Cradle of gold The story of Hiram Bingham, a real-life Indiana Jones, and the search for Machu Picchu

Christopher Heaney

Book - 2010

"In 1911, a young Peruvian boy led an American explorer and Yale historian named Hiram Bingham into the ancient Incan citadel of Machu Picchu. Hidden amidst the breathtaking heights of the Andes, this settlement of temples, tombs and palaces was the Incas' greatest achievement. In this grand, sweeping narrative, Christopher Heaney takes the reader into the heart of Peru's past to relive the dramatic story of the final years of the Incan empire, the exhilarating recovery of their final cities and the thought-provoking fight over their future. Drawing on original research in untapped archives, Heaney vividly portrays both a stunning landscape and the complex history of a fascinating region that continues to inspire awe and cont...roversy today"--Provided by publisher.

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Subjects
Published
New York, NY : Palgrave Macmillan 2010.
Language
English
Main Author
Christopher Heaney (-)
Edition
1st ed
Physical Description
xiv, 285 p., [8] p. of plates : ill., maps, ports. ; 25 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9780230611696
  • Maps
  • Preface: Beneath the Hat
  • Introduction The Last City of the Incas: The Sixteenth-Century Conquest
  • Part 1. The Explorer
  • Chapter 1. The Black Temple
  • Chapter 2. The Ivory Tower
  • Chapter 3. The Compass
  • Chapter 4. Into the Andes
  • Chapter 5. Cuzco, the Navel of the World
  • Chapter 6. Choqquequirau, the Cradle of Gold
  • Interlude: Manco Inca
  • Part 2. The Search
  • Chapter 7. Best Laid Plans
  • Chapter 8. Dead Man's Gulch
  • Chapter 9. The Discoverers of Machu Picchu
  • Chapter 10. The White Temple
  • Chapter 11. The Plain of Ghosts
  • Interlude: Titu Cusi
  • Part 3. The Resurrectionists
  • Chapter 12. The Deal
  • Chapter 13. The Cemetery of the Incas
  • Chapter 14. The Debate
  • Chapter 15. The Prize
  • Interlude: Tupac Amaru
  • Part 4. Bonesmen
  • Chapter 16. Between the Poles
  • Chapter 17. Temptation
  • Chapter 18. Roads to Ruins
  • Chapter 19. The Trial of Hiram Bingham
  • Chapter 20. Airborne
  • Epilogue Returns
  • Afterword
  • Acknowledgments
  • A Note on Sources
  • Notes
  • Index
Review by Library Journal Review

On an archaeological trip to Peru on July 24, 1911, Hiram Bingham, an American explorer and history professor at Yale, happened upon the ruins of the Inca city of Machu Picchu. Although the site was already known to the local native people, Bingham made the Machu Picchu ruins famous and received acclaim as their "discoverer." Heaney presents a well-researched and very readable biography of Bingham from his childhood in Hawaii as the son of missionaries, through his education and careers as historian, educator, explorer, and finally politician. He probes the depths of Bingham's work and character, examining setbacks, scandals, and achievements and skillfully unraveling Bingham's role in the controversy that still exists today between the government of Peru and Yale University over the ownership of the Machu Picchu burials and artifacts. Heaney shows Bingham as a complex and ambitious man inculcated with the racial attitudes of his time, but he also convincingly shows that despite his shortcomings, Bingham made a significant contribution to the study of South American archaeology and Inca history. The book's title is something of a misnomer, as Bingham found no gold at Machu Picchu, and the name "cradle of gold" is used in the text to refer to a different Incan archaeological site that Bingham visited. VERDICT Recommended for history and archaeology enthusiasts interested in a detailed account of the life of an archaeological icon.-Elizabeth Salt, Otterbein Coll. Lib., Westerville, OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.