Two Sicán elite found at the Bosque de Pomac archaeological site

New excavations have uncovered two burials of Sicán elite. The co-director of the archaeological project, Carlos Elera Arévalo, explains that the remains of both bodies were found with gold, silver and copper ornaments that demonstrate their position in their society, and the period during which they lived – around 900-1100 BC.

November 28, 2008 | Archaeology, News

No Comments

Ancient tomb found in Torontoy, Machu Picchu

A team from Peru’s National Institute of Culture (INC) working on the ruins of Torontoy in the Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu, have discovered the tomb of an Inca with full funerary regalia. The gender and age of the tomb’s owner has not yet been determined, but found with the body were a number of decorated ceramics and two pins.

November 28, 2008 | Archaeology, News

5 Comments

80 pre-Columbian archaeological sites in Ica and La Libertad protected

Thousands of archaeological sites dating from hundreds to thousands of years old sit abandoned and forgotten across Peru. Year after year they decay further through lack of care or are intentionally destroyed. In the past century untold amounts of history has been lost.

Those that are recognised and fall under the protection of Peru’s National Institute of Culture (INC) don’t fair much better, but at least the INC must grant permission for any work to be carried out around the ruins, preventing their destruction in large and/or legal projects.

November 28, 2008 | Archaeology, News

No Comments

Colonial cannon discovered beneath Lima’s streets

A cannon dating from Peru’s Spanish colonial period has been found by workers constructing part of Lima’s new Metropolitan transport system and underground central station. Unearthed at the intersection between Camaná and Emancipation, the cannon measures 2.79 metres long and is in good condition.

An archaeologist from the country’s National Institute of Culture (INC), Carmen Gabe Benaki, explains that the cannon was likely to have been reused in the 1800s to protect an old mansion that once occupied the site but no longer stands. During the building’s demolition it would have been left in place and become buried.

November 28, 2008 | Lima City Guide, News

2 Comments

Lima’s toxic smog of death is now 11.77% less deadly

Air quality in Lima has never been good, mostly thanks to the high humidity and fog. But when dictator Alberto Fujimori passed laws to allow second-hand ancient, deadly and heavily polluting cars to be imported from abroad, air quality took a massive hit. Though it never rains, grey clouds took on a hint of black, and a thick soot blanketed the city.

November 27, 2008 | Lima City Guide, News, Opinion

4 Comments

Could the Nazcans fly?

It is a mystery as yet unsolved. How were the ancient Nazca able to draw such huge and complicated designs in the barren Nazca plains, drawings so large that they are only visible from the air? Could it be that this pre-Inca civilisation mastered some form of flight allowing them to both create and appreciate their work? Some think so.

November 25, 2008 | Culture & History

5 Comments

APEC 2008 comes to a close

As the security fences and blockades are pulled down, and life in Lima gets back to normal, Peru can be proud that it successfully held such a large scale international event. The numbers of delegates and the numbers of heads of state all in the capital city at the same time was unprecedented for the country, but despite Peru’s reputation for inefficiency everything went surprisingly well.

November 24, 2008 | Lima City Guide, News, Opinion

2 Comments

China’s Hu Jintao arrives in Lima

China’s President Hu Jintao arrives in Lima, is greeted by Peru’s Alan Garcia and taken in style to the Plaza de Armas and the Presidential Palace.

November 19, 2008 | Lima City Guide, News

No Comments

Lima ready for APEC leader’s conference

As the leaders of Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, the United States and Vietnam arrive in Lima, the city for a short time at least, is in the international spot light.

November 19, 2008 | Lima City Guide, News

2 Comments

Cemetery of Chauchilla

Laying untouched for centuries, this isolated spot in the dry Nazcan desert was used as a place to bury and preserve the mummified dead of the Nazca culture. Since then, the countless hundreds of tombs found here have been pillaged and destroyed. What remains is at first a fascinating sight for visitors – bones, ceramics and cloth scattered across the sands, pieces of ancient fabric blowing around in the wind – but that fascination soon turns to despair as you realise the amount of precious historical information lost.

November 18, 2008 | Archaeology, Ica, Pisco, Nazca Guide

1 Comment

Lady of Cao documentary on the big screen

A village with royal palaces, pyramids and temples of worship will be built in the Chicama valley. But this time it will not be to house people of the Moche culture, as was the case 1700 years ago, but to shoot the film of the Lady of Cao, a female ruler of pre-Columbian Peru.

November 17, 2008 | News

6 Comments

Lost city of Cahuachi

The Nazcan city of Cahuachi was a stunning and magnificent place. Stretching along the dusty hills above the Nazca River valley are an as-yet unknown number of pyramids and temples – a good number of those rolling hills are not at all natural features. Some estimates of the area the city covered are as much as 24km2 – bigger than even the famous Chimú city of Chan Chan.

November 14, 2008 | Archaeology, Ica, Pisco, Nazca Guide

2 Comments