CARAL - ONE OF THE OLDEST CIUDADELAS IN THE WORLD
I knew about Caral for a while, but probably wouldn't have taken the trouble until later, had it not been for friends who came to Peru from Denmark and made me suss out the possibilities of getting there. Those 130 km turned into a somewhat fraught but rewarding journey, and I am so glad I saw it, intending to go back again soon. It's a truly fascinating place and it just goes to show that wherever you start digging in Peru you are going to find treasure indeed. Of course I took massively pix - my camera and I couldn't get enough of the whole thing.
I thought more information would be in order, so I turned to our old friend Wiki, improved the grammer a bit, and here you have it - why reinvent the wheel.:
Archaeologist Ruth Shady is exploring the 5,000 year-old city of pyramids in the Peruvian desert, its elaborate complex of temples, an amphitheater and ordinary houses. The urban complex is spread out over 150 acres (607,000 m²) and contains plazas and residential buildings. Caral was a thriving metropolis at roughly the same time that Egypt's great pyramids were being built.
The main pyramid (la Pirámide Mayor) covers an area of the size of four football fields and is 60 feet (18 m) tall. Caral is the largest recorded site in the Andean region with dates to before 2000 BCE and appears to be the model for the urban design adopted by Andean civilizations that rose and fell over the span of four millennia. It is believed that Caral may answer questions about the origins of Andean civilizations and the development of the first cities.
Among the artifacts found at Caral are a knotted textile piece that the excavators have labeled a quipu. They argue that the artifact is evidence that the quipu record keeping system, a method involving knots tied into strings (seemingly brought to perfection by the Inca) is older than archaeologists had previously assumed. Evidence has emerged that the quipu may also have recorded logographic information in the same way writing does. Gary Urton has suggested that quipus used a binary system which could record phonological or logographic data.
No trace of warfare has been found at Caral: no battlements, no weapons, no mutilated bodies. Shady's findings suggest it was a gentle society built on commerce and pleasure. In one of the pyramids 32 flutes made of condor and pelican bones, and 37 cornets of deer and llama bones have been discovered. One find revealed the remains of a baby, wrapped and buried with a necklace made of stone beads.
Caral boasts 19 other pyramid complexes scattered across the 35 square mile (80 km²) area of the Supe Valley. The date of 2627 BCE is based on carbon dating of reed and woven carry-bags found in situ. These bags were used to carry the stones for the construction of the pyramids. The site may date even earlier: samples from the oldest parts of the excavation have yet to be dated.
The town as excavated to date probably comprised a population of approximately 3000 people. But the other 19 sites in the area may have housed a total population of 20,000 people. Shady (2001) believes that Caral was the focus of this civilization, itself part of an even vaster complex, trading with the coastal communities and the regions further inland, even as far as the Amazon, if the depiction of monkeys is any indication.
I knew about Caral for a while, but probably wouldn't have taken the trouble until later, had it not been for friends who came to Peru from Denmark and made me suss out the possibilities of getting there. Those 130 km turned into a somewhat fraught but rewarding journey, and I am so glad I saw it, intending to go back again soon. It's a truly fascinating place and it just goes to show that wherever you start digging in Peru you are going to find treasure indeed. Of course I took massively pix - my camera and I couldn't get enough of the whole thing.
I thought more information would be in order, so I turned to our old friend Wiki, improved the grammer a bit, and here you have it - why reinvent the wheel.:
Archaeologist Ruth Shady is exploring the 5,000 year-old city of pyramids in the Peruvian desert, its elaborate complex of temples, an amphitheater and ordinary houses. The urban complex is spread out over 150 acres (607,000 m²) and contains plazas and residential buildings. Caral was a thriving metropolis at roughly the same time that Egypt's great pyramids were being built.
The main pyramid (la Pirámide Mayor) covers an area of the size of four football fields and is 60 feet (18 m) tall. Caral is the largest recorded site in the Andean region with dates to before 2000 BCE and appears to be the model for the urban design adopted by Andean civilizations that rose and fell over the span of four millennia. It is believed that Caral may answer questions about the origins of Andean civilizations and the development of the first cities.
Among the artifacts found at Caral are a knotted textile piece that the excavators have labeled a quipu. They argue that the artifact is evidence that the quipu record keeping system, a method involving knots tied into strings (seemingly brought to perfection by the Inca) is older than archaeologists had previously assumed. Evidence has emerged that the quipu may also have recorded logographic information in the same way writing does. Gary Urton has suggested that quipus used a binary system which could record phonological or logographic data.
No trace of warfare has been found at Caral: no battlements, no weapons, no mutilated bodies. Shady's findings suggest it was a gentle society built on commerce and pleasure. In one of the pyramids 32 flutes made of condor and pelican bones, and 37 cornets of deer and llama bones have been discovered. One find revealed the remains of a baby, wrapped and buried with a necklace made of stone beads.
Caral boasts 19 other pyramid complexes scattered across the 35 square mile (80 km²) area of the Supe Valley. The date of 2627 BCE is based on carbon dating of reed and woven carry-bags found in situ. These bags were used to carry the stones for the construction of the pyramids. The site may date even earlier: samples from the oldest parts of the excavation have yet to be dated.
The town as excavated to date probably comprised a population of approximately 3000 people. But the other 19 sites in the area may have housed a total population of 20,000 people. Shady (2001) believes that Caral was the focus of this civilization, itself part of an even vaster complex, trading with the coastal communities and the regions further inland, even as far as the Amazon, if the depiction of monkeys is any indication.