Machu Picchu Has Been Called The Wrong Name For Over A Century Study Says

For more than 100 years, one of the world’s most famous archeological sites, Machu Picchu, has been known by the wrong name, according to a report published in Ñawpa Pacha: Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies.
The Incas who built the ancient city probably named it Huayna Picchu, the report said.
Huayna translates to “young or old,” while Picchu means “mountain top” in the Quechua language, said Emily Dean, a professor of anthropology at the University of Southern Utah in Cedar City.  He did not participate in the exhibition.  Machu means “old”, so we call it an old mountain peak, he added.
The Inca settlement is believed to have been built around 1420 as an estate for Inca kings living in Cusco, the capital of the Inca Empire, according to the author of the report, Brian Bauer, a professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
When the Spaniards later conquered the Incas, Huayna Picchu was abandoned, the report said.  It was hidden for centuries deep in the Andes Mountains until American explorer Hiram Bingham rediscovered it in 1911.

LOST IN TRANSLATION 
In his notes, Bingham decided to name the ancient city of Machu Picchu, based on information provided by Melchor Arteaga’s driver, a farmer living in the area, Bauer said.
During Bauer’s search of Machu Picchu, he found evidence that his original name was something else.  The author of the exhibition, Donato Amado Gonzales – a historian at the Peruvian Ministry of Culture – independently discovered the same pattern, so they decided to work together and discover the real name together.
Investigators began looking at Bingham’s notes, where he said he was unsure of the name of the ruins when he first visited them.  From there, Bauer and Amado Gonzales looked at maps and atlases printed before and after Bingham’s visit.
One of the most striking documents was a 1588 report stating that the natives of the Vilcabamba region were considering returning to Huayna Picchu, Bauer said.
The name error is not surprising, Dean said, because many non-Peruvian archaeologists did not put much effort into researching the names of the sites and did not fully understand Quechua.
“More broadly, this finding disproves the popular narrative that Hiram Bingham discovered Machu Picchu,” he said.  The locals knew about the location long before Bingham arrived.

IT’S AN INCREDIBLE NAME CHANGE 
Despite the discovery of the area’s original name, Machu Picchu is likely to remain, Bauer said.
“We would not suggest changing the name since Machu Picchu is world famous,” he added.
Machu Picchu is also published in thousands of books, articles, advertisements and legal documents, Dean said.
The Peruvian people and their government have embraced the new name, so while it is an interesting addition to the site’s history, it will not change the modern name, he noted.