South American History

Temple where the remains of a body and two important hieroglyphic slabs were discovered in Xunantunich

Rare Maya Burial Temple Discovered in Belize

Excavations at Xunantunich have uncovered the remains of a body and hieroglyphics that tell the story of the snake-head dynasty

Peru Cracks Down on Illegal Gold Miners

A boom in outlaw mining activity in the last five years is polluting rivers, poisoning people and destroying forests in the Peruvian Amazon

An artist's rendition of the Rio Olympics facilities for the 2016 Summer Games. Some of the media accommodations were apparently built on top of remnants of Brazil's slave history.

The Media Village at the Rio Olympics Is Built on a Mass Grave of Slaves

As Brazil looks forward to an Olympic future, it buries its past

Browse Though the Amazon's 12,000 Tree Species in This New Master List

Gotta count 'em all

Researcher Ricardo Godoy conducts an experiment with a member of the Tsimane

Researchers Travel to the Amazon to Find Out if Musical Taste is Hardwired

Members of the Tsimane tribe showed no preference between consonant and dissonate tones, meaning Western music is probably not biologically based

Two canal workers pose in the cut

Commemorate the Panama Canal's Expansion With These Photos From Its Construction

The Panama Canal is opening a third lane to accommodate new mega cargo ships, a feat almost—but not quite—as impressive as building the original

Lightning over Lake Maracaimbo, November 2015

NASA Announces World's New Lightning Hotspot

The electric capital tops the charts with lightning storms 297 nights per year

Paleontologists Matt Lamanna and Ruben Martinez with the skull of Sarmientosaurus

Newly Discovered Dinosaur Species Had Great Eyesight and a Droopy Head

Sarmientosaurus weighed as much as two elephants but had a brain the size of a lime

21 Million Years Ago, Monkeys May Have Floated to North America on Rafts

Fossil teeth in Panama show monkeys made it to Central America, probably on floating mats of vegetation

An Incan mummy found at Mount Llullaillaco, Argentina, in 1999, which was used in the study

What Mummy DNA Reveals About the Spread and Decline of People in the Americas

Researchers have pieced together how humans spread from Alaska to Argentina and the extent of devastation from the introduction of European disease

Genes of Ancestral Peanuts May Help Feed the World

Researchers have sequenced the genome of peanuts and its ancient cousins, which could lead to disease and drought-resistant varieties

Lake Titicaca in myth is the birthplace of humanity, and the people who live on its shores depend on it for their livelihoods.

What Are North American Trout Doing in Lake Titicaca?

The famous lake between Bolivia and Peru is struggling due to pollution, overfishing and the misguided intentions of almost 100 years ago

A woman in traditional Aymara dress sits with her daughter and their honored human skull, or ñatita, and a bag of coca leaves during the 2015 Fiesta de las Ñatitas in Bolivia.

Meet the Celebrity Skulls of Bolivia’s Fiesta de las Ñatitas

Each November, the Aymara people honor their special bond with the helpful spirits of the deceased

Pacchanta's Maria Merma Gonzalo practices weaving techniques that have changed little in 500 years.

In a Small Village High in the Peruvian Andes, Life Stories Are Written in Textiles

Through weaving, the women of Ausangate, Peru, pass down the traditions of their ancestors

Estela de Carlotto, president of Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo. de Carlotto’s grandson was recovered 36 years after he was abducted and adopted by another family.

Argentinian Grandmothers Are Using DNA to Track Down Stolen Children

A national genetic bank and novel identification techniques have helped identify over 100 children abducted during Argentina’s “Dirty War”

A woman waits to participate in the annual silleteros' parade.

A Parade of Bright Flowers in a City With a Dark Past

Farmers carried 500 dazzling flower designs through the streets of Medellín, Colombia

Stone steps descend as far as 500 feet into the Moray concentric agriculture terraces near Maras, Peru, crossing a temperature differential of some 60 degrees. Ancient innovators may have domesticated and hybridized plant species here, using temperature ranges to simulate conditions found across the far-flung Inca Empire.

What Endures From the Ancient Civilizations That Once Ruled the Central Andes?

To journey here is to roam through almost six thousand years of civilization, to one of the places where the human enterprise began

Hiram Bingham called Machu Picchu “the most important ruin discovered in South America since the Spanish conquest.”

What It's Like to Travel the Inca Road Today

A rocky rollicking journey to Machu Picchu along one of the greatest engineering feats in the Americas

Rumi Colca gateway, Cusco, Peru, 2014

How the Inca Empire Engineered a Road Across Some of the World's Most Extreme Terrain

For a new exhibition, a Smithsonian curator conducted oral histories with contemporary indigenous cultures to recover lost Inca traditions

Monky’s street posters have become synonymous with the syncopated, high energy beat of a music genre, called Chicha.

When the Poster Promoting the Concert Is as Exciting as the Music, You Know You're Listening to Chicha

The sounds, graphic art and the mestizo lifestyle that goes with the music is the latest revolt of the Peruvian masses

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