Inca textiles: Did you mean...?

Historian Christopher Heaney relates the story of Hiram Bingham, who stepped into the astounding ruins of Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Incas, 100 years ago.

Between 1200 and 1450 CE, no single power dominated the world. Instead, a number of powerful civilizations developed in parallel: the Song Dynasty in China, ruled after 1279 by the Mongols; the...

The Spanish Main refers, in its widest sense, to the Spanish Empire in the Americas from Florida in the north to the northern coast of Brazil in the south, including the Caribbean. The term was initially more limited and referred...

The Chavin civilization flourished between 900 and 200 BCE in the northern and central Andes and was one of the earliest pre-Inca cultures. The Chavin religious centre Chavin de Huantar became an important Andean pilgrimage...

Silver had great value and aesthetic appeal in many ancient cultures where it was used to make jewellery, tableware, figurines, ritual objects and rough-cut pieces known as hacksilver which could be used in trade or to store...

The Chimu civilization, otherwise called the kingdom of Chimor, flourished on the northern coast of Peru between the 12th and 15th centuries CE. With their capital at Chan Chan, the Chimu were the largest and most prosperous...

Linear B script was the writing system of the Mycenaean civilization of the Bronze Age Mediterranean. The syllabic script was used to write Mycenaean Greek from c. 1500 to c. 1200 BCE. It was deciphered by Michael Ventris in 1952...

Spain’s rapid expansion into South America followed the consolidation of its Caribbean footholds by 1512, marking a decisive shift from exploration to imperial...

A representation of a deity which has been identified as the supreme Inca creator god Viracocha or his forerunner the 'Weeping God' or Thunupa. From the c. 300 CE Gateway of the Sun, Tiwanaku, Bolivia.

An 18th century CE idealised portrait of the last Inca ruler Atahualpa, r. 1532-1533 CE. (Brooklyn Museum, New York)