Incas

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Our Days Are a Smidge Longer Than They Used to Be
Our Days 
Are a Smidge
Longer Than
They Used to Be
study says

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
in case you missed it

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

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

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 
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

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

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

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...

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