Lords of Sipan: A True Story of Pre-Inca Tombs, Archaeology, and Crime [Hardcover]

Sidney D. Kirkpatrick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1992

A true-crime adventure story tells of Dr. Walter Alva's experiences in Peru as he struggled to excavate and protect the pre-Inca treasures at the lost tombs of the Lords of Sipan from looters and smugglers. 50,000 first printing. $50,000 ad/promo. Tour.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Kirkpatrick ( A Cast of Killers ) engagingly recounts how Peruvian archeologist Walter Alva out-maneuvered huaqueros (grave robbers), international smugglers and governmental interference to successfully excavate one of the richest deposits of pre-Columbian artifacts in South America. Alva, who publicized his discovery in National Geographic , mobilized a depleted local police force, recruited indigenous laborers, ingeniously neutralized community resistance, and raised sufficient funding to painstakingly sift through a Huaca Rajada burial site for evidence of Moche royalty in the coastal valleys of northern Peru, skillfully unfolds this stirring drama of one man's fight to preserve his country's cultural heritage. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Around midnight on February 25, 1987, local police awoke Walter Alva, inspector general of archaeology for the Peruvian province of Lambayeque along Peru's north coast. The police informed Alva that they had seized a rice sack of artifacts plundered from a local Moche tomb at nearby Huaca Rajada. Thus begins the tale, written like a mystery, of the discovery and excavation of the richest archaeological find in pre-Columbian America. Kirkpatrick follows the trail of the illegal artifacts as they pass from Peru to London and then into the hands of U.S. collectors in California, juxtaposing chapters on the actual excavation. The six-level tomb yielded a remarkable collection of finely crafted objects, large figurines, and beautifully preserved pottery dating from A.D. 100 to 300. Kirkpatrick, whose previous A Cast of Killers (NAL-Dutton, 1992) made the New York Times Best Sellers list, based this mesmerizing tale on interviews with Alva, the Peruvian police, U.S. customs agents and collectors, and the looters themselves. It's a book the reader won't be able to put down.
- Brian E. Coutts, Western Kentucky Univ. Libs., Bowling Green
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co; 1st edition (October 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688103960
• ISBN-13: 978-0688103965
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,577,753 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sidney D. Kirkpatrick is an award-winning filmmaker and international best-selling author. His critically acclaimed non-fiction books include A CAST OF KILLERS, TURNING THE TIDE, LORDS OF SIPAN, EDGAR CAYCE: AN AMERICAN PROPHET, THE REVENGE OF THOMAS EAKINS, and HITLER'S HOLY RELICS. His documentary film, MY FATHER THE PRESIDENT, about Theodore Roosevelt as seen through the eyes of his daughter, Ethel Roosevelt Derby, was a winner at the American Film Festival. HBO, the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, and the A & E Television Networks have all featured his work. Biographical profiles of Kirkpatrick have appeared in The New York Times, Time Magazine, The New Yorker, and Playboy. He is a graduate of Hampshire College and New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He lives in Ontario, Canada and Pasadena, Ca.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lords of Sipan : A Tale of Pre-Inca Tombs, Archaeology, and, June 7, 2000

By 

Stephen Spencer (Lima Peru) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lords of Sipan: A Tale of Pre-Inca Tombs, Archaeology, and Crime (Paperback)

At first I found this book (supposededly a true story)written in fictional style and too detailed in some cases to be considered real. But at the time I read this book and living in Lima Peru where the event takes place, I was able to do my own investigation. Now after having read this a second time and meeting others who know of this event first hand, including the police chief in Northern Peru, I can assure you everything I have questioned is 100% true.

The book is about the historic and heroic efforts of Dr. Walter Alva and several North American archiologists who helped uncover a lost civlization in South America and one of the largest finds of Gold and invaluable artifacts ever discovered in South America. It is a story of drama, money, murder and virtue winning in the end. Anyone interested in learning of a true to life experience, written like a novel, of Latin American Archiology will enjoy this book. It is a page turner.

Lima, Peru June 7, 2000

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Greed v's history and collectors, June 25, 2001

By 

K. Maxwell "katmax1" (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lords of Sipan: A Tale of Pre-Inca Tombs, Archaeology, and Crime (Paperback)

In January 1987 a group of tomb robbers at Huaca Rajada on Peru's north coast had their dreams come true. They stumbled on a pre-Inca tomb of unsurpassed wealth (read: gold) at a site everybody else had written off as already having been plundered. Unfortunatley, for them, greed was their undoing.

What they did manage to sell on the market was mostly exported out of Peru before the archaeolgists at the local museum found out what was going on.

This book details an investigation into international art smuggling, and the parallel investigation into the Moche site that the tomb robbers had found and the archaeologists later excavated.

In style, this book is esentially an extended magazine article. The text is quite large and easy to read. It's not really a big book. There is a colour picture section in the center of the book, but it can't really be called an academic book. In my view what really lets this work down is the lack of drawings etc of the historical site and excavation that they are talking about in the text.

If you've never read any books on the Moche before (and I haven't except the occasional magazine article), this book leaves you feeling somewhat dissasisfied because you want to know *more*, but it's a great introduction and overview to a series of very important events in re-discovering this ancient civilisation.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you liked the Celestine Prophecy, you will love this!!, March 7, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Lords of Sipan: A True Story of Pre-Inca Tombs, Archaeology, and Crime (Hardcover)

My wife and I have personally been to the Sipan Project at Huaca Rajada three times. We feel that this book should be brought back in print right away!! Except for actually going to Peru, there is very few sources of factual information about this amazing find. The richest 'dig' in our part of the world EVER!! (began 1987). A story that will bring tears to your eyes, hope to your heart and is an awesome adventure tale that will keep you up all night. Find it, read it ... help to share and preserve the Ancient Cultures of our mutual past.(my actual rating is 22).