The Pyramids of Tucume: The Quest for Peru's Forgotten City

by etc. (Author), Alfredo Narvaez (Author), Thor Heyerdahl (Author), Daniel H. Sandweiss (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  1995

  $4.23

  Thor Heyerdahl, explorer, anthropologist and adventurer, is well-known for his daring expedition around the globe. Almost half a century ago he risked his life sailing from Peru to Polynesia on a balsa raft, the story immortalized in his book The Kon-Tiki Expedition (1948). Since then similar voyages have taken him across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and the most remote corners of the world, in a lifelong quest for knowledge, adventure and excitement. In recent years his travels have led him back to Peru, where he learned of the colossal pre-Columbian site of Tucume, containing 26 pyramids. Who had built these pyramids, and when? What discoveries lay in store for the investigator wishing to probe their mysteries? Heyerdhal set up camp, and in this narrative describes his experiences and the ambitious programme of excavations his team undertook. Numerous burials have been uncovered, revealing grave goods, including Inca silver figurines and featherwork textiles. They discovered a mud-plaster frieze depicting reed boats of exactly the type Hererdahl had foreseen. This, together with lapis lazuli from Chile and shells from Ecuador and Panama, provided confirmation that the people of Tucume were experienced voyagers who traded over long distances. This book is a first-hand account of Hererdahl's discoveries. Weaving together archaeology, myth and history with portraits of the present-day community, it should be of interest to travellers, archaeologists, anthropologists annd adventure-lovers.