( Peruvian flute )

Hiebert: National Geographic's relationship

with photography and Peru are all intertwined.

All of Peru,

unbelievable country of mysteries and surprises.

This is definitely one of the centers of civilization.

It's really incredible to be able

to look into the eyes of an ancient ruler.

This is the power of archaeology.

( applause )

Hiebert: Thank you all for being here.

I want to talk to you

a little bit about being a representative

of National Geographic and working

in these great civilizations

and I like to bring storytelling

to these and I like to tell stories about heroes.

National Geographic's relationship

with photography and Peru are all intertwined.

I want to tell you that little story.

I actually want to start by telling you

a little bit about Peru.

It's extraordinarily photogenic.

This is a photograph by Hiram Bingham

who documented the high mountains of Peru.

This is really what makes Peru

one of the great centers of civilization,

is its geography.

The high mountains, the beautiful rich valleys

between the mountains and the coast.

The coastal deserts which were once

described in the pages of National Geographic

as being small Nile Deltas.

And in fact unlike Egypt that has 1 Nile River,

northern Peru has 20 of these deltas.

It's unbelievable you can have 1 foot

in the fertile delta and 1 foot in the desert.

This makes it an extraordinary place

for preservation and creation

of ancient civilization.

It's a place where archaeological sites

tower above the countryside.

This particular mound that you see in the front

is actually a Peruvian pyramid.

Here's an example of what one could imagine

that looked like in the past.

There are 20 such river valleys in northern Peru.

It's an outstanding, unbelievable relationship

and much of it has to do with the fact

that it is one of the largest, most productive coasts

along the pacific coast of the New World.

Its unbelievable culture, unbelievable country

and it's that geographic relationship

that we like to explain, helps explain

how Peru is a country that can both be described

as having over 10,000 archaeological sites

or as I like to say, "There's only 1 site in Peru,

all of Peru."

It is really, you walk the Inca Trail

and you really can't tell when you're

on a site and off a site.

The entire country from the north coast

to the south coast, from east to west,

It's unbelievable country of mysteries and surprises.

Now I'm actually going to start telling

this story a little bit before

the founding of National Geographic

because so many travelers and adventurers

have been attracted to Peru.

It's sort of mysterious and wonderful.

It's been attracting people for hundreds of years.

Its history goes back more than 3,000 years.

It has separate cultural traditions on the north coast,

the highlands,

and the south coast.

It's really phenomenal.

I have to take my hat off to yet

another set of incredible heroes.

Julio Tello, the father of Peruvian archaeologists.

He was from the highlands.

He really introduced the idea

of Andean civilization.

He began to study the cultures of ancient Peru.

He's one of the 1st researchers

to come up with that chronology.

He had a partner, Rafael Larco.

These 2 guys, they kind of fought over

where the heart and soul of Peru lay.

You had Tello, who was from the highlands,

who argued for temples and islands

and you had Larco, who came from the coast

he said, "Not, it is coast cultures"

and that debate continues to this day.

We all were fascinated by the mystery and culture

and we all thought that this site

which Tello worked at, that Larco worked at,

the famous temple of Chavín de Huántar.

It was really the heart,

the essence of Andean civilization.

It was so important

and it was so mysterious and so luxurious

that it actually became my introduction to archeology

and my introduction to South America.

I had the chance to visit--

( laughter )

Well, okay, it wasn't last year.

All right so, you're looking at this statue,

you see this statue, right?

It's carved and beautiful 3,500 years old.

Oh, yeah, I was a hippie.

Once, a little while ago.

But that's Chavín de Huántar.

What an introduction to South America.

What an introduction to Peru,

to go visit a place.

What a way to get inaugurated

into the wonders of archaeology.

It's great and I became intrigued with the history

of all this exploration and who went and where.

We all sort of looked even further back

into the pages, "Who was exploring?"

"Who was caught with this mystery

of wonder of the archaeology and culture?"

I became enamored with this particular fellow,

Ephraim Squier.

He was a wonderful explorer

for the U.S. government.

He was sent as the commissioner to Peru

by none other than Abraham Lincoln in the 1860s.

This is how far the history goes back in this

and the wonderful storytelling.

As commissioner, he wrote

this incredible book called,

"The Land of the Incas,"

illustrated with 500 woodcuts.

Really, I mean, it was the artistry,

the magnificence, the wonder of this country

that attracted people.

These woodcuts were known and reproduced.

This was a very popular book

published in the 1877.

People were so desirous.

I became fascinated because there was

this photograph of Ephraim Squier

and being here at National Geographic

we're, naturally, very interested in photographs.

But you know, Squier,

he made these incredible illustrations

that are woodcuts in his book

and we assumed that he must

have had a photographic memory.

Look at this bridge, unbelievable.

You had to go to Peru to imagine

that something like that was real.

It was so exciting for me to see,

in a woodcut like this of Alto Peru

which is today on the other side

of Lake Titicaca but still part

of this greater Peruvian...

I became quite curious, being here at National Geographic,

"How did somebody record something like this?"

It was only recently and I was so excited

to be able to find the photo archives

that were the basis for the 500 woodcuts.

It shows the relationship between

photography and archaeology.

We have one of the great photographers

of National Geographic, Kenny Garrett, who's here,

who can attest to the fact

that photographing in Peru

is like photographing a wonderland.

It was amazing to see how beautifully

reproduced the photographs.

Here's one of the woodcuts from 1877.

Here's one of the newly discovered photographs

that Squier took.

He was not only an explorer,

he himself was a photographer.

I became intrigued with this aspect,

this relationship between

photography and archaeology.

I think it's critical to our understanding of the past.

Not only in Peru and Central America,

in Egypt and Greece, it's so exciting.

I became attracted to another one

of the greatest photographers who ever crossed into Peru,

Hiram Bingham.

Yes, Hiram Bingham is known primarily

for describing Machu Picchu, but do people

realize that he was an incredible photographer?

At that time, 1911 and 1912, being director of an expedition

meant that you were also the photographer.

He had this incredible camera created by Kodak for him

and he took these pictures

that were not just documentation

but were art themselves.

They were the 1st rock star archaeology project

in National Geographic.

His photographs really are incredible.

We have about 2,000 of these photographs

here in the photo archives and some day

we're going to do an exhibition

of the photo archives here.

It's just an incredible opportunity

to work with people like Bill Bonner,

here in the photo archives

and see exactly what the genius of photography is.

If you look at this picture

taken by Bingham of Machu Picchu

with the mountains and the cloud

and the local personality on the right hand.

It is such a story,

such a photographic essay in 1 picture.

It's really very, very inspirational.

He also documented the people of Peru.

For me, this is the real gift

that Hiram Bingham gave to Peru,

which is a wonderful photo record

of Peru and ancient Peru

and the people of Peru all living together.

What an inspiration for cultural heritage.

This isn't the only time

that we've photographed Peru and ancient Peru.

We've been at the forefront

and if we fast forward to really

one of the 1st color photos of an archaeological picture

published in National Geographic magazine,

it, of course, came from Peru.

This is William Duncan Strong

who in 1946 came to Peru

and after seeing all these wonderful artifacts,

came in hopes of finding

the 1st intact Moche burial.

Moche is a northern coast period in Peru

about 2,000 years old, very mysterious,

only known from the artifacts

and his intention was to come

and document an intact burial,

almost an impossible feat.

But, they found one on the coast

and to quote from the 1947 issue of the magazine,

Strong and Evans found this burial and everybody

was so excited.

They'd never seen an intact burial

from 2,000 years ago.

So, they opened it up and Evans said,

"I'm hungry, let's have lunch."

( laughter )

I tell you, I love reading past National Geographics.

It's really great.

So, all of his workmen were sitting there confused

because they just found something

that had never been found before.

The next picture which was published

in the pages of National Geographic,

is the 1st time you are looking inside

of an intact Moche burial.

I think that this is something

that National Geographic has taken on

as a cachet in terms of telling

the stories of the ancient populations.

This is a unique picture,

"12 pots that have never been seen together in situ."

This documentation went around the world

in April 1947.

These 2 people, Strong and Evans,

became a hero of mine as we pursued this past.

Here's one of their color plates.