Incas – News Stories About Incas - Page 1

Within These Tangled Tassels, Possible Clues to the Incas

Attached to Ancient Tangled
Cords: Doll Parts, Cigarettes

Jun 7, 2025 5:30 AM CDT

Attached to Ancient Tangled Cords: Doll Parts, Cigarettes

'Khipus' found in remote village in Peru's Andes could help crack code of Incan writing system

(Newser) - Anthropologist Sabine Hyland's journey to Jucul—a remote Andean village six hours north of Lima, Peru—centers on one of the world's oldest mysteries: khipus, the mysterious knotted or tasseled cords that Incas used to record information, and that Jucul's villagers, wary of outsiders, had kept...

Our Days
Are a Smidge
Longer Than
They Used to Be

study says

Dec 10, 2016 8:33 AM CST

Our Days Are a Smidge Longer Than They Used to Be

Which we know thanks to some meticulous ancient astronomers

(Newser) - The meticulous work of ancient astronomers has led to a modern observation: Our days are longer than they used to be. Not that you'd notice: The new research in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A shows that it takes the Earth a tiny bit longer these days to...

Scientists May Be Close to Solving Ancient Incan Riddle

Scientists May Be Close to Solving Ancient Inca Riddle

The 500-year-old khipus from Incahuasi were found with corresponding foods

(Newser) - When archaeologists unearthed nearly 30 "talking knots" at the archaeological complex of Incahuasi in Peru in 2014, the 500-year-old bounty was notable because the knots, called khipus, had only previously been documented in graves, reported Discovery at the time. This left scientists little to go on aside from the...

Sacrificed Boy
May Reveal Clues
About Inca Empire

Nov 16, 2015 9:50 AM CST

Sacrificed Boy May Reveal Clues About Inca Empire

The child was sacrificed 500 years ago, and scientists were able to obtain his DNA

(Newser) - He came to a grim ending, but the mummified remains of a 7-year-old boy sacrificed in an Inca ritual called capacocha are allowing scientists to "learn more about the rise and extent of the Inca Empire," as the Los Angeles Times puts it. The child's frozen corpse...

Mummy Mystery
Solved: It Was
Murder

Feb 27, 2014 10:58 AM CST

Mummy Mystery Solved: It Was Murder

Incan woman died from blunt force trauma 500 years ago

(Newser) - She's been known to German archaeologists for more than a century, but they only now know where a mysterious mummy came from—and how she died. The study in PLoS One explains that the mummified woman was brought to Bavaria in the 1900s. It's possible she was acquired...

Incas Drugged
Child-Sacrifice
Victims First

Incas Drugged Child-Sacrifice Victims First

Hair samples from 3 mummies show alcohol, cocaine

(Newser) - About the best that can be said about three children killed by the Incas in a sacrifice ritual 500 years ago is that they might not have felt a thing. New analysis of hair samples from the mummies found near the summit of a volcano in Argentina show that they...

1,300-Year-Old
Mummy Found
in Peru

Aug 27, 2008 4:50 AM CDT

1,300-Year-Old Mummy Found in Peru

Lima tomb pre-dates Incas

(Newser) - Archaeologists have discovered an ancient mummy in a tomb from a culture that flourished in Peru before the Incas. A complete female mummy, along with the remains of two other adults and a child, have been found in the Wari burial site in a residential district of Lima, Reuters reports....

At Chicago's Field, 'Ancient Americas' Exhibit a Bust

OPINION

Jun 4, 2008 5:10 PM CDT

At Chicago's Field, 'Ancient Americas' Exhibit a Bust

Museum 'patronizes, demeans' its subjects

(Newser) - Revisiting Chicago’s Field Museum—an institution enshrined in loving childhood memories—for its “The Ancient Americas” exhibit is a sore disappointment, PJ O’Rourke writes in the Weekly Standard. Once a bastion of public scholarship so solemn it contained a section devoted to useful varieties of wood, the...