Hidden atop the Andes, the mysteries of the lost Inca Empire are yielding to today's technology.
"We're adding a symphony of instruments to our efforts, which lets us just see more than we ever imagined," says archaeologist Fred Limp of the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Archaeological advances and ongoing work in the Andes demonstrate the growing role of high-tech tools, he says.
Along the way, archaeologists are gaining a new appreciation for the elaborate Stone Age skills that allowed the Inca and their predecessors to rule Andean South America. A young empire snuffed out by the Spanish conquest in 1532, the Inca left behind monumental buildings and enigmatic knotted strings, thought to represent numbers and an undeciphered writing.
It's about recent developments in deciphering Inca khipu and some work with laser ranging and CAD tools to recreate architecture and other things-Inca.