Why did the Spanish steal the Inca's mummies?

The decline of the Inca Empire

The Inca Empire was awash with gold, and the Spanish knew it. So what happened next? Read this BBC article to learn what happened during the last days of the Inca Empire.

Human sacrifice in the Inca Empire

In the lands ruled by the Incas, mountain deities were well-respected and related summits were often selected as places for making the most important of all offerings — human sacrifices.

Is the Inca maiden the world's best-preserved mummy?

Found atop a snowy peak in the Andes, this teen mummy is at least 500 years old. Watch this four-minute video to see the Inca maiden, a mummy so well-preserved that small details, such as her many braids, are clearly defined.

Yale returns Inca artifacts to Peru

From the time he came upon Machu Picchu in 1911, Hiram Bingham began removing artifacts and human remains from the site and bringing them back to Yale University. Yale's Peabody Museum held them for 100 years, despite demands by the Peruvian government and the public that they be repatriated. Finally, in 2011, Yale returned thousands of items, including ceramics, jewelry and human skeletons.

Rediscovering the Inca Empire

In 1991, anthropologist Johan Reinhard was trekking up the snowy face of a dormant volcano when he came face to face with the mummified remains of a teenager who had been sacrificed to the Incan gods centuries earlier. The story of “Juanita the Ice Maiden” is just one of the riveting tales featured in this four-part series from the popular podcast "History Hit".

How the great city of Cusco came to be, according to the Inca

The chronicler Inka Garcilaso de la Vega recorded the origin story of the Inka (also spelled Inca) and the founding of Cusco, the capital of the society's great empire. Listen to the Inca origin story in this 4-minute video narrated by a child.

How did the Inca build Machu Picchu?

How did the Inca, a people without iron or steel, build a city that has withstood hundreds of years of earthquakes and inclement weather? Machu Picchu stands atop steep landslide prone slopes and active fault lines and gets up to 80 inches of rain...

What was it like to rebel against the Inca Empire?

The Inca Empire grew to its gargantuan size and became the largest empire in ancient Americas through conquest, annexation, and arranged marriage, approaches that didn't always go over well with locals. Watch this five-minute video to experience a...

Without mummies, ancient Egyptians feared their souls would perish

The ancient Egyptians placed major importance on mummification because of their beliefs about the afterlife. They believed a preserved body was essential for the soul’s survival, as it needed a physical form to return to. Without it, they feared the soul would perish.

What llama beans can tell us about the Inca Empire

Fun fact: Llama bean is just another term for llama poop. Another fun fact: Scientists are using these beans and related microorganisms to learn more about the Inca Empire. Read this article to learn how.

What were the Aztecs really like?

Does the society live up to its blood-thirsty stereotype? Archaeologist Eduardo Matos Moctezuma answers this question and more in this short article. Moctezuma was the principal excavator of the major Aztec archaeological site Templo Mayor in the 1970s. He shares how the culture grew from a combined emphasis on war and agriculture, and ruled one of the world's largest cities at the time.

New research challenges the myth that Montezuma peacefully surrendered to Spain

For centuries, historians claimed Montezuma II willingly ceded control to the conquistadors, and that later Aztec resistance was a rogue uprising. Evidence now shows no peaceful handover occurred, revealing a far more turbulent and contested encounter between the two warring empires.

A history of China's ancient hidden tombs

Like many ancient cultures, the Chinese had a tradition of burying the dead in elaborate tombs, which would serve as both burial places and residences for the deceased. Archaeological evidence of these tombs, including those of former emperors, provides insights into the country's cultural evolution.

What was the Spanish inquisition?

In 1478, Spain's Catholic monarchy launched a campaign tackling heresy throughout the collection of kingdoms that would ultimately become modern-day Spain. This six-minute animated video overviews the Spanish Inquisition, a wave of religious...

The dark side of museum collections

Using the example of a sacred Nepali religious object that was stolen from a village in the 1980s and which later appeared in the Met’s collection, this article looks at the controversies that have swirled around some of the museum’s pieces. In addition to the Nepali statue, the piece outlines decades of questionable collection practices––some of which are clear-cut cases of theft.

The iconic Aztec 'crystal skulls' were 19th-century fakes

The crystal skulls long displayed as Aztec artifacts were actually fabricated in the late 1800s, all linked to French antiquities dealer Eugène Boban. Anthropologist Jane Walsh's investigation exposed their modern origins, overturning a century of mistaken museum lore.

A particle accelerator allowed researchers to noninvasively examine a mummy

The mummy hailed from the Faiyum oasis, where Egyptian and Roman cultures intersected, and was analyzed using the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory. The device used high-energy X-rays to probe the material composition of numerous objects embedded deep inside the mummy without damaging its remains.

Make these Aztec-inspired amaranth and honey skulls for Dia de los Muertos

On the Day of the Dead, ghosts enjoy earthly delights amid Mexican cemeteries. Baskets of sweet breads and tamales grace graves, while altars honoring the departed display hot chocolate and chicken legs. Hear from experts why this morbid day emphasizes the significance of offering foods loved by the dead. Intrigued? You can learn to make them yourself with recipes provided.

What did Ötzi the Iceman have with him when he died?

Ötzi the Iceman and his belongings were remarkably well-preserved by the mountainous ice that usually covered the area near the Italy-Austria border where he was found. This article by the Italian museum that houses Ötzi's body details some of the...

One in five 16th century Spanish ships sank while crossing the Atlantic

Despite the incredibly high rate of catastrophic wrecks, during the Age of Exploration Spanish investors continued to fund voyages. Here, economists break down the incentives that led to increased risk, including short travel seasons and the propensity to overload ships.

Tombaroli steal precious items from ancient people's tombs in central Italy

The tombaroli, or tomb-robbers, raid ancient Etruscan tombs in the dark hours of the night to recover vases, statuettes, mirrors, ornaments, jewellery, and other objects in gold, bronze, and terracotta. Read a firsthand account of a tombarolo who made a living handing stolen items to middlemen who sold them to wealthy buyers abroad. The lives and practices of tombaroli are also explored in the 2023 film "La Chimera."

Athletes in Mexico are reviving a 3,000-year-old sacred sport

A modern team is working to revive Juego de Pelota, an ancient Mesoamerican team sport played by the Maya, Aztecs, and neighboring cultures. Once central to ritual and community life, the game was outlawed by Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century.

Ritual Maya dental ornaments may have prevented tooth decay

Analysis of Maya dental sealants shows they used plant resins and gums—some derived from pine with antibacterial properties—suggesting gemstone tooth inlays may have helped reduce infection while serving ritual and symbolic purposes.

See a 3D reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that was home to an estimated population of 200,000 to 400,000.

The Curies were buried in lead-lined coffins to contain their radioactive bodies

Their discoveries of polonium and radium involved ongoing exposure to radioactive materials before shielding technology was developed. Their notebooks, furniture, and other belongings remain radioactive today, requiring researchers to sign a waiver and wear protective clothing to access.

Spanish Colonial Revival favors red clay roofs, white stucco, decorative ironwork

The style recalls the motifs of structures in both Europe and in colonial Spain. Beyond clay roofs and stucco, the design also showcases arches and arcades, painted tiles, towers, and more.

Explore the archaeological treasures of Pompeii, the city buried under volcanic ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE.

Against his wishes, Albert Einstein's brain was removed before his cremation, and the pathologist responsible stored it for decades in mason jars within a beer cooler.

Salvador Dalí believed he was his own dead brother, who had died nine months before he was born

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

Apollo astronauts left items in the moon's 'toss zone,' including golf balls, family photos, and bags of human waste, to make room for lunar rocks.

Volcanoes 'die' when their supply of magma runs out, if they are shifted away from their underlying magma reservoir, or if they get clogged by collapsing or their magma cooling back into rock.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

Cultural norms about how to handle the bodies of loved ones in communities in West Africa have hampered Ebola responses.

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island

The US first hosted the World Cup in 1994, a tournament that lives in soccer infamy for its poor planning and the murder of Colombian player Andres Escobar, who'd accidentally scored on his own net.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

Crows are believed to have intelligence on par with a seven-year-old child and demonstrate complex behaviors, from problem-solving with tools to recognizing human faces.

Recent research found that the brain doesn't seem to massively rewire following amputation—upending earlier beliefs about the cause of phantom limb pain.

El Niño, Spanish for 'the boy,' was named after Jesus Christ because the phenomenon resembled the weather changes observed around Christmastime.

See photos of Meteora, a mountainous site in central Greece, home to 14th-century monasteries perched atop soaring outcroppings.

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.

The first horror movie is believed to be George Méliès' 1986 short 'The Haunted Castle,' which pioneered the use of special effects

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, but became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

Some Pokémon have been named after real and fictional organisms, while some real-world species have been named after Pokémon, such as Chilicola charizard and Binburrum zapdos.

Planarian flatworms are small, aquatic worms with exceptional regenerative capabilities. When cut, the worms can regenerate multiple bodies in a matter of weeks.

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.

The Great Salt Lake's distinct dual coloration results from high-salinity organisms that only live in the northern portion and produce a purple protein.

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.