What is norte chico civilization

Contact us. All external sites will open in a new browser. Home Page. World Business. World Sport. Special Reports. What's on. Business Traveller. Design Global Office. Principal Voices. Talk Asia. Archaeologists have uncovered fresh evidence of a civilization more than 5, years old in Norte Chico. Story Tools.

Quake jitters hit California. Archaeologists consider Caral one of the largest and most complex urban centers built by the oldest known civilization in the Western Hemisphere. The 1,acre site, situated miles north of Lima and 14 miles from the Pacific coast, features six ancient pyramids, sunken circular plazas and giant staircases, all sitting on a windswept desert terrace overlooking the green floodplains of the winding Supe River.

Radiocarbon dating on organic matter throughout the site has revealed it to be roughly between 4, to 5, years old, making its architecture as old—if not older—than the Step Pyramid of Saqqara , the oldest known pyramid in ancient Egypt. That remarkable discovery places Caral as one of the oldest known cities in the Western Hemisphere. Archaeologists believe the sites collectively represent the oldest center of civilization in the Americas, one which lasted from roughly to B. It flourished nearly 4, years before the start of the powerful Incan Empire.

View of one of the amphitheaters of the Caral archaeological complex, in Peru. Almost 5, years old, it was built by one of the oldest cultures in the world. German archaeologist Max Uhle explored the Supe Valley, but not Caral itself, as part of a wide-ranging study of ancient Peruvian cities in the early s. But it was American historian Paul Kosok, who is largely recognized as the first scholar to recognize and visit what is now known as the site of Caral in It was only in , when Peruvian archaeologist Ruth Shady of National University of San Marcos started studying the site, that she realized, in the absence of finding any ceramics, that Caral might date before the advent of pot-firing technology.

But Shady needed to substantiate her claims. Another important site is Aspero, a 15 ha 37 ac site at the mouth of the Supe River, which includes at least six platform mounds, the largest of which has a volume of 3, cu m cu yd , stands 4 m 13 ft high and covers an area of 40x40 m x ft. Built of cobble and basalt block masonry plastered with clay and shicra fill, the mounds have U-shaped atria and several clusters of decorated rooms that exhibit increasingly restricted access.

The site has two huge platform mounds: Huaca de los Sacrificios and Huaca de los Idolos, and another 15 smaller mounds. Other constructions include plazas, terraces, and large refuse areas.

Ceremonial buildings at Aspero, such as the Huaca del los Sacrificios and Huaca de los Idolos, represent some of the oldest examples of public architecture in the Americas. The name, Huaca de los Idolos, comes from an offering of several human figurines interpreted as idols recovered from the top of the platform. Aspero's radiocarbon dates fall between cal BCE. Beginning about 3, cal BP, a series of environmental disasters struck the people living in the Supe and adjacent valleys, impacting both marine and terrestrial environments.

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