Caral-Supe

The Sacred City of Caral in Peru

At almost 5000 years old, it is the oldest city in the Americas and predates even the great Pyramids of Egypt. It includes 6 pyramids, the largest of which measures 150x160 meters, 2 sunken ceremonial plazas, residential districts and an irrigation system.

The 'Sacred City of Caral-Supe' or simply 'Caral', is an archaeological site where the remains of the main city of the Caral civilization are found. It is located in the Supe valley, near the current town of Caral, 182 kilometres north of Lima (Peru), 23 km from the coast and 350 metres above sea level. It is attributed antiquity of 5000 years and it is considered the oldest city in America and one of the oldest in the world, since no other older site with such a diversity of monumental buildings, with different ceremonial and administrative functions, has been found so far on that continent. It has been declared Humanity Cultural Heritage by Unesco.

The Caral culture developed between 3000 and 1800 B.C (Late Archaic and Lower Formative) that is, it was contemporary with other primordial civilizations such as Egypt, India, Sumeria, China, but unlike them (who exchanged their achievements), it developed in complete isolation. In America, it is the oldest of the pre-Hispanic civilizations, surpassing the Olmec civilization by 1500 years, another important civilizational focus located in Mesoamerica.

Closely related to the city of Caral was Áspero or El Áspero, located on the coast near the mouth of the Supe River, and which, according to all indications, was its fishing city. This is where remains of human sacrifices (two children and a newborn) have been found, and more recently (2016), of a woman, who presumably belonged to the local elite of 4,500 years ago.

Scope of site

Caral spawned 19 other temple complexes scattered across the 90 square kilometres (35 sq mi) area of the Supe Valley.

The date of 2627 BC for Caral is based on the carbon dating of reed and woven carrying bags that were found in situ. These bags were used to carry the stones that were used for the construction of the temples. The material is an excellent candidate for high precision dating. The site may date even earlier, however, as samples from the oldest parts of the excavation have yet to be dated.

The radiocarbon work of Jonathan Haas et al. found that 10 of 95 samples taken in the Pativilca and Fortaleza areas dated from before 3500 BC. The oldest, dating from 9210 BC, provides "limited indication" of human settlement during the Pre-Columbian Early Archaic era. Two dates of 3700 BC are associated with communal architecture but are likely to be anomalous. It is from 3200 BC onward that large-scale human settlement and communal construction are clearly apparent. Mann, in a survey of the literature in 2005, suggests "sometime before 3200 BC, and possibly before 3500 BC" as the beginning date of the Caral-Supe formative period. He notes that the earliest date securely associated with a city is 3500 BC, at Huaricanga, in the Fortaleza area of the north, based on Haas's dates.

Caral had a population of approximately 3,000 people. However, 19 other sites in the area (posted at Caral), allow for a possible total population of 20,000 people sharing the same culture in the Supe Valley. All of these sites share similarities with Caral, including small platforms or stone circles. Ruth Martha Shady Solís believes that Caral was the focus of this civilisation, which was part of an even vaster cultural complex, trading with the coastal communities and the regions farther inland – perhaps, if the depiction of monkeys is an indication, as far as the Amazon.

Geoglyph

In 2000, Marco Machacuay (the chief of excavations at the time) and his colleague, Rocío Aramburú, discovered a large shape etched on the ground among circular stone lines near Caral. This image, known as a geoglyph, is located on the desert floor just west of the main site at Caral. When traced out, the lines form the design of a human face with long, streaming hair and a gaping mouth.

This geoglyph is similar to bleeding figures with a similar gaping mouth found etched onto the stone walls at a site called Cerro Sechín, in the Casma Valley 240 kilometres (150 mi) to the north. What this figure represents is unclear, but it is believed to have been constructed around the same time as Caral and to have been associated with a nearby ceremonial site known as Chupacigarro.

Musical instruments

Another significant find at the site was a collection of musical instruments (32 flutes made of condor and pelican bones and 37 cornetts of deer and llama bones) including 37 cornetts made of deer and llama bones and 33 flutes of unusual construction. The flutes were radiocarbon dated to 2170±90 BC.