Who Discovered Machu Picchu?
Controversy swirls as to whether an archaeologist's claim to fame as the discoverer of Machu Picchu has any merit
- By Peter Eisner
- Smithsonian magazine, March 2009, Subscribe
Harry Bingham's father's crowning achievement was his exploration of Machu Picchu almost 100 years ago. Yet Hiram Bingham III's status as the "discoverer" of the ruins is in dispute, and the Peruvian government has demanded that Yale University, where Bingham taught, return all the artifacts he took home from Inca lands.
Bingham's persistent search for the fabled Incan capital culminated on July 24, 1911. Weary from hiking for hours, directed by a friendly pair of local farmers, he marched into the mountains accompanied by a local guide and a Peruvian policeman until "suddenly we found ourselves in the midst of a jungle-covered maze of small and large walls," he wrote in an account published in Harper's Monthly in April 1913.
"Surprise followed surprise until there came the realization that we were in the midst of as wonderful ruins as any ever found in Peru," he wrote. He had come upon Machu Picchu ("old peak" in Quechua). While there was evidence of graffiti left by a local mule driver, he added, "It is possible that not even the conquistadors ever saw this wonderful place."
Bingham's chronicle brought him acclaim ("The greatest archaeological discovery of the age," the New York Times called it), but now archaeologists in Peru contend that he was not the first outsider to come upon the 15th-century Incan city's ruins, as well he should have known.
"The presence of several German, British and American explorers is recognized, and that they had drawn up maps," says Jorge Flores Ochoa, a Peruvian anthropologist. Bingham "had more academic knowledge.... But he was not describing a place that was unknown."
The contention is not new. For example, in a September 8, 1916, letter to the Times, German mining engineer Carl Haenel said he had accompanied the explorer J.M. von Hassel to the area in 1910, though he offered no documentation of such a journey. But even Bingham admitted that "it seemed almost incredible that this city, only five days' journey from Cuzco, should have remained so long undescribed and comparatively unknown."
Richard L. Burger, a professor of anthropology at Yale, where Bingham taught Latin American history from 1907 to 1915, says he's skeptical of the Peruvian assertions. If others did visit, he says, they either came to pillage or didn't recognize the site's importance. Besides, he adds, Bingham "never claimed to have been the first modern person to have set foot in Machu Picchu." In Peru, some people have called Bingham the "scientific discoverer of Machu Picchu," Burger says. "I think that is fairly accurate."
Yale, for its part, is embroiled in a dispute with the government of Peru over the artifacts and bones that Bingham brought home. In 2007, the university agreed to return most of them in exchange for keeping some for further research. In a lawsuit filed last December in federal court, however, the government of Peru said Yale must return the entire collection.
Thomas Conroy, a Yale spokesman, said the university respects Peru's interests. "We still have the same goal, to seek an ongoing collaboration which reflects Peru's interest in the material and the rest of the world's interest," Conroy says. "And Yale does think such an agreement could serve as a model or an example of how [similar] disputes could be settled."
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Comments (17)
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rightly so seized or pillaged cultural artefacts should be returned to their country of origin
Posted by rsturner on December 26,2012 | 12:15 PM
how did they find it
Posted by bob yogi on November 20,2012 | 08:39 PM
Yes, the cloud feature allows you to have your profiles on both Xboxs without recovering each time. You can even store your profile on friends consoles and access your cloud saves without having to recover each time. I no longer use a thumb drive for my saves and profile.
Posted by www.office2010professional.com on October 20,2012 | 03:50 AM
Yale should return the artifacts, I think they have had ample time to research them. Keeping them would be akin to robbing a nation of its indigenous history, something we our selves would not tolerate from another nation seeking to rob us of native american artifacts. Im sure there were many locals who knew of Machu Picchu but thought it taboo to enter the sacred city. Scientist on the other hand like to break indigenous taboo's by trespassing on sacred sites, more for fame and glory rather than scientific investigation. Give them there culture.
Posted by chase on August 22,2012 | 12:01 PM
there was a ruler named pachacuti he was the ica empire
Posted by josua on August 17,2012 | 01:52 PM
Awsome
Posted by Dylan Carter on May 14,2012 | 03:05 PM
Gentlemen, I will give you full details , who discovered Macchu Picchu, certainly not Bingham.It was a peruvian man dedicated to agriculture.Who placed his name in Macchu Picchu ,long before Bingham's trip to that mountain. Bingham destroyed that evidence of course.
Posted by Felix Costa on July 16,2011 | 07:21 PM
The discovery of Machu Picchu by Hiram Bingham is a classic case of "victory has 100 fathers, but defeat is an orphan."
The ruins were never totally unknown. References to the site pop up occasionally in colonial and republican era documents, and even though Bingham did not go out of his way to emphasize previous knowledge, he did imply it, e.g., in the very quote given above, that the site was "comparatively unknown," that is, not totally unknown.
Bingham was the first person to visit, clear, photograph, study, and make known to the outside world Machu Picchu. That's why the discovery feather is in his cap, and not that of some sojourner who 10, 50 or 100 years earlier passed through the ruins, saying not a word about it, or mentioned it on a map without ever having been there.
Early on, Peruvians described Bingham as the "scientific discoverer" of Machu Picchu. That's fair.
Almost 20 years ago, I published in South American Explorer (January 1993), "Fights of Machu Picchu," an account of the controversy over who discovered the lost Inca city first. The controversy continues to this day, with additional contestants arriving on a regular basis, but the winner was decided in 1911.
Daniel Buck
Posted by Daniel Buck on June 5,2011 | 07:57 PM
Having read the above articles and having due reverence to all in the subject, may I offer the following:
In the case of 'property' ownership that there might be an agreement made to strike up a 'contract of hire or lease'. While the original ownership is in no doubt belonging to the people who crafted them.
Since those persons have passed on many years ago, the items in question are in a 'caretaker situation' until rightful ownership can be established.
The sovereinty of country of origin has to be respected and it is they who have responsibility for the property.
The safe keeping of the property is the question to be answered.
Posted by James Bruckshaw on October 29,2010 | 07:46 PM
what happens with you guys!
You talk as if you have rigth under our treasures because you gave notice about the place and it's not fair for us to depend on what you consider rigth or not. Each person takes care of his/her belonging the way they want without waiting what other says, so you must consider give our artifacts back asap,do not take power that do not belongs. We appreciate your special cares, but we want what it's ours.Please do not treat us as if we don't have acknowledge of how to conservate pieces of artifacts, come on! if you did not know, we are a country with great cultural wealth to which we greatly appreciate we have an ancient culture to be proud of. What else!
Posted by on January 14,2010 | 04:48 PM
Our museums are full of 'booty' from all over the world. And such world wide gems of history have given many of us, USA citizens, a glimpse into the passing majesty of other cultures and lives and a deeper appreciation of our connectedness to them (I assume we are still viewed as the melting pot of the world). IF we could look back into time-say 100 years ago-and experience those times, on a day to day basis- we might have a better view point of what it took for our exploring archeologists to 'discover' and secure and preserve(not steal)such items. Can you imagine traversing by horseback (not helicopter or SUV) into the rugged terrain that so 'protected' the unknown or almost forgotten treasures? Yes we should honor other cultures and civilisations- but perhaps we may best do so, by continuing to preserve that, which was once, so long ago, 'lost'. I suppose, however, that our 21st century morality will win out in the end.
Posted by Lee Davis on July 5,2009 | 12:40 AM
I agree with both Alexander Le and Digby Dolben. I think that "stolen" items should be returned to there own countries. But I also think that the country of origin should have the means to take care of said items. If a country can take the proper care of the items then they should be returned asap! If the country can not take care of them or fine with were they are then so be it. I also think that returning every little "stolen" item that was taken from its country of origin would be crazy and would cause huge world problems. But in this case I do agree that the items should be returned to Peru as they have asked.
Posted by Jessica How on June 3,2009 | 12:23 AM
We recently returned from a trip to Machu Picchu,and our understandng is that Yale has offered to return the artifacts in conjunction with the construction of a secure, appropriate museum in Peru. Supposedly, Yale has even offered to help with the funding of the museum. There is bureaucratic discussion in Peru of when, where, and how, and, we were told, no agreement had been reached. I think it would be irresponsible to return the artifacts to Peru without there being a proper place to exhibit them and keep them secure. It would be interesting to hear what Yale has to say about this.
Posted by Donna Dill on May 21,2009 | 02:27 AM
So, Mr. Le, I guess that France must return many of the art treasures that Napoleon looted and put in the Louvre to Italy? Perhaps Tibet is owed by China some Buddhist artwork that has been looted from monasteries there and put in Chinese homes and museums? I support returning "stolen" archaelogical and artistic treasures when it's possible--when adequate funding for restoration and preservation have been provided by the country of origin--but otherwise, no; these treasures belong to the human race and not to any given nation or ethnicity.
Posted by digby dolben on March 17,2009 | 01:29 AM
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