Machu Picchu in Peru may have been built at least two decades earlier than previously thought, according to a new study whose authors analyzed human remains discovered in the devastated city and found that the Incas may have lived in the area around 1420.

Scholars previously relied on Spanish colonial records to determine the earliest possible date for the creation of a city hidden among the Andes mountain ranges. art newspaper the side. According to these documents, the city was built by the Inca ruler Pachacuti after the conquest of the region as part of his land acquisition campaign, which eventually led to the birth of the Inca Empire. According to the records, Pachacuti took power in 1438, so important events related to his reign were bound to happen after that.

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the Antiquity The authors of a study published in the journal Now subjected human bones and teeth excavated in 1912 in three burial caves in the devastated city to radiocarbon dating, which allowed a more accurate determination of when the city was built. The remains come from about 26 individuals who appear to have worked as slaves in a complex designed for the ruling class of Inca society. Hundreds of servants lived in Machu Picchu to provide for the city’s needs throughout the year, as the Inca elite sporadically stayed.

Recent findings show that the city was continuously inhabited from about 1420 to 1530, and appears to have become depopulated after the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in 1532.

[Megfejtették az inkák legendáját – és nagyon úgy tűnik, hogy igaz]

The new findings may rewrite the story of the dawn of the Inca Empire. According to experts, if future studies support the results of the radiocarbon study, then the time of Pachacuti’s accession to the throne and the beginning of his conquests will be delayed by at least two decades.

Machu Picchu, considered a masterpiece of Inca art, architecture, urban planning and engineering, was declared a World Heritage Site in 1983.

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