History of coca leaves: Coca farming in the Andes Mountains When did coca plants evolve? Like potatoes, tomatoes, and tobacco, coca plants grow wild in the Andes Mountains of South America. They probably evolved [...]
Maya Corn King on a plate Polytheism in the Americas The people who lived in South and Central America before 1500 were polytheistic - they believed in many different gods. Because they [...]
Valdivian carving, ca. 3500-2000 BC The first people in Ecuador People probably first reached Ecuador by boat, about 13,000 BC. They were coming down the Pacific Coast from North America. These people settled [...]
Norte Chico building: Stepped platform at Caral (ca. 2200 BC) When did people first reach Peru? People probably first arrived in Peru about 13,000 BC. They were following the Pacific coast south [...]
Nazca lines - a giant monkey drawn on the desert floor Nazca replace the Chavin After the Chavin state collapsed about 250 BC, two new states formed in Peru - the Moche in the [...]
Moche portrait of a blind man, 400-500 AD (thanks to Oberlin College) When did the Moche get started? The collapse of the Chavin state in Peru, about 250 BC, seems to have opened [...]
The Andes mountains run down the Pacific side of South America People first came to Central and South America probably around 20,000 years ago. They were probably traveling south from North America, though [...]
Inca history: Macchu Picchu Before the Inca Until the 1400s AD, the Pacific coast of South America was made up of a lot of small independent kingdoms. First the Valdivia and Norte Chico people [...]
Guarani people performing a dance in the 1800s The Tupi move south When the first Tupi people expanded their territory from Central America to reach the coast of Brazil about 900 BC, some [...]
Chavin stone carving From Norte Chico to Chavin By around 900 BC, the Norte Chico people of northern Peru developed into the Chavin culture. Like the earlier Norte Chico people, the Chavin people [...]
