SHOTLIST
AP Television
FILE: Machu Picchu - September 2007
1. Various of Machu Picchu
AP Television
Lima - 5 June 2008
2. Mid of Paolo Greer, retired Alaskan oil foreman
3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Paolo Greer, retired Alaskan oil foreman:
"There was a German in Machu Picchu, he probably got there about 1870, although he bought 25 kilometres of land opposite of Machu Picchu right across the river in 1867. So, by 1870 I'm pretty sure he had already been in Machu Picchu, he wrote about it, but at the time he was trying to cut wood for a railroad, he was a little ahead of his time, it didn't work, he was going to cut sleepers or rail road tires, that didn't work."
4. Various of map drawn by Augusto R. Berns leading to Machu Picchu
5. Greer showing maps to journalist
6. Close up of map
7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Paolo Greer, retired Alaskan oil foreman:
"Bingham, and Lezarraga and many other people, undoubtedly, the locals, a lot of people in Machu Picchu. I think it's a bit chauvinistic for Bingham, or Berns or anybody else to pretend they discovered Machu Picchu; wrong word. The locals knew it was there, in Bingham's case he was led by the locals, in Berns' case, he said there were 24 families that lived on his land and some of them guided him to Machu Picchu, he did not find it."
8. Various of maps
9. SOUNDBITE: (English) Paolo Greer, retired Alaskan oil foreman:
"The story, it won't change, but there will be more details, like what did Berns take? Did that golden choclo (piece of gold corn) in the museum of Berlin, did it come from Machu Picchu? I don't know that it did, but how did it escape being melted down by the Spaniards?"
10. STILL photograph of Paolo Greer visiting Machu Picchu
AP Television - AP Clients Only
FILE: Machu Picchu, September 2007
11. Various of Machu Picchu
STORYLINE
The jungle-shrouded Inca citadel of Machu Picchu may have been rediscovered, and looted, decades before the Yale scholar credited with the find first got there, a researcher said on Thursday.
Most academics say Yale University's Hiram Bingham III rediscovered the site in Peru's verdant southeastern Andes during a 1911 expedition.
But Paolo Greer, a retired Alaska oil pipeline foreman, says otherwise.
Thirty years of digging through files in the United States and Peru led him to maps and documents apparently showing that a German businessman named Augusto R. Berns got there first.
Berns purchased land across from Machu Picchu in 1867, and an 1887 document even shows he set up a company to plunder the site, Greer told AP Television.
"I think it's a bit chauvinistic for Bingham, or Berns or anybody else to pretend they discovered Machu Picchu; wrong word," Greer said. "The locals knew it was there, in Bingham's case he was led by the locals, in Berns' case, he said there were 24 families that lived on his land and some of them guided him to Machu Picchu, he did not find it."
Peruvian historian Mariana Mould de Pease backs Greer's claim.
She said she found in Yale University archives a letter of understanding between Berns and Peru's then-president to pillage the site, as long as the Peruvian government received 10 percent of the profits.
Greer said he uncovered other documents showing that Berns, an engineer, had previously set up a gold mining company near Machu Picchu, even though the granite cliffs in the area hold little, if any gold.
Even if Bingham, who was led to Machu Picchu by a local Quechua-speaking farmer, wasn't the first explorer to rediscover the site, he did not leave empty-handed.
In 2006, Peru demanded that Yale University return the collection of artifacts Binghman took from Machu Picchu, a complex of stone buildings built by the Incas in the 1400s.
Yale last year agreed to return about 4,000 pieces that had been taken from the site.
The two sides agreed in principle to co-sponsor a travelling expedition featuring the pieces, and later a museum in Cuzco, the ancient Inca capital.
But they have been unable to reach a final agreement on mummies, ceramics, bones and other artifacts.
Greer's research could mean that even more valuable pieces were sacked from Machu Picchu before Bingham arrived.
"What did Berns take? Did that golden choclo (piece of gold corn) in the museum of Berlin, did it come from Machu Picchu? I don't know that it did, but how did it escape being melted down by the Spaniards?" he said.
SHOTLIST
AP Television
FILE: Machu Picchu - September 2007
1. Various of Machu Picchu
AP Television
Lima - 5 June 2008
2. Mid of Paolo Greer, retired Alaskan oil foreman
3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Paolo Greer, retired Alaskan oil foreman:
"There was a German in Machu Picchu, he probably got there about 1870, although he bought 25 kilometres of land opposite of Machu Picchu right across the river in 1867. So, by 1870 I'm pretty sure he had already been in Machu Picchu, he wrote about it, but at the time he was trying to cut wood for a railroad, he was a little ahead of his time, it didn't work, he was going to cut sleepers or rail road tires, that didn't work."
4. Various of map drawn by Augusto R. Berns leading to Machu Picchu
5. Greer showing maps to journalist
6. Close up of map
7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Paolo Greer, retired Alaskan oil foreman:
"Bingham, and Lezarraga and many other people, undoubtedly, the locals, a lot of people in Machu Picchu. I think it's a bit chauvinistic for Bingham, or Berns or anybody else to pretend they discovered Machu Picchu; wrong word. The locals knew it was there, in Bingham's case he was led by the locals, in Berns' case, he said there were 24 families that lived on his land and some of them guided him to Machu Picchu, he did not find it."
8. Various of maps
9. SOUNDBITE: (English) Paolo Greer, retired Alaskan oil foreman:
"The story, it won't change, but there will be more details, like what did Berns take? Did that golden choclo (piece of gold corn) in the museum of Berlin, did it come from Machu Picchu? I don't know that it did, but how did it escape being melted down by the Spaniards?"
10. STILL photograph of Paolo Greer visiting Machu Picchu
AP Television - AP Clients Only
FILE: Machu Picchu, September 2007
11. Various of Machu Picchu
STORYLINE:
The jungle-shrouded Inca citadel of Machu Picchu may have been rediscovered, and looted, decades before the Yale scholar credited with the find first got there, a researcher said on Thursday.
Most academics say Yale University's Hiram Bingham III rediscovered the site in Peru's verdant southeastern Andes during a 1911 expedition.
But Paolo Greer, a retired Alaska oil pipeline foreman, says otherwise.
Thirty years of digging through files in the United States and Peru led him to maps and documents apparently showing that a German businessman named Augusto R. Berns got there first.
Berns purchased land across from Machu Picchu in 1867, and an 1887 document even shows he set up a company to plunder the site, Greer told AP Television.
"I think it's a bit chauvinistic for Bingham, or Berns or anybody else to pretend they discovered Machu Picchu; wrong word," Greer said. "The locals knew it was there, in Bingham's case he was led by the locals, in Berns' case, he said there were 24 families that lived on his land and some of them guided him to Machu Picchu, he did not find it."
Peruvian historian Mariana Mould de Pease backs Greer's claim.
She said she found in Yale University archives a letter of understanding between Berns and Peru's then-president to pillage the site, as long as the Peruvian government received 10 percent of the profits.
Greer said he uncovered other documents showing that Berns, an engineer, had previously set up a gold mining company near Machu Picchu, even though the granite cliffs in the area hold little, if any gold.
Even if Bingham, who was led to Machu Picchu by a local Quechua-speaking farmer, wasn't the first explorer to rediscover the site, he did not leave empty-handed.
In 2006, Peru demanded that Yale University return the collection of artifacts Binghman took from Machu Picchu, a complex of stone buildings built by the Incas in the 1400s.
Yale last year agreed to return about 4,000 pieces that had been taken from the site.
The two sides agreed in principle to co-sponsor a travelling expedition featuring the pieces, and later a museum in Cuzco, the ancient Inca capital.
But they have been unable to reach a final agreement on mummies, ceramics, bones and other artifacts.
Greer's research could mean that even more valuable pieces were sacked from Machu Picchu before Bingham arrived.
"What did Berns take? Did that golden choclo (piece of gold corn) in the museum of Berlin, did it come from Machu Picchu? I don't know that it did, but how did it escape being melted down by the Spaniards?" he said.
