That was then...

Mind you, you do get an idea of what Theroux means by the fading of Peru's glory (see earlier blog) from Hugh Thomson's Cochineal Red: Travels Through Ancient Peru. Everyone knows about the Incas, Cuzco and Machu Piccchu. We will be doing the predictable tourist route, staying in Cusco, the former Inca capital, and visiting the ruins of Sacsayhuaman, Tambo Machay, Puka Pukara and the temple of Q'enko before taking the train up to Machu Piccchu before heading off to Lake Titiaca. Thomson's aim, however, is to show that the Inca civilsation is only one of many ancient civilisations in Peru, the oldest being that of the Caral who lived on the north coast between 3000 and 1800 BC-so not a "New World" at all!

His account is full of fascinating detail written from the perspective of the archaeologist-but is also a lively account of the difficulties involved in undertaking excavation here (which explains the relatively late development of archaeology in this area when compared with Europe, the East and Africa) and the rivalries between different groups of archaeologists. I guess the scarcity of evidence and the importance of interpretation in making sense of what does remain makes archaeology a field that is especially open to academic rivalry-or, in the past, to mind numbing recitation of such proven facts as there are. Anyway, someone could write a good novel with this as the background.