Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Civilization's Early Roots
Along with Egypt, India and China, Peru is considered one of the six cradles of civiliza-
tion (a site where urbanization accompanied agricultural innovation) - and the only one
located in the southern hemisphere. Some of the earliest human settlements began to
flourish here at about 3000 BC, with the oldest remains discovered at Caral, a 626-hectare
ruins site found about 200km north of Lima. Almost five thousand years old, the temple
mounds and irrigation canals here are evidence of the oldest civilization in the Americas.
In 2009 it was declared a Unesco World Heritage site.
The Chavín Horizon
Fast forward a couple of thousand years and you'll end up in the era known as the Chavín
Horizon - named after the site of Chavín de Huántar, east of Huaraz. This was a rich peri-
od of development for Andean culture - when greater urbanization occurred and artistic
and religious phenomena appeared all over the central and northern highlands, as well as
the coast. Lasting roughly from 1000 BC to 300 BC, the salient feature of Chavín is the
repeated representation of a stylized jaguar or puma.
The Birth of Local Cultures
After Chavín, numerous regional cultures became important in scattered areas of the
country. South of Lima, near the Península de Paracas, was a coastal community whose
most significant phase is referred to as Paracas Necropolis (AD 1-400), after a large buri-
al site. Some of the finest pre-Columbian textiles have been unearthed here: intricate fab-
rics that depict feline warriors and stylized anthropomorphic figures. Nearby, the Nazca
culture (200 BC-AD 600) carved giant, enigmatic designs into the desert. Known as the
Nazca Lines (
Click here
)
, these were mapped early in the 20th century, though their ulti-
mate purpose remains unknown.
On the north coast, it was the Moche who were influential. They settled the area around
Trujillo from about AD 100 to 800 and are known for their astonishing, highly individual-
istic ceramic heads, no two of which are exactly alike. They also left behind temple
mounds, such as the Huacas del Sol y de la Luna (Temples of the Sun and Moon), near
Trujillo, and the impressive burial site of Sipán, north of Chiclayo.
