Documenting and Preserving Ancient Sites in Peru

My name is Raul, I am a professional videographer, editor, and amateur archaeologist. Growing up my time was split between living in the United States and visiting family in Peru where I became fascinated by the history and culture. This continued passion led to the desire to explore and share the cultural architecture, archaeology, and artifacts of ancient civilizations.

The current goal is to be able to take the time to travel to some of these sites in order to investigate, research, document, and present them to you all. Additionally, part of the goal is to establish contacts with archaeologists in Peru whom are able to acquire the necessary permits from the Ministry of Culture to actually conduct excavations at some of these sites. Subsequently, the plan is to continue documenting and finding creative ways to present the entire process through documentary-style video to an interested public.

(A dream goal would be to crowdsource funding for a LIDAR equipped drone to be able to map out some of these potentially undiscovered and/or minimally known locations)

How This Came To Be

Recently I began finding ancient sites through satellite imagery on Google Earth. Typically, the sites I have found have not been documented, meaning I have not been able to find photos, place markers, or academic analysis of them - therefore I took it upon myself to plug coordinates into my GPS and try to go find them.

I began traveling to these places on a hunch, suspecting that they were ruins of ancient sites from how they looked on Google Earth, and after making the journey a couple of times to several of these locations, have been 100% accurate that they were indeed the remnants of ancient architecture.

As I began sharing these videos and finds on social media, I found that my enthusiasm and interest was shared by many. The response was overwhelming and humbling, and I would love nothing more than to be able to document these findings, sharing them both academically and socially for any whom may find value in it.

The sites I have found thus far have not been excavated and have contained numerous artifacts from the cultures that established them. By documenting these experiences through archaeological efforts, my goal is to have people feel intimately connected to history revealing itself and witnessing firsthand archaeological discoveries that may have tremendous academic impacts.

I appreciate any and all support, and I remain unequivocally grateful for the interest and encouragement I have received thus far.

Donations will be used to cover expenses such as research, establishing contacts, permits, location investigations, academic analysis, and various equipment needed to properly document and present findings.

All will have access to correspond with me personally, as well as the subsequent videos that are produced from the travel and exploration.

Please check out my Instagram where I began documenting these findings at https://www.instagram.com/pillarsofthepast/

Thank you!