I can’t even imagine what it must have been like for Hiram Bingham when he came upon the forgotten Inca site of Machu Picchu in the Peruvian Andes in 1911 and presented it to the world. There must be better words to describe feelings like excitement and glee, but tenfold! Legend has it that there … Read more
In the early 1980s, international archeologists funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation excavated various sites in the Mantaro Valley where I now live to piece together the Central Andean past. The Huanca society dominated the valley before the Incas arrived in the 1400s, organizing the zone into a province of their grand empire. What … Read more
A near century-long dispute has now come to an end. This past weekend, I joined tens of thousands of witnesses who visited Lima’s Government Palace to view the free exhibition of Incan artifacts returned to Peru by Yale University at long last. The story begins with Hiram Bingham, a U.S. explorer co-sponsored by the National … Read more