Three Historians Support American’s Claim that Machu Picchu was Looted Before Hiram Bingham
The Search For the Treasure
By Enrique Sanchez Hernani
SOMOS (El Comercio)
June 28, 2008
(translated by Kim MacQuarrie)
Vestiges. Documents that could confirm the discovery of Machu Picchu by a German adventurer a half century before Hiram Bingham, reveal new evidence about the monumental looting.
In the beginning of June, news shook scientific and historical circles: the German dealer August R. Berns had carried away the majority of the archaeological remains at Machu Picchu 44 years before Bingham arrived in this country…
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Peruvian Historian Claims She Found First Maps Proving that Machu Picchu was Discovered Before Bingham
(Above: A Peruvian farmer with looted Inca artifacts in 1911; photo by Hiram Bingham)
Peruvian historian had already published maps of ancient Machu Picchu
June 6, 2008
EFE
(Translated by Kim MacQuarrie)
The Peruvian historian Mariana Mould de Pease published maps in 2003 showing that the famous Inca citadel of Machu Picchu was already known in ancient times and was sacked by the German adventurer Augusto Berns in 1867.
These maps and the history of Berns were made public in an exclusive report last Tuesday by the American cartographer Paolo Greer…
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Was Machu Picchu “Discovered” & Looted 43 Years Before Hiram Bingham’s Arrival? (Part 2)
(At left: The American Paolo Greer discovered this map of the Machu Picchu area in Lima’s National Library. It was in an 1877 book by the German geologist, Herman Göhring. The map is dated 1874 and clearly indicates two peaks: “Macchu Picchu” and “Huaina Picchu,” although no accompanying ruins are indicated.)
Machu Picchu Before Bingham (Part 2)
By Paolo Greer
South American Explorer Magazine
Edition 87
June 2008
The Oldest Map of Machu Picchu
In 1989, I was granted an interview with Juan Mejía Baca, the Director of the National Library of Perú. I had spent many weeks in the library and had finally worked up my courage to make a few suggestions to Don Juan about how he might make his archives more accessible.
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Was Machu Picchu “Discovered” & Looted 43 Years Before Hiram Bingham’s Arrival? (Part 1)
(Above: Machu Picchu in 1912; Photo by Hiram Bingham III)
Note: Recently there has surfaced in the press the announcement that a German adventurer/businessman, Augusto R. Berns, actually discovered Machu Picchu (and looted it with the permission of the Peruvian government at the time) some four decades before the American historian, Hiram Bingham, stumbled upon the ruins in 1911 and officially “discovered” them. The press reports promised that the man making this claim, the American Paolo Greer, would soon publish his proof in the “South American Explorer Magazine.” Greer’s article has just been published and Part I is reprinted in full below.
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German May Have Looted Machu Picchu Long Before Hiram Bingham Arrived
Machu Picchu
German may have found, looted Inca city
June 5, 2008
Newscientist.com
LIMA, Peru — The jungle-shrouded Inca citadel of Machu Picchu may have been rediscovered – and looted – decades before the Yale scholar credited with the find first got there, a researcher said Thursday.
Most academics say Yale University’s Hiram Bingham III rediscovered the site in Peru’s verdant southeastern Andes during a 1911 expedition.
But Paolo Greer, a retired Alaska oil pipeline foreman, says otherwise. Thirty years of digging through files in the United States and Peru led him to maps and documents showing that a German businessman named Augusto R. Berns got there first…
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