Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
CARAL
Just a couple of hundred kilometers north of Lima lies one of the most exciting archaeolo-
gical sites in Peru. It may not look like much - half a dozen dusty temple mounds, a few
sunken amphitheaters and remnants of structures crafted from adobe and stone - but it is.
This is the oldest known city in the Americas: Caral (
Click here
).
Situated in the Supe Valley, this early society developed almost simultaneously with the
cultures of Mesopotamia and Egypt about 5000 years ago, and it predates the earliest civil-
izations in Mexico by about 1500 years. Little is known about the people that built this im-
pressive 626-hectare urban center. But archaeologists, led by Ruth Shady Solís, the former
director of Lima's Museo Nacional de Antropología, Arqueología e Historia del Perú (
Click here
)
, have managed to unearth a few precious details.
Caral was a religious center that venerated its holy men and paid tribute to unknown ag-
ricultural deities (at times, with human sacrifice). They cultivated crops such as cotton,
squash, beans and chilies, collected fruits and were knowledgeable fishers. Archaeological
finds include pieces of textile, necklaces, ceremonial burials and crude, unbaked clay figur-
ines depicting female forms. The first serious digs began in the area in 1996 and much of
the complex has yet to be excavated - expect further discoveries.
The topic
Tejidos Milenarios del Perú: Ancient
Peruvian Textiles
is a sumptuously illustrated en-
cyclopedia of just about every type of textile to
emerge from Peru between Chavín and the Incas.
The legacy is so rich, in fact, that this topic spans
more than 800 pages and weighs more than 10kg.
