Photo by Pedro Szekely. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike CC BY-SA 2.0
Posted on 08/15/2021 1:17:05 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Machu Picchu, the famous 15th-century Inca site in southern Peru, is up to several decades older than previously thought, according to a new study led by Yale archaeologist Richard Burger.
Burger and researchers from several U.S. institutions used accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) — an advanced form of radiocarbon dating...
Historical sources dating from the Spanish invasion of the Inca Empire indicate that Pachacuti seized power in A.D. 1438 and subsequently conquered the lower Urubamba Valley where Machu Picchu is located. Based on those records, scholars have estimated that the site was built after A.D. 1440, and perhaps as late as A.D. 1450, depending on how long it took Pachacuti to subdue the region and construct the stone palace...
The finding suggests that Pachacuti, whose reign set the Inca on the path to becoming pre-Columbian America’s largest and most powerful empire, gained power and began his conquests decades earlier than textual sources indicate...
The AMS technique can date bones and teeth that contain even small amounts of organic material, expanding the pool of remains suitable for scientific analysis. For this study, the researchers used it to analyze human samples from 26 individuals that were recovered from four cemeteries at Machu Picchu in 1912 during excavations led by Yale professor Hiram Bingham III...
The bones and teeth used in the analysis likely belonged to retainers, or attendants, who were assigned to the royal estate, the study states. The remains show little evidence of involvement in heavy physical labor, such as construction, meaning that they likely were from the period when the site functioned as a country palace, not when it was being built, the researchers said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yale.edu ...
Photo by Pedro Szekely. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike CC BY-SA 2.0
Carved out with stone tools. :)
Several decades older? Laughable! The Incas themselves said they had no idea who built it; it was already there when they arrived.
“Machu Picchu, the famous 15th-century Inca site in southern Peru, is up to several decades older than previously thought...”
Glad they got that straightened out; now we can all sleep better. That few decades correction out of 700 years really means a lot.
Trust the (repeatedly updated) science.
I’m no scientist but my guess is that it was there prior to the end of the last ice age.
15,000 years or so ago - give or take a few thousand.
I agree with you....
There are estimates that place the buildings as old or older than the pyramids of Egypt.
The change in workmanship is obvious at many, if not all, of the Inca ancient sites.
The base build is of high quality, massive stones, then built on top of that is low quality small stone.
Makes it fair obvious that the Inca came in as squatters on builds that were already long in existence.
I ran across this discovery when looking at pre-inca civilization in SoAm.
The layout is remarkably like Machu except no buildings of note. Did the Perdidaians move to Machu or did the Machuians move to Perdida? Cousins? Prior civilization?
https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/12/12/ciudad-perdida-the-lost-city-of-colombia/
It wouldn’t come as too much of a surprise to learn that the MP site was completed, or all but completed, by the previous regime, then taken over by the new guy, who managed to stave off the probably turbulent times that led to his rise.
Constantly updated, which is why it is trustworthy.
Laughable post — the Incas themselves never said anything about the site.
And still more laughable retort.
I’ve heard tell that there was a small pile of firewoodwood in front of each of the entrance doors of the M.P. structures. In that culture, it meant the occupants had left for a while and would be back. The site was slowly, or perhaps not so slowly, abandoned. It was the summer place for the Inca (the Inca was the ruler, not the people) and the last time they left at the end of summer, they never went back, apparently due to the Spanish conquest.
There are other sites that Bingham found, two of which are well-documented, and one was the last capital of the Incas. A site that he found further east remained lost for a second time, I saw a documentary about the search for it, apparently they found it again, but it didn’t look like much. The overgrowth would of course hide a lot.
Sister site of M.P.:
https://traveloutlandish.com/blog/choquequirao-ruins-peru/
It makes a big difference, as noted in the article.
It also makes a difference in the type of trolling that happens, usually there’s some outlandish and quite stupid claim about how RC dating isn’t accurate.
Pointing out that you’re lying is just part of the job around here.
“15,000 years or so ago - give or take a few thousand.”
I could be wrong, but it seems like that particular dam is getting ready to give way.
I am citing sources far more reliable than you. Why would I want to lie? I can see you have serious issues with anything or anyone is in conflict with your world view. Kindly remove me from any future posts. You have issues dude.
I’ve already removed you.
Your issues are at issue here, I have no issues. You obviously get your jollies trying to fling crap on topics.
I’m not bothering to ask you to name your source, because you can’t, there isn’t one.
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