CARAL: the oldest Indigenous city in the Americas - Videos

There are six regions in the world where human civilization was created from scratch, without any external influence: the Middle East, Egipt and northern Africa, India, China, Mesoamerica and the Andean region.

In the Andean region, Caral is the oldest city in the Abya Yala (America) continent. If you never heard of it, then please watch these videos that I found at Xwishmasterx Youtube channel -- with over 340 videos related to Peru, so you should check it out sometime.

Also I included here an interview with Dr. Ruth Shady-Solis, director of the Caral project and a note from the Archeology Channel about the oldest citadel of our continent, and its importance in human history.

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From the Archeology Channel:

On 27 April 2001 came the stunning announcement in the journal Science that the emergence of urban life and complex agriculture in the New World occurred nearly a millennium earlier than previously believed (Ruth Shady-Solis et al. 2001). Radiocarbon dates from the ancient city of Caral, in the Supe Valley of Peru 23 km from the coast, show that monumental architecture there was under construction as early as 2627 B.C. and until about 2000 B.C., even before ceramics and maize were introduced to the region. (By comparison, the Great Pyramid of Khufu in Egypt was built between 2600 and 2480 B.C.)

Also remarkable is the enormous size of the urban complex: 65 hectares in the central zone itself, encompassing six large platform mounds (or "pyramids"), many smaller platform mounds, two sunken circular plazas, and diverse architectural features including residential districts. Caral is by far the largest recorded site in the Andean region with dates older than 2000 B.C. and appears to be the model for the urban design adopted by Andean civilizations that rose and fell over the span of four millennia (see Web links below).

The construction of Caral seems to be associated with the advent of irrigation agriculture in the Supe Valley and is built adjacent to the headgate of the main irrigation canal that serves farmers there today.

It seems likely that the ancient inhabitants of the Supe Valley expanded upriver from the coast, developed agriculture (involving squash, beans, guava, and cotton) to support a growing population, and in the process created the complex sociopolitical organization required to build an irrigation system, the grand city of Caral, and smaller urban centers in the region. Fish bones and mollusk shells at Caral show an active trade in foodstuffs between coastal and interior inhabitants and suggest that the civilization depended on both agriculture and fishing.

Dr. Ruth Shady-Solis of the Museum of Archaeology at the National University of San Marcos, Lima, Peru, is Project Director for ongoing research at Caral. She is working closely on this project, in the field and in analysis and publications, with the Field Museum, represented by Dr. Jonathan Haas. Dr. Shady-Solis graciously agreed to share her perspectives on the work her team is doing at Caral in a telephone interview with Rick Pettigrew, which took place on 30 July 2001. Carla Guerron-Montero, Ph.D. candidate in anthropology at the University of Oregon served as interpreter for the interview, which is available here in English and Spanish. Our thanks go to Dr. Shady for taking the time to speak with us.


Hear an interview with Dr. Ruth Shady-Solis:

To hear the interview, click on the bandwidth for your player below.

English
(voices of Dr. Pettigrew and interpreter, Carla Guerron-Montero)
Windows Media Player 56k 300k
RealPlayer 56k 300k

Spanish
(voices of Dr. Shady and interpreter, Carla Guerron-Montero)
Windows Media Player 56k 300k
RealPlayer 56k 300k

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