Inca textiles: Did you mean...?

Situated in the Peruvian Andes, Cuzco developed, under the Inca ruler Pachacutec, into a complex urban centre with distinct religious and administrative functions. It was surrounded by clearly delineated areas for agricultural, artisan and...

The Spanish Main refers, in its widest sense, to the Spanish Empire in the Americas from Florida in the north to the northern coast of Brazil in the south, including the Caribbean. The term was initially more limited and referred only to...

A map of Machu Picchu, the Inca site in the high Andes in the Urubamba Valley. The settlement was founded by Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui in c. 1450 CE. Typical of Inca architecture, the settlement follows the contours of the natural topography.

The Iberian conquistadors ("conquerors") were the first military men to explore, attack, and conquer territories in the Americas and Asia that would then become a part of the Spanish or Portuguese Empire. Indigenous peoples could not match...

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.