LETTER FROM CUZCO
The archaeological complex of Caral in the Supe Valley, Peru on January 13, 2021. ERNESTO BENAVIDES / AFP
It is a still largely unknown archaeological site that nonetheless has something to fascinate about. Pyramids standing in the desert… This is obviously reminiscent of their cousins from another continent further east, the Pyramids of Egypt, built five hundred years later, around 2,650 BC. BC, were built. J.-C.
The civilization of Caral, 180 kilometers north of Lima, the Peruvian capital, is rooted on the borders of the desert coast where the fertile valley of Supe unfolds, lapped by the river of the same name that flows 85 kilometers to the Pacific. . It would have been born five thousand years ago, around 3000 BC. and would be one of the oldest civilizations in the world – and the oldest in the Americas.
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Still little known, Caral was a surprisingly developed civilization: in architecture, with its elaborate and earthquake-resistant constructions, in engineering, with its buildings capable of capturing the energy of the wind “and producing a permanent fire,” explains Ruth Shady Solis, anthropologist and archaeologist in charge of the site, “while in Europe at the end of the 18 this technology produced different natural colors without the use of dyes. Eventually, Caral had an astronomical observatory that recorded changes in the position of the stars.
Jewellery, statuettes and musical instruments
The current archaeological complex includes temples, monuments, living quarters and an amphitheater. All in an incredible state of preservation. For this civilization, “ideology was central,” says Ruth Shady. Experience the monumental buildings that still contain traces of rituals and ceremonies. Terracotta statues, probably sacrificial, were found in circular spaces, “representing, instead of human sacrifices, people of different social positions who were buried”, the archaeologist analyzes while other pre-Columbian civilizations used them.
If this amazing site has long been forgotten, it is because it has only been excavated for twenty-seven years, since Ruth Shady began her research. His team then found many artefacts that testify to the way of life of these ancient populations: bone or shell jewelry of the Spondylus species, statuettes, musical instruments… “We found about thirty flutes, some with engravings of Amazon monkeys or Sierra condors [les zones montagneuses des Andes], others with sea creatures, showing us the diversity and the connections that this civilization had with other regions of Peru and areas even more distant. “On the other hand, no trace of ceramics:” They wouldn’t have used it, the anthropologist specifies, because they would have used biodegradable materials that they had. So they turned gourds into eating vessels or drinking bottles.
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