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Archaeologists crave
unexplored territory.

Nothing thrills more
than new discoveries
of ancient civilisations.

For over a century now,

Peru has given us
treasure after treasure.

It's a vast country of extremes.
From tropical rainforest

to the dry deserts of the Atacama.

And in one of the most remote
northern regions

lies the most mysterious kingdom
in Peru.

I'm Jago Cooper

and, as an archaeologist
who specialises in South America,

I've always been fascinated
by the secrets and mysteries

buried deep in these awe-inspiring
and forbidding landscapes.

The history of this continent
has been dominated

by the stories of the Inca
and the Spanish conquistadors.

But in this series, I'll be
exploring an older, forgotten past,

travelling from the coast
to the clouds

in search of ancient civilisations

as significant and impressive
as anywhere else on Earth.

In remote northern Peru,

one such civilisation thrived
for over 500 years.

They were called the Chachapoyas,

which translates as
the People of the Clouds,

and who they were is one of
the greatest archaeological
mysteries of the Americas.

In the year 900 AD,
on Andean mountain tops

lived the Chachapoya people.

The remnants of Chachapoya culture

are amongst the most stunning and
least understood in South America.

The Chachapoya, quite frankly,
are still a mystery to us.

All we have to go on
are tantalising fragments,

treasures and artefacts from
faraway tropical rainforests,

tombs placed high
on unscaleable cliffs,

mummies hidden in caves.

And one of the most impressive
archaeological sites
in South America.

How did such a complex
and advanced culture bloom

in this remote part of Peru
over 1,000 years ago?

Before venturing into the mountains,

my investigation into
these enigmatic people

begins here
in the Peruvian capital Lima.

None of the indigenous
South American cultures

left us written records,
so the earliest written accounts

are the chronicles
of the Spanish conquistadors.

In 1638, a century after
the Spanish arrived,

Father Pedro Calancha -
one of the first chroniclers -

ventured into Chachapoya territory

and he wrote of the Chachapoya
people that they were

bellicose and indomitable,
herbalists and sorcerers.

And to the amazement
of the Europeans, he also wrote

that they only obey the chief during
war time, and not any special one,

but he who is known to be the most
valiant, enterprising and daring.

Sorcerers on mountain peaks!

Bellicose Indians who were not
controlled by their chiefs!

Intriguing though
these conquistador claims are,

they're not much to go on.

The Spanish invaders weren't always
reliable eye-witnesses.

The problem is, only a handful
of archaeologists

have even ventured
into the Chachapoya territory.

So before heading into the Andes,
I need a more trustworthy source.

One of the few who has studied
the cryptic Chachapoya

is Adriana von Hagen, so I met
with her to establish the basics.

What is it that drew you
to the Chachapoyas region?

What do you find so interesting
about the Chachapoyas culture?

Just the fact that
there's so little known

and that the iconography,
the imagery -

that's what I've been studying -
what it can reveal about a culture.

You will notice that
all Chachapoya sites, almost all,

are located on mountain tops
or ridges.

They were known as sorcerers,
using Amazonian esoteric knowledge

of herbs and hallucinogenic drugs.

So little of the Chachapoyas region
seems to have been mapped.

How much of the archaeology
do you think we've actually found?

Oh, 5%? If that!

Yeah, I can count on one hand

the sites that have been
excavated scientifically.

Incredible, and it's a huge region?
Huge.

Why do you think more work hasn't
been done by archaeologists there?

Mainly because it's isolated.

At least it's isolated to us

in our Western sort of concept of
getting to places, distant places.

I mean, for pre-Colombian people,
walking for two weeks was nothing,

but, for us, even driving for a day
is a long way.

Peru is roughly five times
the size of the UK.

The Chachapoya were found
to the north,

and on the eastern side
of the Andean mountains...

..in 9,500 square miles
of challenging terrain.

After a flight from Lima
and a 14-hour drive,

I finally arrive in what is, to this
day, called the Chachapoya region.

And seeing the epic landscape
for the first time, it strikes me

that this isn't an obvious place
to build a civilisation.

The first humans made their way
across Alaska and into North America

over 14,000 years ago.
Over the next 1,000 years,

they travelled southwards,
along the Pacific coastline,

and through
the continental interior

to colonise and populate
South America.

The Chachapoya culture
emerged around 900 AD,

and some archaeologists believe
they emigrated

to these desolate mountain tops from
the lower-lying Amazonian region.

But we know
that when they arrived here,

they built homes on the hilltops

and eventually grew to a population
of half a million strong.

They ruled these mountains
and valleys for six centuries.

But the first question
surrounding the Chachapoya

is why settle
in this particular region?

To the west is the Andes,
for thousands of miles,

the highest mountain range
in South America.

To the east,
the vast Amazon Basin,

stretching out,
thick, dense tropical rainforest.

To modern eyes,

the Chachapoya region appears to be
surrounded by barriers.

Appears to be.

Archaeologists have to look
beyond first appearances.

This is Rio Utcubamba,

one of the many rivers that flows
through the Chachapoya region.

Although some of these rivers start
just 150 miles
from the Pacific coast,

they defiantly, all, turn eastwards,

flow into the Amazon Basin and run
3,000 miles out into the Atlantic.

To modern eyes, the river may
seem like another obstacle

to make ancient life difficult.

But, of course, it's easier
to move over water

rather than through the jungle
or up into the mountains.

If, as seems likely, the first
Chachapoya had rafts and canoes,

the river takes on
a whole new significance.

It becomes an A-road connecting
the Andes with the Amazonian basin.

Journeys that would take
days on foot

could be completed in just hours
on the river.

At lower levels, there's
a hint of the tropical jungle

and the connections with the vast
Amazonian basin,

the most biologically diverse
place on Earth.

So despite living
high in the mountains,

the Chachapoya could trade
with the peoples of the Amazon,

ensuring a supply of an amazing
array of herbs, medicines,

animals and exotic bird feathers.

The Chachapoya had chosen
an ideal crossroads.

What appears isolated would actually
have been a hub for trade.

Their lofty communities
on the mountain tops

would have been closely connected
with the people down river.

This is beeswax, a typical product
of the upper Amazon,

It's exactly the type
of exotic commodity

that they would have traded
up into the mountains, and beyond.

So, it seems one thing we can know
for certain about the Chachapoya

is that by using the rivers,

they could trade with the peoples
downstream in the Amazonian basin.

The vast majority of the materials
traded from the tropical regions

were perishable, but some
of that evidence still survives.

In Chachapoya sites, spectacular
head-dresses have been found,

festooned with exotic feathers
of parrots

from the Amazonian rainforest.

Animals from the lowlands have
been found, mummified and preserved.

With such a rich supply
of resources close by,

it appears the Chachapoya thrived -

transporting the tropical goods
deep into the Andes.

These transactions undoubtedly
enriched the Chachapoyan knowledge

of medicine, herbs,
hunting and mythology.

But this wasn't their only frontier.

The Andes is the longest north-south
mountain range in the world.

The mountains seem to represent
an impassable barrier

between inland South America
and the Pacific coast.

Like the rivers, the mountains might
appear to be a massive obstacle

to the Chachapoya, but again, we
shouldn't go on appearances alone.

Deep canyons like these, carved
over centuries by the Rio Maranon,

provided the lowest routes
into the Andes for hundreds of miles

in either direction. These river
valleys acted like funnels

through which the trade would pass.

The valleys provided
a gateway to the coast,

just as the rivers opened up trading
routes to the Amazon downstream.

And at Chachapoya sites
throughout the region,

we find traces
of that ancient trade.

I'm going to the town
of Chachapoyas,

the administrative capital
of the region.

Here, the Chachapoyas
Ministry of Culture

has a treasure trove of artefacts
hidden away.

Stacked in a cupboard,
there are finds from miles around.

Watched over by mummified remains
from a Chachapoya tomb,

they're allowing me
to take a closer look.

This is a llama.

And these llamas are
really important.

They play a crucial role
in the life of the Chachapoya.

Obviously, you don't get any horses
in the whole of the Americas

before the Europeans turn up,

so the llama is not only used
for its meat and its wool,

it's also the main beast of burden.

We can see that there's a rope
going round the llama's back

and forming up here
to a pack on the back.

Although this is actually a vessel
as it is now,

it looks like this rope represents
that rucksack

which is on the llama's back

carrying the produce from the
Chachapoyas up into the highlands.

Lovely.

This shell was found in the tomb of
a Chachapoya warrior in this region.

We've got these perforations
up the sides,

and even right inside there,
you can see right down there,

the holes inside the shell.

So to me it looks like this is
a flute, a musical instrument.

This will have come from over 500
kilometres away on the Ecuadorian
coastline.

It gets us thinking
about those trade networks

of the Chachapoya region, going up
the river systems across the Andes

and down the other side.

This is a little seed pod
and it's from the maichil plant,

which is a seed that only comes
from the lowlands

at altitudes less than 500 metres.

So it must have come
from the Amazon,

but this shell is clearly
a utilitarian shell

used for a musical instrument.

Placed on a string and used as a
rattle around the wrists and ankles.

Just like Morris dancers in the UK.

But goods aren't the only things
that pass along busy trade routes.

With trade comes communication,
with communication comes knowledge.

Walking through a local market
really highlights

the benefits of an effective
trade system.

You don't have to mine
your own mines to get metals.

You don't have to forage for days
in the Amazon to get exotic plants.

What I think is most interesting
is having these trade networks

exposes you to the new, latest arts,
technologies, medicinal plants

and, most importantly, new ideas
which can affect your culture.

So by controlling the trade routes

between the cultures
of the rainforest

and the kingdoms on the coast,
they absorbed ideas from both,

encountered new artistic techniques,

and had exotic resources
at their disposal.

Believe it or not, the Chachapoya
were pretty cosmopolitan.

As so often with this elusive
community,

there are only fragments
of their vibrant culture remaining.

There are pictograms
and paintings on the hillsides,

musical instruments and pottery.

And, most striking of all,
their beautiful textiles.

The Chachapoya region has always
been famous for its woven textiles.

Unfortunately, very few of these
Chachapoya textiles survived,

but the ones that do
give us this lovely insight

into the beliefs and imagery
of the Chachapoya.

THEY SPEAK SPANISH

Chachapoya tunics and blankets were
patterned with colourful animals,

serpents,
and strange frog-like creatures.

We simply don't know enough to say
for sure what these images mean,

but it does suggest a rich, highly
developed, symbolic belief system,

with influences from both
the lowlands and the highlands.

Decades of work may be needed

to even begin to understand
the imagery

and the tantalising clues
it provides to Chachapoya culture.

But one artefact found
at later-period Chachapoya sites

embodies the complexities
of Chachapoya culture.

The khipu.

The khipu is a piece of string
encrypted with coded information,

that seemed to be carried by special
persons, known as khipu keepers,

and were often buried
alongside the dead.

There are just over 600 of these
fascinating artefacts in the world,

including this amazing collection
at the museum in Leymebamba.

Khipus are one of the great unsolved
mysteries of modern archaeology.

When people come to
a museum in South America,

the first thing they're attracted to
are the gold objects,

those glittering, shiny pieces.
But the reality is that,

tucked away in a dusty corner,
are these pieces of string. Khipu.

Khipu are extraordinary.

In Quechua, the Inca language,
khipu means knot.

These mysterious objects were
initially thought to be

some sort of simple South American
abacus, but recent research suggests

they are far, far more sophisticated
than that.

If we think about our own language,
we have 26 letters.

That gives us 26 different
variables. You can then have

any number or combination
of those letters in sequence.

So if we take that idea of looking
for variables and different ways

that information can be recorded
and turn our attention to the khipu.

There's a main cord, with three
different cords that come off it.

Each of those cords can be spaced
at different distances

along the main cord.

Each of these subsidiary cords
can have a different length.

There can be different knots
positioned at different places

down each of those subsidiary cords.

Even the knots themselves have
a number of different forms,

with single knots to double knots,

to 10 different strings being
wrapped around within the same knot.

There's different colours,
there's different twinings.

You realise there are so many
different scales

which information is locked within.

Originally thought of as just being
a series of numbers,

what we now know is that locked away
within these khipus

are legends, myths, narratives
of the people that made them.

If, as we suspect,
the khipu do contain narratives,

the significance is enormous.

It means the Chachapoya
and the Inca, who also used khipu,

had a three-dimensional system
of recording stories.

Hidden in the knots could be the key
to unlocking countless secrets.

So much remains to be understood
about the khipu,

but for now we can just
stare at them in wonder.

We know that the Chachapoya were
a trading people,

and that they absorbed influences
from across the region.

But if their livelihoods
were dependent on the river,

why settle on the less accessible
mountain tops above?

I met with Klaus Koschmieder,

a German archaeologist
who has spent much of his life

studying the origins
of the Chachapoya.

What's distinctive about
a residential complex
of the Chachapoya?

The residential complexes,
they are on top of the hills

while the ceremonial centres,
they are on the slopes of the hills.

Why do you think the Chachapoya

put those settlements
on top of the hills?

The main reason is that

the settlements are on the level of
the cultivation sites of the fields.

They were cultivating maize and
potatoes. This is in high altitudes.

In the Andes, different altitudes
provide different micro climates

where different crops
could be grown.

Thus, at the optimum height
for cultivation,

the Cloud People
built their impressive villages.

Settlements can tell us
a great deal.

The architecture and layout of the
buildings provide valuable insights

into the way the Chachapoya lived.

It's great to be inside one
of these Chachapoya structures.

What's distinctive about
Chachapoya architecture?

Chachapoya structures are round

and we have a decoration
in the form of friezes,

mostly in zig-zag form.

That's a universal motif
of the Chachapoya people.

Just looking around this structure,

I can see these beam slots
in the walls.

What does that tell us
about this structure?

The beam slots were possibly to put
a second floor on this house.

Having multiple storeys in a house
is very unusual for South America.

This is quite a large building,
a large structure to be having.

Yes, this structure is
not a habitation site,

it's a ceremonial site, no?

And so inside the houses, they were
practising rituals and dances.

I'm amazed to see a 600-year-old,
two-storey building

here in South America.
It's almost unheard of.

I'm struck by how sophisticated
these structures are.

This reconstructed building reveals

that the Chachapoya were not just
talented traders,

but skilled architects and builders.

But the settlements pose
as many questions as they answer.

Klaus talked of their
ceremonial buildings,

but we don't know exactly
what kind of ceremonies

the Chachapoya used when in life.

But we do know about rituals
around death,

which can tell us a great deal.

I want to see for myself
the elaborate Chachapoya burials,

so I'm going far off the beaten
track, beyond the road network,

where the remains of the Cloud
People lie undisturbed to this day.

THEY TALK IN SPANISH

This is my horse and it's called
the Mad One, El Loco,

which, er, fills me
with a little bit of fear.

So I've got a lovely saddle
of cloth underneath here,

the stirrups made of old tyres

and me and El Loco, the horse,
are ready to head up the valley.

El Loco and the other horses

will take our expedition
part of the way up the mountain,

until we get within sight
of the towering cliffs of La Petaca.

It's tough and arduous terrain, but
archaeologists should never grumble

because it's the very remoteness
of these sites

that have protected them
from treasure hunters and looters

that are a constant threat
in this region.

Hola, Maximo.

This is the most insane spot.

We've just come down from the top
of the mountain

and caught up with Maximo, who's
one of Peru's best mountaineers.

The reason I need
Maximo's climbing wisdom

is that I am here to see for myself
the cliff tombs of the Cloud People.

These vast cliffs in the remote site
of La Petaca are a true necropolis,

a Chachapoya city of the dead.

I never thought I'd be
sitting edge of a mountain,

about to drop off
and feeling bloody terrified!

It's a seriously long way down!

So...just come over the top
and this is the view down.

You can feel
the sensation of the rope...

grinding on the limestone
as we go down.

There's a 200 metre vertical drop

from the top to the bottom
of the cliffs

and, even with expert climbers
and the latest equipment,

it's a daunting prospect.

But astonishingly, centuries ago,

the ancient Cloud People
not only climbed up and down

these crumbling limestone cliffs
with their dead,

they actually built on them.

You can see signs of Chachapoya
walls on this rock face.

They've come up here

and built these walls
on the vertical rock face.

These crumbling limestone cliffs
are pitted with caves,

and the Chachapoya transformed
these, we think,

into burial chambers.

What's most remarkable of all

is that some of those burials
are still here.

How the Chachapoya got up here
is completely mind boggling.

Coming down the ropes,
you can see behind me, unbelievably,

there are still Chachapoya burials
intact.

The bones of these ancient people
poke out all over the cliff,

alongside the occasional
vulture's nest.

But the true revelations come
inside the tombs themselves.

Wow, we're inside the cave.

It's a little natural cave,
but just here on the edges,

you can see the Chachapoya have
built the walls up,

expanding the sides of the cave.

We're still a good 100 metres up.

And I can't imagine there have been
too many people here

since the Chachapoya were
last here 500 years ago.

Wow. That was
really quite some ride down!

These inaccessible little
cave tombs are known as chulpas

and it's a real privilege
to be inside one.

The cave is full of
little nooks and crannies.

I'm going to climb up this wall, and
up here, I can see a little ledge.

Inside this alcove is a human
skeleton that is still articulated,

it's still intact, all the bones are
in the correct position.

You can see that it's been wrapped
in some sort of tunic or shroud.

That is truly spectacular.

This cave is just one of many within
the honeycomb cliffs of La Petaca,

and all the remains appear to be

carefully,
ritualistically positioned.

Wow. We're going to be
really careful here,

cos there are bones on the floor.

If you look over here, you can see
some remains of some Chachapoya.

I've never seen anything like it.

The way the bones are assembled
makes me think

they might have been de-fleshed
before they were brought here.

The way that all the skulls
and long bones have been laid out,

they seem to be quite particular

about how they've been placed
against this rock.

They must have laid here
for at least 500 years.

We can see a whole group of
long bones, skulls, a knee joint.

It's just incredible
to see it all lying here.

Some of the chulpas contain
a single burial,

others multiple burials,
possibly families.

And here you can see some
of the teeth in the lower mandible.

Judging by the tooth wear,
this is an old individual.

The teeth have been worn right down.

It's remarkable you get this level
of preservation in these caves.

It's only when you see
the thought and effort

that has gone
into placing these remains here,

protected from the elements,

that you understand just how
important caring for the dead

must have been for the Chachapoya.

There's something really eerie
about this tomb. This is somewhere

the Chachapoya clearly wanted
to keep alive in their memory,

they'd come here again and again,

there's dozens of burials
in this cave alone.

So the fact that it's been abandoned
and desolate

and we're the first people
to visit it for so long,

there's something so poignant
about that, I think.

You might think that
placing their dead inaccessibly,

high up in the cliffs,
meant leaving them alone.

But astonishingly, some of the rock
inside is worn smooth,

which suggests repeated visits
to these caves.

Finding archaeology like this
in context is crucial

because if we want to interpret
and understand

what the Chachapoya were doing,

we need to see it exactly
like this, just as they left it.

I'm not going to touch
any of the bones.

I want it to be left here
exactly like it is

and then, hopefully, one day
some archaeologists will come here

and take a lot of time
to excavate this cave properly.

Perhaps a major investigation

will discover how the Chachapoya
got up here in the first place.

I can see intriguing beams
sticking out from the cliff

and we've already seen that
they were skilled at construction,

but no-one has yet come up
with a conclusive explanation

as to how they scaled these
dangerous heights, and so regularly.

Even with ropes and helmets...

..I found out they can be
pretty hazardous.

But interesting as that puzzle is,

the real question is what role
the dead played in their culture.

Why devote so much effort
to entombing them

and then visit so often?

Finding an answer isn't easy.

But a different kind of tomb
provides another clue,

albeit one tainted
by recent history.

Chachapoya sites are hard to find.

You often have to come right up
into the hills to try and find them.

But they're also becoming
increasingly vulnerable.

In 1996, some cattle ranchers were
pushing though a valley like this

when they saw a tree had fallen down
off the side.

Behind the tree was
a small opening.

Curious, they went right inside,
and found 200 Chachapoya mummies.

The site was called
Laguna de los Condores.

Unlike the cliffs at La Petaca,

the bodies at Laguna de los Condores
had been carefully mummified.

These were mummies
dating from a later period

when the Chachapoya culture
overlapped with the Inca culture.

There were mummified adults,
mummified babies, mummified animals.

It was a hugely important discovery,

but the ranchers began to search
through the bodies,

hunting for treasure.

Word got out and, within days,
tourists and tomb raiders

were trampling all over
one of the most astonishing

archaeological discoveries
in the Americas.

After 10 days of chaos,

the first archaeologist on the scene
was Sonia Guillen.

Sensing the importance
of the discovery

and seeking to preserve
what remained,

Sonia collected the artefacts
and mummy bundles together

and rescued them for the museum
in Leymebamba.

The astonishing preservation of
these mummies can get us much closer

to understanding why the dead meant
so much to the living.

And they can tell us much more about
the final days of the Chachapoya.

Oh, wow. Look at that.

This person had tuberculosis.

He was a young individual

and he probably died because of
a complication with tuberculosis.

There are more than 200 mummies

here in the museum's
controlled storage room.

By examining them, Sonia and her
team have got as close as anyone can

to understanding the belief systems
of the Chachapoya.

You get to connect
to an individual,

you get to connect
to the last events

before this individual
was taken to their final repository

and, individual by individual,

you get to learn about a population.

Most of the mummies have never been
studied scientifically.

Today, we are unwrapping this mummy
for the very first time.

From X-rays, Sonia can tell
the bundle contains a young man

who appears to have died
from tuberculosis.

He was mummified and left
in the cave some 500 years ago,

and no-one has set eyes on him
since. Until now.

And there we are.

I'm amazed. Every time we look
into any of these individuals,

there's always something new.

This is the first individual - the
very, very, very first individual -

where we find the ear spool
in place, OK?

And what material
is that made out of?

Wood. So the ear lobe
would have gone around that

and it would have been
a decorative earring?

It's becoming fashionable nowadays,
isn't it?

Forensic archaeology is methodical
and incremental

and every find, every detail,
even a large earring,

illuminates the Chachapoya
a little more.

Look at these hands
up round the face.

They've been deliberately
tied there twice,

round the fingers
and round the wrists.

Why do you think they had them
up around the face?

Sorry if I sound over simplistic,

but I think this was
the best place to put them.

They were trying to make a package

that they could move from one place
to another easily by foot.

So here, as in the cliffs,

the Chachapoya dead
were not left to rest in peace.

Archaeologists believe the living
tended to them, re-wrapped them

and may even have taken them
from the tombs and displayed them.

What does this tell us
about their attitude to the dead?

When you see the effort they put
into creating these mummies,

do you think that's because they are
trying to keep people alive,

keep the memory of them alive

and have that connection
between the living and the dead?

Mmm-hmm, definitely
because, in those days,

what else did you have
to keep your memory alive?

It was to keep the individuals
close to you

and remember, also,
your rights to a territory

are rights that are defined
through your ancestors.

So it's important to show others

that your ancestors are here
with you,

helping you demand
that this territory is yours.

The effort of mummification,

of scaling impossible cliffs
with their dead,

it wasn't simply
about remembering those they loved.

It was a ritual that helped root
the Chachapoya in their land.

So looking at these mummies
over all these years,

what are the key things
that you think you've learnt?

When you approach a mummy bundle,

a mummy, with this whole context,

you can't avoid connecting
to emotions

and they connect to you as humans,

and that's also one of the things
we want to present to the public,

that they don't just look
at the freaky show

where they will get scared,

but actually will connect to adults,
young ones, children

and how their society treated them
with respect, with sorrow,

with tenderness, with emotions
that you can't reconstruct.

And they can connect to you.

The mummies from Laguna de Los
Condores give us an amazing glimpse

of the Chachapoya attitude
to life and death.

Displaying deceased ancestors

seems to have been about identity
and belonging.

But the funerary culture
of the Chachapoya

reveals even more than that.

As well as mummification, they built
sarcophagi to display their dead.

And what these structures don't have

is just as significant
as what they do.

How a people bury their dead

is one of the best ways
of identifying hierarchies.

What's interesting
about the Chachapoya

is they appear to be egalitarian.

There are hundreds of sarcophagi
like this

with men, women and children
buried inside.

But significantly, there are no
elite burial sites, no royal tombs.

Unlike many other ancient cultures,

nor are there
depictions of servitude,

or of regal figures
being worshipped.

Instead, the independent Chachapoya

depicted distinct individuals
in an egalitarian way.

I've dug burials in a lot of
different places around the world

but I've really never seen
a burial type like this.

The Chachapoya build
these sarcophagi

in these anthropomorphic forms.

They have stones cascading
around in a circle

and held together
with a clay and straw matrix.

What I like about them is that
they are all quite standardised,

they have these faces with this
distinctive nose, this flat face,

but each one,
although it has a standard form,

has been made individually.

Here we can see
some of the decoration.

You've got a decorative pattern
made out of an iron oxide paste

which gives it that red colour.

I like it because you have
these bands of decoration

which can be made individual,

representing
that individual family member.

These strange sarcophagi
appear like ghosts on the landscape.

Not enough archaeological work
has been done

to be sure who they commemorate,

which is not surprising given
how difficult they are to access.

In fact, some of these intriguing
little mud and straw statues

seem to be protected
by nature itself.

Just over here are
nine Chachapoya sarcophagi.

I really want to go and have
a closer look,

but the one on the right, inside,
has a nest of killer bees.

The bees have killed a few people in
this valley over the last few years,

so there's no way I'm going to get
any closer.

To see more evidence for this
surprising lack of hierarchy,

you have to fight your way through.

Archaeological sites...

are always covered with things
that sting and spike.

Which is why it's always good
to have a machete.

But it's quite fun.

Spike in the hand!

Two spines.

It's really in quite deep, actually.
Got to be careful here.

It's gone through there
and across to there.

I'm going to need someone
to get some pliers.

That's quite painful. I'm running
out of amount he can pull.

Ah! Get him. That's painful.

On three, just going to pull it out.
Three, two, one.

Beauty!

And here's our little friend.

Now it's time for some revenge.

Like lost kingdoms should be,
Chachapoya architecture is

often hidden
under centuries of vegetation

and we can only get glimpses
through sharp thorns.

But it's worth hacking my way
through the hills

to meet Peter Lerche.

Originally from Germany,
Peter is an anthropologist

who has lived in this region
for 32 years.

Past and present, nobody knows the
Chachapoya people like Peter does.

In fact,
he considers himself Peruvian

and was once mayor of the town
of Chachapoyas.

And he managed to get me close

to one of the many
lost Chachapoya settlements.

So what's the name of this site?

This site is Yalape. Yalape?

Yalape. The Chachapoya,
the population centre.

And what are we looking at here?
What's this?

This is a ceremonial centre
of Yalape.

This is a six-metre-high wall,
right on the top of the bluff,

which you must be able to see for
miles around, it's a real statement.

That's an ideological aspect -
here I am!

They show that they are not hiding.

And what are we looking at here?
What are these particular friezes?

This is the zig-zag frieze

and it symbolises a snake.

And the symbol at the top then,
what do you think the symbol,

the value is,
behind that rhomboid shape?

The rhomboid shape, it's the jaguar.
It's not an Amazonian culture,

it's not an Andean culture,
it's a mixture of both worlds.

At its peak,

over half a million people lived
in the Chachapoya territory,

which is more than live here
in modern times.

All the evidence suggests
that the Cloud People's society

not only had its own symbolism
and ideology, but that it evolved

in a distinctly different way
than any European models.

We have no manifestation of power
in an architectural way,

you know, no architecture of power.

Normally, we know about humans,
when I have power,

I want to show my power in palaces.

And here, all the same
circular structures.

And this challenges

some major constructs
of archaeological interpretation.

When people think of a united
culture of half a million people,

we associate that with a hierarchy,
with an elite,

but we just don't have that
with the Chachapoya?

Archaeologically,
or architectonically,

there is no evidence.

Some of the technological
developments

you see at places like this
and the organisation of labour,

it's great to think that people
must have been coming together

as a collective rather than
under an authoritative leader?

For necessities, they knew
they need retaining walls,

they need agricultural terraces,

so they had to stand together
and work together.

I must admit I'm beginning
to fall for the Chachapoya.

The evidence so far points
to their architectural prowess,

their egalitarian culture,
and a real devotion to their dead.

Lots of archaeology around the world

emphasises the more brutish side
of human behaviour -

battles, weapons, sacrifices -

but the Chachapoya challenge
that assumption

that all human societies
evolve in the same way.

Let's not delude ourselves.

This is no South American
Garden of Eden.

It's a tough place to live

and the Chachapoya often squabbled
amongst themselves.

But there was no rigid hierarchy.
They shared ideas.

On these mountain slopes
arose a society

that was both complex and cultured.

With their own art and architecture,
their own beliefs and values.

For 600 years, the society thrived
on this land

and enriched their knowledge
by facilitating trade.

As the Chachapoya civilisation
developed,

it was constantly growing
and innovating,

coming to dominate the landscape
for thousands of miles around.

They built round houses

that could be seen on the numerous
mountain peaks.

They built tombs on cliff faces.

And, at the heart
of the Chachapoya territory,

they built their masterpiece.

Any notion that the Chachapoya were
mere passive traders is dismissed

when you come to the most famous
Chachapoya site in the Andes.

Covering 15 acres, 10,000 feet
above sea level, this is Kuelap.

It's an epic statement of the power
and skill of the Chachapoya.

It's estimated that Kuelap took
centuries to build

and it's probable that
the people who lived here

were constantly reinforcing
the structure.

In places, the thick platform
of stone is over 65 feet high

and some of the finely cut limestone
blocks weigh more than 3 tonnes.

This is a building
of such awe-inspiring scale,

it's hard to believe
it was built by hand.

You don't have to be an expert
to see the sheer scale of work

that's gone into building Kuelap.

These 60 foot-high walls enclose
a site

that has transformed
this mountain top.

The question is why?

Why would the Chachapoya carry

hundreds of thousands of stones
like these

up the mountain side
to build this incredible site?

In part, it was a safe haven.

The three entrances to Kuelap are
in themselves clever and defensive.

The entrances initially appear
open and welcoming,

but any gung-ho enemy
charging through

will quickly find the walls
narrowing,

until there is only space
for a single warrior to pass.

So if the Chachapoya wanted
to fend off an invading army,

the architects who designed this
entrance would have made it easy

for them to pick them off
one by one.

Like so much Chachapoya archaeology,

scandalously little research
has been done on Kuelap.

And to document this astonishing
ancient citadel would take years.

The sheer scale of the site
is incredible,

with over 400 stone buildings
hidden beneath the undergrowth.

I met with Alfredo Narvaez,

the archaeologist who has studied
the site for years.

Alfredo believes the site was
occupied for more than 1,000 years,

though whether the first people here
were Chachapoya

or an earlier culture is unclear.

Kuelap is 500 years older than
the more celebrated Machu Picchu

and is intriguing in both
its construction and in its purpose.

At first sight, the structure
certainly looks defensive.

There are secrets locked away
within the walls

that suggest the site was much more
significant than just a fortress.

Today, Kuelap feels a long way
from anywhere, high on a mountain,

surrounded by a beautiful
but a very empty landscape.

But over a thousand years ago,

archaeologists estimate
that as many as 3,000 people

crammed into this amazing
mountain-top citadel.

Far from being at the fringes,

Kuelap and the Chachapoya people
who lived here

were at the centre of ancient life.

But the Chachapoya world
was under threat.

A new power was rising
in the mountains far to the south.

Today it's a magnet for tourists

but, from the 1430s, Machu Picchu
and the nearby capital Cusco

was home to Inca royalty who set out
to conquer northern Peru.

What the Romans were to Europe,
the Inca were to South America.

At its greatest extent, their empire
stretched from Ecuador to Argentina.

Around 1470, the Inca reached
the eastern slopes of the Andes,

the land of the Cloud People.

They built conquest roads
like this one,

they built forts
throughout their lands.

The mighty Inca empire dispatched
an emissary to the Chachapoyas

to ask them to submit peacefully,
or face war.

They replied that they would rather
die in defence of their freedom.

Above all else, the Inca coveted the
valuable Chachapoya trading routes.

Access to the Amazon was everything.

But the Inca foot soldiers struggled
to suppress the Chachapoya people.

They rebelled
and had to be reconquered twice.

The Chachapoya paid a heavy price
for their resistance.

The Inca empire had a policy
they called mitma.

A conquered people would be
dispersed far and wide,

forcibly removed
from their home territory

to far-flung parts
of the Inca empire.

The Chachapoya people were scattered
and broken,

sent to what's now Ecuador
and to the shores of Lake Titicaca

where, to this day, there is a town
called Chachapoyas.

Some estimates suggest as much as
half the population were exiled,

with many others killed.

Only a few Chachapoya
remained in their homeland.

One thing we know
about the Chachapoya

is that they ritualistically
looked after their dead.

But just a few years ago,
here in Kuelap,

200 skeletons were unearthed,
found where they had fallen.

There was no evidence
of the kind of ceremonial burial
we've seen elsewhere,

which points to a violent ending.

The skeletons were of all ages
and both sexes

and were found alongside
everyday utensils and tools,

suggesting it may have been
more of a massacre than a battle.

It seems likely
that the 200 skeletons

were the last Chachapoya in Kuelap.

The Inca ruled over
the remaining Chachapoya

until the New World changed forever,

with the arrival
of the plundering Europeans.

By the time the Spanish arrived
in this part of Peru in 1535,

they were able to exploit
the resentment of the Chachapoya
against their Inca oppressors

and persuaded them to join them
in the fight against them.

Meeting with the Europeans was to
prove fatal to Chachapoya culture.

The invading Spaniards brought
missionaries in tow

who set out with evangelical zeal to
convert the indigenous population.

Worse was the smallpox, measles
and diphtheria

that swept through the Chachapoya
in the years that followed.

Within just two centuries
of the Spanish arrival,

90% of the remaining Chachapoya
had perished.

The kingdom of the Cloud People
contained only clouds.

The Chachapoya were gone.

The cloud forest from which they
came grew around their structures,

swallowing them up,
where they lay unseen for centuries.

Even today, it is certain
that somewhere out there,

there are many more Chachapoya
tombs, towns and monuments

that lie hidden
in this vast and beautiful region.

Coming down from the Andes
and returning to Lima,

I realise the size of the challenge

in truly understanding
the Chachapoya.

The fragments
we've seen are just a start

and it could be decades before
we really unravel their true story.

But even this partial picture
that we have today

resonates in this great continent.

Rediscovering the lost kingdoms of
South America is not just academic.

History is the stories
we tell ourselves

and as the amazing mummies, the
chulpas and the fortress at Kuelap

begin to reveal their secrets,

they're a great source of pride
in Peru

and they're also a reminder
that the cultures of South America

thrived long, long before
Europeans appeared on the horizon.

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