More evidence that ancient people were better seafarers than mainstream academics have given them credit for. The latest study shows Polynesian DNA found among tribes in Brazil. Why it is controversial within Academia that Polynesians made it to South America is quite bizarre considering they inhabited nearly every single piece of land in the Pacific [...]
Recent research has hinted at an ancient Peruvian presence in the southeastern U.S. including Peruvian DNA showing up in Native Americans in north Georgia. Now two ancient Peruvian skulls have been unearthed in Florida. The skulls were found with a newspaper that dated to 1978 which led archaeologists to hypothesize that these skulls were recent [...]
Some of the oldest known corn cobs, husks, stalks and tassels, dating from 6,700 to 3,000 years ago were discovered at Paredones and Huaca Prieta, two mound sites on Peru’s arid northern coast. (Credit: Tom D. Dillehay) People living along the coast of Peru were eating popcorn 1,000 years earlier than previously reported and before [...]
The earliest explorers of the Amazon recorded that it was filled with villages and towns. After European diseases swept the area and wiped out its inhabitants, the jungle regrew and hid all evidence of these civilizations. Later explorers would find no evidence of such civilizations and the archaeological community, in all their brilliance and wisdom, [...]
Recent research shows that the earliest phase of Andean Civilization took place simultaneously with earliest stages of civilization on the Old World. This remarkable phenomenon and its manifestation at the ancient city of Caral in Peru are described in Caral Supe: The Oldest Civilization in the Americas. (Watch both parts below.) Recent research shows that cities [...]
A team of archaeologists, led by Walter Alva, have discovered the wooden tomb of another member of the Mochica culture’s elite – older than the “Señor de Sipan” (Lord of Sipan).
These findings belong to the Moche civilization, which ruled the northern coast of Peru from the time of Christ to 800 AD, centuries prior to the Incas.
Anthropologists working on the slopes of the Andes in northern Peru have discovered the earliest-known evidence of peanut, cotton and squash farming dating back 5,000 to 9,000 years. Their findings provide long-sought-after evidence that some of the early development of agriculture in the New World took place at farming settlements in the Andes.
A headless skeleton found in a Peruvian tomb is adding new wrinkles to the debate over human sacrifice in the ancient Andes. The decapitated body was found in the Nasca region, named for the ancient civilization that thrived in southern Peru from A.D. 1 to 750.
Prehistoric Polynesians beat Europeans to the Americas, according to a new analysis of chicken bones.
The work provides the first firm evidence that ancient Polynesians voyaged as far as South America, and also strongly suggests that they were responsible for the introduction of chickens to the continent – a question that has been hotly debated for more than 30 years.
People living in the earliest known settlement in the Americas harvested seaweed and other marine plants from a coastline more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) away, new research shows. Scientists discovered several species of seaweed and marine algae dating back more than 14,000 years at the Monte Verde archaeological site in south-central Chile.
Images of disembodied heads are widespread in the art of Nasca, a culture based on the southern coast of Peru from AD 1 to AD 750. But despite this evidence and large numbers of trophy heads in the region’s archaeological record, only eight headless bodies have been recovered with evidence of decapitation, explains Christina A. Conlee (Texas State University). Conlee’s analysis of a newly excavated headless body from the site of La Tiza provides important new data on decapitation and its relationship to ancient ideas of death and regeneration.
Archeologists have uncovered the 1,300-year-old skeleton of a ruler or priest of the ancient Tiwanaku civilization together with precious jewels inside a much-looted pyramid in western Bolivia.
