru Caught Out Drinking With an 800-year-old Mummy!

A pre-Hispanic mummy of between 600 and 800 years old, was found inside the backpack of a delivery man from a delivery company in the Peruvian region of Puno, near Bolivia. The 26-year-old Peruvian...
Excavation of d-shaped Wari temple at Pakaytambo, near Arequipa, Peru. Top insert:Pplastered interior wall. Bottom insert: Abandonment feature on structure floor.	Source: Reid, D. / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology

Huge Wari Empire Temple from 800 AD Unearthed in the Highlands of Peru

While digging at a site called Pakaytambo in the southern Peru highlands, anthropologists and archaeologists from the University of Illinois—Chicago (UIC) unearthed an ancient Wari ritual complex...
The door of Hayu Marca located in Puno Peru. Source: DavidAlexander / Adobe Stock

Unraveling the Enigma of Aramu Muru, The Mysterious Gate of the Gods

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...
The supposed giants ring, with condor decoration. Source: Courtesy of Celso García Vargas / Author supplied

An Extraordinary Discovery: A Giant’s Ring of the Inca Era?

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...
This capacocha victim, a boy recovered from Cerro El Plomo in 1954, was the first finding of its kind to be the subject of scientific studies. Pictured with excavated grave goods: a female silver statuette, gold llamas and spondylus shell, a chuspa stuffed with coca leaves, scrotum and animal intestine bags with clippings of nails, hair and teeth, and a silver bracelet. Source: Jisa39 / CC BY SA 4.0

Capacocha: Ritualized Child Sacrifice in the Inca Empire

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...
Red skull, representational. Source: ahlaj77 / Adobe Stock

Pre-Inca Peruvians Painted Skulls with Red Pigments

It is well known that ancient cultures in what is today Peru deformed their babies' skulls to form elongated shapes. A new study reveals that, a millennium ago, people 'finger painted' the skulls of...
Gold Inca mask. Source: Carlos Santa Maria / Adobe Stock

12 Absolutely Amazing Artifacts of the Inca

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...
A newly found Nazca line image, a humanoid reminiscent of Homer Simpson. Source: Yamagata University

168 New Geoglyphs Discovered, Adding to the Enigma of Peru’s Nazca Lines

A fresh set of 168 geoglyphs have been discovered by researchers in Peru’s intriguing Nazca Lines UNESCO World Heritage Site. The newly found drawings depict humans, camelids, birds, orcas, cats and...
Cahuachi pyramid at Nazca, Peru.	Source: Daniel Prudek/Adobe Stock

Cahuachi Necropolis, Sacred Burial Ground of the Nazca

We can learn a lot about a civilization from how it treated its dead. The Nazca of Peru, for example, often carried their dead to Cahuachi, an important religious center, to be buried. Even though...
Swiss archaeologist Sâm Ghavami with his team of students at the Peruvian Huaca Pintada in northern Peru. Source: Sâm Ghavami

Lost Peruvian Huaca Pintada and its 1,000-Year-Old Mural Rediscovered

The last time anyone saw this Peruvian Huaca Pintada was over a century ago. Now, a team of intrepid archaeology students and their professor have painstakingly rediscovered the lost 1,000-year-old...
Recovered in Bolivia in 1932 the “Bennet monolith” is often referred to as the “Pachamama stela” and is believed to depict the Earth Mother goddess (Pavel Špindler/ CC BY-SA 3.0)

Transformation Of Andean Earth Goddess Pachamama Into The Virgin Mary

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...
Trophy heads from Nazca, with the child found to have consumed psychoactive drugs.           Source: D. Socha / Journal of Archaeological Science

Trophy Head Shows Child Victim Consumed Psychedelic San Pedro in Peru

Psychoactive substances and child sacrifice seem to come together more often than not when it comes to examining the Mesoamerican cultures and their history. Earlier this month, 76 child sacrifice...

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