Some archaeologists think that as many as 20 million people may have once inhabited the Amazonian rain forest. Their wooden cities would have been quickly swallowed by the jungle if the residents had been killed off by European diseases, but they did leave behind heavy, black dirt, called terra preta, which was made fertile when […]

Corpse-eating insect remains have been found in Moche graves in northern Peru, suggesting that the dead were exposed for at least a week before burial. Such insects are also depicted in Moche art. “The Moche deliberately exposed the body to the flies with the hope that the anima or spirit of the deceased would be […]