The Nazca Lines were made around two millennia ago. 

Nearly Half of the Protected Land Around the Nazca Lines of Peru Is Now Open to Miners

Some environmentalists are concerned about mining operations drawing closer to the ancient landmarks

Conservation work at Gran Pajatén

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Discover More Than 100 Structures Linked to a Mysterious Pre-Columbian Civilization in the Remote Peruvian Andes

Based in high-altitude urban centers, the Chachapoya resisted conquest by the Inca Empire for centuries

Notebooks decorated with swastikas were among the documents found in the wooden crates.

Boxes Full of Nazi Propaganda Discovered in the Basement of Argentina’s Supreme Court

Workers found crates packed with swastika-covered notebooks, postcards and photographs while preparing to move the court’s archives to a new museum

The burial was discovered in the remains of a building in an ancient fishing town.

Cool Finds

This Ancient High-Status Woman Was Buried With a Parrot-Feather Cape and a Beaded Toucan’s Beak in Modern-Day Peru

The burial belongs to the ancient Caral culture, the oldest civilization in the Americas

The burials were filled with rich grave goods like pottery and corn cobs.

Archaeologists in Peru Discover Graves of Men, Women and Children Killed in Battle, Then Buried With Honor

The 24 members of the mysterious Chuquibamba culture were interred with valuable grave goods

A man attacked the stone with a metal object.

Man Vandalizes Famed 12-Angled Stone, an Inca Engineering Marvel in Peru

The stone, which sustained damage in six spots, had been carved to fit perfectly in a palace wall hundreds of years ago

Spanish settlers knocked down all but the foundations of the Temple of the Sun, then built a church atop the Inca walls.

New Research

Researchers Have Found an Inca Tunnel Beneath the Peruvian City of Cusco

The dug-out passages may follow the exact path of the Inca capital’s aboveground roads

Photographs of “disappeared” Argentines inside a courtoom in September 2024, during one of 17 ongoing trials of former junta officials.

Four Decades After the Fall of Argentina’s Dictatorship, a Fight Over the Country’s Darkest Chapter Is Reopening Grievous Wounds

Inside the fight to memorialize victims of the military junta that ruled over the South American nation in the 1970s and ‘80s

A painting of a crowned woman with scepter (upper left), a procession of men behind her carrying objects (upper right) and a textile workshop (below) on the wall of an ancient throne room in Peru

Cool Finds

See a Newly Uncovered Throne Room in Peru That May Have Belonged to an Ancient Queen

Built by the Moche people in the seventh century, the stunningly painted space shows signs of heavy use, including an eroded throne and traces of human hair

The researchers' A.I. model can spot geoglyphs' outlines 20 times faster than humans.

Cool Finds

See Newly Discovered Nazca Drawings That Depict Llamas, Human Sacrifices and More

An A.I.-assisted study identified 303 previously unknown geoglyphs in the Peruvian desert. The art features surprising figures, like orcas holding knives

Luis Muro Ynoñán poses with a carving of a mythological bird-like creature.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Unearth 4,000-Year-Old Ceremonial Temple in Peru

The structure appears to predate Machu Picchu, the country’s best-known archaeological site, by 3,500 years

The cemetery is located near a Spanish colonial church built in Huanchaco, Peru, around 1535.

New Research

16th-Century Skeletons of Children Infected With Smallpox Discovered in Peru

The toddlers’ remains were buried around the beginning of the Spanish conquest of South America

The skull rack at Chichén Itzá was created to honor the Maya's dead.

A Mass Grave of Maya Boys May Shed Light on Human Sacrifice in Chichén Itzá

Researchers have genetically tested the bones and made determinations of gender and family relations

This page from the Madrid Codex depicts the Maya honey harvest.

Cool Finds

Centuries-Old Maya Beekeeping Tools Unearthed in Mexico

Archaeologists in the Yucatán Peninsula found several stone lids used by the pre-Columbian civilization to collect honey from stingless bees

A pterosaur cranium fossil is among the donated artifacts that will be on display and studied behind the scenes when the museum reopens in 2026.

More Than 1,000 Fossils, Including Rare Dinosaurs, Gifted to Brazil’s National Museum Following Fire

The massive donation was made by Burkhard Pohl, a Swiss-German collector, as the museum works to replenish its collections after a devastating blaze in September 2018

Ann P. Rowe transferred around 88 books and 4,556 archaeological specimens from her father’s collection to Peru.

Why the Daughter of an American Archaeologist Sent Her Father’s Collection to Peru

Unlike many of his peers, John Howland Rowe viewed the country as a source of partnership, not a laboratory to play in

The nearly complete skeleton has been identified as a member of an extinct fox species, Dusicyon avus, which once roamed Patagonia’s grasslands.

New Research

Did Ancient South Americans Keep Foxes as Pets?

At a cemetery in Argentina, a 1,500-year-old fox buried alongside humans suggests a “close relationship” between the species, researchers say

This artistic interpretation shows what Pebanista yacuruna might have looked like some 16 million years ago.

New Extinct Species of Giant Dolphin Discovered in Peru From a 16-Million-Year-Old Skull

Pebanista yacuruna is the largest freshwater dolphin ever found, but it is more closely related to today’s river dolphins of South Asia than those in the Amazon

The rock art was discovered in the Jalapão region, located in the east of Tocantins, Brazil.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Discover 2,000-Year-Old Rock Art in Brazil

Recurring symbols across 16 sites suggest that many of the artworks were created by the same cultural group

Researchers tested samples from seven ceramic vessels found on the ancient site of Cotzumalhuapa, and they found nicotine residue in three of them.

New Research

Mesoamericans May Have Drunk Tobacco During Rituals 1,000 Years Ago

New research reveals evidence of nicotine residue on vases unearthed in Guatemala

Page 1 of 7