The Americas' oldest civilization: Caral-Supe

Visit Peru (video); Xochitl, Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

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The Caral-Supe Civilization (Norte Chico or "Small North" civilization) was a complex pre-Columbus era society.

It included as many as 30 major population centers in what is now the Norte Chico region of north-central coastal Peru.

The oldest civilization in the Americas flourished between the 4th and 2nd millennia BC, with the formation of the first city generally dated to around 3,500 BC, at Huaricanga, in the Fortaleza River area (1).

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It is from 3,100 BC onward that large-scale human settlement and communal construction became clearly apparent (2), which lasted until a period of decline around 1,800 BC (3).

Since the early 21st century, it has been established that it is the oldest known civilization in the Americas.

This civilization flourished along three rivers: the Supe, the Fortaleza, and the Pativilca. These river valleys each have large clusters of sites.

Further south there are several associated sites along the Huaura River (4). The alternative name, Caral-Supe, is derived from the city of Caral (5) in the Supe Valley, a large and well-studied Norte Chico site.

Complex society in Norte Chico arose a millennium after Sumer in Mesopotamia, was contemporaneous with the Egyptian pyramids, and predated the Mesoamerican Olmec culture by nearly two millennia.

In archeological terms, Norte Chico ("Small North") is a pre-ceramic culture of the pre-Columbian Late Archaic. It completely lacked ceramics and apparently had almost no visual art.

The most impressive achievement of the civilization was its monumental architecture, including large earthwork platform mounds and sunken circular plazas. More

1. Mann, Charles C. (2006) [2005]. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. Vintage Books. pp. 199–212. ISBN 1-4000-3205-9.
2. Haas, Jonathan; Winifred Creamer; Alvaro Ruiz (23 December 2004). "Dating the Late Archaic occupation of the Norte Chico region in Peru." Nature. 432 (7020): 1020–1023. doi:10.1038/nature03146. PMID 15616561.
3. "Archaeologists shed new light on Americas' earliest known civilization" (press release). Northern Illinois University. 2004-12-22. Archived from the original on February 9, 2007. Retrieved 2007-02-01.
4. "Detailed map of Norte Chico sites."
5. "Sacred City of Caral-Supe." UNESCO. Retrieved 2011-06-09.

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