Inca textiles: Did you mean...?

Historian Christopher Heaney relates the story of Hiram Bingham, who stepped into the astounding ruins of Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Incas, 100 years ago.

The Chavin civilization flourished between 900 and 200 BCE in the northern and central Andes and was one of the earliest pre-Inca cultures. The Chavin religious centre Chavin de Huantar became an important Andean pilgrimage site, and Chavin...

Silver had great value and aesthetic appeal in many ancient cultures where it was used to make jewellery, tableware, figurines, ritual objects and rough-cut pieces known as hacksilver which could be used in trade or to store wealth. The metal...

The Chimu civilization, otherwise called the kingdom of Chimor, flourished on the northern coast of Peru between the 12th and 15th centuries CE. With their capital at Chan Chan, the Chimu were the largest and most prosperous culture in the...

Linear B script was the writing system of the Mycenaean civilization of the Bronze Age Mediterranean. The syllabic script was used to write Mycenaean Greek from c. 1500 to c. 1200 BCE. It was deciphered by Michael Ventris in 1952, and so...

A representation of a deity which has been identified as the supreme Inca creator god Viracocha or his forerunner the 'Weeping God' or Thunupa. From the c. 300 CE Gateway of the Sun, Tiwanaku, Bolivia.

An 18th century CE idealised portrait of the last Inca ruler Atahualpa, r. 1532-1533 CE. (Brooklyn Museum, New York)

One of the reconstructed temples from Coricancha, the sacred Inca precinct at Cuzco. 15th century CE.

The Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto (c. 1500-1542) landed on the west coast of Florida on 30 May 1539, hoping to find wealthy kingdoms to conquer and plunder. His crew journeyed for over four years in southeastern North America, savaging...

One of the terrace gateways of the Inca Sacsayhuaman fortress-temple complex at Cuzco. The structure was begun in the reign of Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui (1438 - 1471 CE) and completed by his successors.