Yale's Peabody Museum Exhibit

The Machu Picchu Exhibit
Featuring over 400 original artifacts

High in the Peruvian cloud forest the Inca country palace of Machu Picchu is one of the most spectacular archaeological sites in the world. When local farmers first showed members of the 1911 Yale Peruvian Expedition to the site, it had survived in a near pristine state since the Inca abandoned it in the early 16th century.

The Expedition was led by Yale archaeologist Hiram Bingham who later became a US Senator and then the governor of Connecticut. He excavated hundreds of objects that tell the story of everyday life at Machu Picchu and, by agreement with the Peruvian government, these materials became part of the Peabody Museum’s collections. Many of these objects will be on view to the public for the first time. Together with the 11,000 photographs Bingham took, they form a unique scientific, historic and artistic resource that enables us to reconstruct the daily life of Machu Picchu at its zenith 500 years ago.

Co-curated by Curator of Anthropology Professor Richard Burger and Curatorial Affiliate and Peruvian archaeologist Lucy Salazar, this exhibition invites visitors to travel into the past, first to Machu Picchu with the 1911 Yale Peruvian Scientific Expedition, and then further back to the late 15th century when this Inca country palace was a bustling community with an important religious, political and social role in the Inca empire. The exhibition has many interactive components, including replicas of the house of the Inca king and an ancient Inca road, a curator’s tour of the Inca palace complex, and an interactive laboratory that shows how archaeologists in the 21st century interpret the 15th century.

Filled with stunning panoramic photographs and the finest surviving examples of Inca art on loan from Peru, Europe and other major U.S. collections, this exhibition is not to be missed. An Exhibit Catalog is being published by Yale University Press (Tel. 203 432-0966)due for release in the fall of 2003.

The Yale Peruvian Expeditions

In conjunction with Machu Picchu: Unveiling the Mystery of the Incas, the Sterling Memorial Library is showcasing an exhibit detailing the holdings of the Yale Peruvian Expedition Papers in the library’s Manuscripts and Archives Department. The exhibit is based on the vast quantities of correspondence, administrative records, scientific reports, writings, and illustrative material on the three expeditions to Peru sponsored by Yale University between 1911 and 1915.

Scientific specialists, drawn principally from the Yale faculty, studied the most celebrated finding of the expeditions, the rediscovery of Machu Picchu. The papers include diaries, manuscripts and published reports, as well as the writings of Hiram Bingham III, Professor of Latin American History at Yale, and leader of the expeditions. Among Bingham’s papers are the official reports of the expedition, and essays and manuscripts of his books. The illustrative materials include a collection of glass slides used for the exhibit, maps, clippings, scrapbooks, and photographs of the sites, of Quechua Indians, and of Peruvian artifacts. These materials will be supplemented with published material about Bingham and Machu Picchu from the Latin American Collection.

New Book on Machu Picchu by Yale's Richard Burger

Machu Picchu Unveiling the Mystery of the Incas
Edited by Richard L. Burger and Lucy C. Salazar

The definitive guide to the mysteries and treasures of Machu Picchu, the New World's most splendid archaeological site. Situated high in the Peruvian Andes, the fifteenth-century Inca palace complex at Machu Picchu is one of the most spectacular archaeological sites in the world. In this beautifully illustrated book, leading American and Peruvian scholars provide an unprecedented overview of the site, its place within the Inca empire, the mysteries surrounding its establishment and abandonment, and the discoveries made there since the excavations by archaeologist Hiram Bingham III in the early twentieth century.

Drawing upon the most recent scientific findings, the authors vividly describe the royal estate in the cloud forest where the Inca emperor and his guests went to escape the pressures of the capital. In addition to Bingham's exciting account of his first expedition in 1911, the book includes new and archival photographs of the site as well as color illustrations and explanations of some 120 gold, silver, ceramic, bone, and textile works recovered at Machu Picchu.

"Despite its importance as a site of world heritage status, there has been virtually nothing substantive available on Machu Picchu. This appealing book, written by the preeminent scholars in the field, fills the gap beautifully." - Jeffrey Quilter, director of pre-Columbian studies, Dumbarton Oaks.


Rediscovering Machu Picchu

Hiram Bingham's Discovery

Peru Sues for Artifacts

A NEW Discovery

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