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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Aztec men sharing a meal What did early people eat? When people first came to Central and South America, perhaps about 15,000 BC, they hunted and gathered all of their food. They picked wild potatoes, [...]
Olmec Pyramid, La Venta, Mexico (500 BC) The earliest big buildings from South America are in Ecuador and Peru, along the Pacific coast. The Norte Chico people and the Valdivia people built [...]
History of chocolate: Cocoa pods grow right from the trunk of the cocoa tree! (Thanks World Cocoa Foundation) Chocolate comes from South America Chocolate comes from cacao beans, which grew [...]
