Caral

Caral is the oldest known city settlement on the American continent. Since June 2009, Caral - Supe is part of the UNESCO world heritage.

It is located in Peru, about 200 km north of Lima and 25 km inland from the Pacific Coast in the valley of the Rio Supe. The age of Caral and its culture has been dated on the basis of reed bags with the radiocarbon dating method to approximately 5000 years and thus part of the Präkeramikum IV - VI of the Andean region, as well as the settlement and temples of Salinas de Chao (3300 BC), La Galgala (3000 BC ) and the somewhat younger Chuquitana. The flowering phase of Caral falls into the so-called initial phase (1800-1000 BC), in which the entire central Andean region experienced a major boom, which is reflected in the introduction of pottery. Time to Caral lined up in the well-known centers of origin of human civilization a next Mesopotamia, Egypt and India, without, however, come close to reaching the status of these civilizations.

Caral covers an area of ​​60 hectares and consists of two circular sunken into the ground surfaces. The settlement is bounded by six flat, pyramid -shaped elevations, the largest of which 160 m long, 150 m wide and 18 m high. At the entrance of the pyramid there are two 3.5-meter high monolith of granite. Where do the stones come, is not yet clear. The smallest pyramid is 60 m long, 45 m wide and has a height of 10 m ( By comparison, about 1,000 years older than Khufu's pyramid has a height of 140 meters and a massive stone cladding ). The sunken into the ground surfaces are reminiscent of an amphitheater.

Fixed installations, defense ditches or embankments and weapons, as is usual in Peru, were not found in Caral. The Ausgräberin of Caral, Ruth Shady Solis suggested that the coastal areas by El Niño regularly hit by devastating floods and the inhabitants were thus driven into the desert. In fact, the entire valley of irrigation canals is traversed, and allowed the cultivation of squash, beans and especially intensive cotton.

The proximity to the coast (25 km), the use of marine fish as food is not surprising. This close to larger trading activities Carals or stylize it the same to the commercial metropolis, is inappropriate. During the excavations there were also fish bones, shells and shells of animals, which are also found in the Amazon.

The inhabitants of Caral was rather low, it is specified at the peak of its development with approximately 1,000 ( Kurella 2008:41 ). At different elaborate style of the building can be seen a social stratification. So far, only two skeletons have been found by children in the city. A cemetery was not found until now. The settlement of the town ended around 1200 BC, the reasons for the end are not known.

In June 2009, Caral has been declared a Sacred City of Caral - Supe by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.