Why did the Incas abandon them? The mystery of the giant rocks that never reached Ollantaytambo
Why did the Incas abandon stone blocks weighing over 40 tons halfway through their journey? 😱⛰️
In this video, we travel to the impressive Inca Quarry of Cachiccata (Cachiqata), one of the most fascinating archaeological secrets of the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Located at over 3,700 meters above sea level and facing the imposing snow-capped Veronica mountain, this was the "production workshop" from which the material was extracted to build the monumental Temple of the Sun at Ollantaytambo.
Along the way, we encounter a mystery that has baffled historians and engineers for centuries: the Tired Stones. These gigantic monolithic blocks of rita (pink granite) were finely carved, but they never reached their final destination. They remained stranded on the slopes, frozen in time.
Were they abandoned due to the abrupt arrival of the Spanish conquistadors? Did an Inca civil war break out and halt construction? Or did the weight of these massive stones simply overwhelm the astonishing engineering of the ancient Peruvians?
Join me as we explore the descending ramps, the area's pre-Hispanic tombs, and discover how the Incas managed to cross these gigantic rocks across the mighty Vilcanota River. A true feat of Andean engineering that defies logic!
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More than a thousand years ago, ancient peoples built enormous stone structures in one of the harshest and most remote landscapes in the American Southwest. The scale of the construction is astonishing. Massive great houses containing hundreds of rooms rose from the desert floor, connected by carefully engineered roads that stretched across the landscape for miles.
For generations, archaeologists assumed Chaco Canyon was a thriving city populated by thousands of permanent residents. But a closer look at the evidence reveals a mystery that has only grown more puzzling with time.
Where are all the signs of everyday life?
Many of the rooms appear to have been rarely occupied. The amount of domestic activity seems surprisingly small for a settlement of this size. Yet people invested enormous resources into building and maintaining these structures, transporting timber from distant mountains and creating some of the most sophisticated architecture in ancient North America.
The deeper researchers investigate, the stranger Chaco becomes. Exotic goods arrived from faraway regions. Ceremonial structures were carefully aligned with the landscape and sky. Vast roads connected Chaco to distant communities across the Southwest. Everything points toward a place of extraordinary importance, but perhaps not a city in the traditional sense.
What if Chaco Canyon was never meant to be a place where people lived permanently?
In this video, archaeologist Ed Barnhart examines the evidence behind a fascinating theory: that Chaco Canyon functioned primarily as a ceremonial gathering place, drawing visitors from across the region for rituals, trade, feasts, political meetings, and religious events.
If true, it would completely change how we understand one of the most famous archaeological sites in the Americas.
Why build a city if nobody lived there?
Join us as we explore the rise, mystery, and enduring legacy of Chaco Canyon, one of ancient America's most remarkable and enigmatic places.
A lovely overview of the approximate limits of the world known to the Romans, around 150 AD.
Map by Don Davis.
Romans went beyond further than what is shown on the map above.
Romans and Greeks before them may have visited the Spice Islands (historically the Moluccas or Maluku Islands) of the Indonesian archipelago. Some centuries before 150 AD, the Greeks themselves were traveling by sea to India and Southeast Asia as merchants, traders, and explorers. Unfortunately, there is scant information of their journey traveling further eastward from the Southeast Asian peninsula during this period. A likely scenario is that once the Greeks and then later on the Romans arrived on the southern peninsula of Southeast Asia, they then transferred to a local ship such as an outrigger. They sailed with a local guide eastward towards the thousand islands of Indonesia until finally arriving on the Spice Islands of the Banda Sea. This may explain why their journey were left unrecorded or scantly recorded.
Back in those days, they wanted to visit the trade centers located in India and in the peninsula of Southeast Asia but also the plantations of where several of the spices originated from such as Sri Lanka and the Spice Islands.
Roman Galicians arrived in South America between 50 BC to 10 AD. The people exist today in Peru, and they are closely genetically related to the people found in Galicia, Spain.
Romans in 150 AD visited the Baltic Region as mentioned below.
The Amber Road was an ancient trade route for the transfer of amber from coastal areas of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean Sea.[1]Prehistoric trade routes between Northern and Southern Europe were defined by the amber trade.
As an important commodity, sometimes dubbed "the gold of the north", amber was transported from the North Sea and Baltic Sea coasts overland by way of the Vistula and Dnieper rivers to Italy, Greece, the Black Sea, Syria and Egypt over a period of thousands of years.
The route developed into an important trading and military route for the Roman Empire, and also formed the basis of several present-day transport routes.[2]
Antiquity
The oldest trade in amber started from Sicily. The Sicilian amber trade was directed to Greece, North Africa and Spain. Sicilian amber was also discovered in Mycenae by the archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, and it appeared in sites in southern Spain and Portugal. Its distribution is similar to that of ivory, so it is possible that amber from Sicily reached the Iberian Peninsula through contacts with North Africa. After a decline in the consumption and trade of amber at the beginning of the Bronze Age, around 2000 BC, the influence of Baltic amber gradually took the place of Sicilian amber throughout the Iberian Peninsula from around 1000 BC. The new evidence[which?]comes from various archaeological and geological locations on the Iberian Peninsula.[citation needed]
From at least the 16th century BC, amber was moved from Northern Europe to the Mediterranean area.[3][4]The breast ornament of the Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamen (c. 1333–1324BC) contains large Baltic amber beads.[5][6][7]Schliemann found Baltic amber beads at Mycenae, as shown by spectroscopic investigation.[8]The quantity of amber in the Royal Hypogeum of Qatna, in Syria, is unparalleled among known second millennium BC sites in the Levant and the Ancient Near East.[9]Amber was sent from the North Sea to the Temple of Apollo at Delphi as an offering. From the Black Sea, trade could continue to Asia along the Silk Road, another ancient trade route.
In Roman times, a main route ran south from the Baltic coast (modern Lithuania), the entire north–south length of modern-day Poland (likely through the IronAge settlement of Biskupin), through the land of the Boii(modern Czech Republic and Slovakia) to the head of the Adriatic Sea (Aquileia by the modern Gulf of Venice). Other commodities were exported to the Romans along with amber, such as animal fur and skin, honey, and wax, in exchange for Roman glass, brass, gold, and non-ferrous metals such as tin and copper imported into the early Baltic region.[10]As this road was a lucrative trade route connecting the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, Roman military fortifications were constructed along the route to protect merchants and traders from Germanic raids.[11]
The Old Prussian towns of Kaup and Truso on the Baltic were the starting points of the route to the south.[12][13]In Scandinavia the amber road probably gave rise to the thriving Nordic Bronze Age culture, bringing influences from the Mediterranean Sea to the northernmost countries of Europe.[14]
Whilst called the Amber Road, the prized gemstone was the smallest share of goods transported along the route.[2]
Known roads by country
EV9 The Amber Route is a long-distance cycling route between Gdańsk, Poland, and Pula, Croatia, which follows the course of the Amber Road.
In Estonia, the old coastal Amber road route is going north-south along the E67 highway from Reiu in Häädemeeste Parish of Pärnu County, where it continues as 331 local road between Rannametsa and Ikla villages.
France and Spain
Routes connected amber finding locations at Ambares (near Bordeaux), leading to Béarnand the Pyrenees. Routes connecting the amber finding locations in northern Spain and in the Pyrenees were a trading route to the Mediterranean Sea.
Amber Roads in Germany
Germany
Several roads connected the North Sea and Baltic Sea, especially the city of Hamburg to the Brenner Pass, proceeding southwards to Brindisi (nowadays Italy) and Ambracia (nowadays Greece).
Italy
In northern Italy, Aquileia was a major Roman city and near one end of the road where amber was found, and also shaped.[15][2]
Coming from Aquileia (Italy), the Roman city of Emona (now within the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana) was on the south-west to north-east route, continuing to Celeia (now-Celje) and Poetovio (now-Ptuj), before going onto Scarbantia (now Sopron, Hungary).[2]Novo Mesto in southern Slovenia was also involved in the amber trade.[17][18]
Switzerland
The Swiss region indicates a number of alpine roads, concentrating around the capital city Bern and probably originating from the banks of the Rhône and Rhine.
Modern usage
The Amber Road (east route), as hypothesized by Polish historian Jerzy Wielowiejski, Główny szlak bursztynowy w czasach Cesarstwa Rzymskiego (transl. Main Route of the Amber Road of the Roman Empire), 1980
There is an unofficial set of tourist sites stretching on a route along the Baltic coast from Gdańsk, Poland to Pärnu, Estonia called the "Amber Road". Notable "Amber Road" sites on the route include:
Dating from the 1st century BC amber deposit found in Party nice near Wrocław. It is the world's largest archaeological find of amber, estimated at 1,240–1,760 kilograms (2,730–3,880 lb). Currently it is in the Archaeological Museum in Wrocław.
In Poland, the north–south motorway A1 is officially named Amber Highway.[20]
In Russian,Kaliningrad Oblast is occasionally referred to as 'the amber region' (Янтарный край).[15]
The StudyEU Amber Road European University Alliance is a university network linked to the ancient route, formed to strengthen international cooperation and cohesion.[21]
The modern Baltic–Adriatic Corridor connects the two seas along routes that roughly follow the Amber Road.
