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If civilization got started in South America 5000 years ago, as it did in Egypt, India and China then what happened? Why did civilization advance in other parts of the world but not in South America or North America? Something does not compute.

>>Why did civilization advance in other parts of the world but not in South America or North America?

Define "advance" because in this context I really have no clue what you mean. Peru was a highly advanced society when Pizarro came along, but one of the things that happened a lot in the Andean region is that periodic enviornmental catastrophes seem to cause a collapse of various State level societies (Chimu, Moche, Huari).

The well known "El Nino" weather pattern is one example.

As it was, the Inca were pretty advanced by the time the Spanish encountered them, with an elaborate road system, record keeping system, and advanced agricultural systems.

If civilization got started in South America 5000 years ago, as it did in Egypt, India and China then what happened? Why did civilization advance in other parts of the world but not in South America or North America? Something does not compute.

If you're curious about that question, run, don't walk to your local bookstore or library and get "Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond. Amazing book.

He ended up writing the book after he visited New Guinea and made some friends among the tribesmen there, who struck him as very intelligent people, despite having a very primitive society, and one of them asked basically the same question you asked.

Americas Oldest Urban Cities

By Giorgio Piacenza

How and why did civilization emerge? Did it happen simultaneously around the world or first in the old world and then in the Americas?

The ancient sacred citadel-complex of Caral, discovered in 1905 by archaeologist Max Uhle, basically forgotten for decades and, finally, explored from 1994 to date by Peruvian archaeologist Ruth Shady from Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, is a most beautiful enigma on the nature of how early civilizations started and, therefore, on what the human mind is capable of producing during the creation of urban complexity. This enigma developed in the late archaic, pre ceramic period and, until Ruth Shady came along conducting an extensive survey in situ, it was considered of lesser interest by archaeologists pressed for funds. This was due to the fact that the existence of ceramics (apparently invented in America by the Valdivia civilization of Ecuador and in Puerto Hormigas, Colombia) was considered to go hand in hand with more advanced and interesting cultures.

Dr. Ruth Shady still spends a great amount of time digging in Caral and is being helped in the U.S. by Dr. Jonathan Haas from Chicago’s Field Museum and by Dr.Winfred Creamer from Northern Illinois University. Although funds are sorely needed, the National Geographic Society and the National Museum of Natural History have contributed some and the Peruvian government is also contributing to a somewhat greater extent than in the past.

Caral’s importance for the world rests on many fascinating and intriguing facts rather than in its striking monumentality as in the case of places like Macchu Picchu or Teotihuacan. For instance, other than considering China, Egypt, Mesopotamia, India and Central America, we can now reliably speculate about an older original civilization in the Americas, one located in Peru and being at least 1,000 years older than Monte Alban in Mexico which, off course, lies much closer to the Straight of Bering. Roughly speaking, it is calculated that Caral was occupied between 3000BC and 2000 BC.

Curiously, the absence of weaponry or signs of armies and wars suggest that the old notion that wars played a necessary role in the development of urban settlements may not always apply. A civilization may have already enjoyed one thousand years of relative peace. A third aspect that comes to mind about Caral’s apparent unique or isolated development is the absence of comparable cultural developments in the neighborhood capable of exerting cross fertilizing influences beyond their domains. For this reason, unlike places like Egypt, the site of Caral and its surrounding, culturally connected settlements, seem to have been able to develop the essentials of urban complexity in relative isolation. What could have inspired this pre ceramic culture to brake off on its own and develop the cultural and social manifestations normally found in later historic time periods? Why did this early development take place in the Supe Valley of South America, even though South America is thought to have been colonized later than Central America? Why wasn’t Caral’s geographical region repopulated and re-utilized by subsequent important state-based civilizations with large economies?

According to some learned estimates, a fourth aspect relevant to Caral, is that it could have harbored a population of up to 3,000, sustaining itself with agriculture and barter but in the absence of major irrigation projects. This unique situation seems to have been facilitated by the ample fertile overflow of the Supe River for which reason, small drainage canals were used. In other words, perhaps mostly the essentials for comfort and minimum surplus seem to be needed to create a civilization with urban centers. Also, sharing a worldview connected to a socially binding or participatory way of life in the absence of invaders may be necessary to maintain peaceful coexistence for a very long time.

The list of unique characteristics related to Caral also includes the fact that on this site no other social group, empire or civilization buried its remnants under subsequent constructions. Unlike other ancients sites like Jericho, when Caral was abandoned it was simply covered by sand over the millennia, thus providing us today with a rare opportunity to explore the unmodified remnants of a seminal culture whose manifestations found echo in most subsequent developments of the Andean and coastal regions of Peru until the time of the Inca some 4,400 years later. Very likely, the sunken plazas, pyramid platforms and other cultural manifestations found in Caral were adopted by subsequent civilizations.

Not to be forgotten is the role religion, spirituality and ritual played in the organization of this long lasting and, apparently, peaceful cultural center. Many elaborate fire pits have been found, both in ceremonial areas and in residential ones, suggesting that fire was a favorite and continuous means to communicate with the unseen dimensions of life. Burnt textiles, quartz crystals and marine products have been found in the ceremonial fire pits. Also, three circular sunken plazas have been found, suggesting rituals in which many individuals participated or acted as spectators. The remains of a few human sacrifices have been also found suggesting that this propitiatory practice was extensive throughout the world, even during the earliest stages of a civilization that could be considered essentially peaceful. Buried female figurines have also been recovered under residences, suggesting an acceptance of beliefs associated with sympathetic magic and perhaps fertility rites.

The word “Caral” derives its name from the proximity of a small town of the same name in the Supe Valley of Lima. It may be related to a Quechua word meaning, “banquet” or “receiving people for banquets.” Ruth Shady thinks that the people from Caral may have spoken a form of pre proto Quechua.

The archaeological site of Caral itself is the largest sacred citadel-complex in the area and comprises 65 hectares. 17 other sacred-citadels complexes with similar characteristics are found in the surrounding areas extending from the Pacific Ocean coast to part of the Andes. These other sites average 10-15 hectares in size. This is a unique concentration of sacred/social centers in a wide area. The nearest three neighbors are called “Chupacigarro” “Miraga” and “Luriwasi” and the seven most recent carbon datings conducted on site in Caral itself have thrown a timeline that goes back to 2900BC, 2945 BC and 2950 BC! This means that perhaps the first stages of this outstanding site predate the building of the three main pyramids in the Giza Plateau.

Is Caral coastal or Andean? Well, it is definitely not high in the Andes as Chavin de Huantar, a later development once considered to have been the main cultural powerhouse or seeding civilization in ancient Peru. Caral is only about 15 miles inland from the coast and rests just at about 500 feet above sea level. It is also located about 113 miles north of Lima, traveling along the Panamerican Highway (take a side road due east on km 182 or one on km 152). I would say that Caral was strategically located at the beginning of the Andes but so close to the coast that it benefited as an in between station that served some of the spiritual and commercial needs of peoples from its cultural milieu and neighboring areas. The expansion of this multi-settlement civilization apparently extended at least another 25 miles inland, although the presence of jungle products like “Achiote” (or annatto seed) suggests that there was more far-reaching exchange.

The people of Caral did not cultivate corn, which had been considered as fundamental to Andean civilizations. They may have used corn for ceremonial purposes instead. Nevertheless, they did cultivate sweet potatoes, squash, ice cream beans, peanuts, lima beans, hot pepper and cotton and traded with inhabitants of contemporary coastal sites like Aspero. Guava and lucuma fruits have also been found and an important aspect of trade with fishing communities was the export of cotton used for fishing nets in exchange for clams, mussels, sardines and their favorite dried fish: anchovies. The remnants of striped tuna and sea bass have also been found but residential complexes of the elite.

Not possessing ceramics or sophisticated stone building technologies was no impediment to enjoy some of the basics of “civilized” living or for building lasting homes and temples. In the first case, cut out bottle gourds were used as pots and much cooking was done with heated stones inside holes in the ground. This technique is known as “Pachamanca” today in Peru. Also, some archaeologists believe that, instead of aspirin, these people used the leaves of willow trees. Whale vertebrae that served as seats and also pelican bone flutes and llama bone horns have been found. A comb with hair still in it was also found.

Regarding home building techniques, layers of adobe bricks were interlaced in strategic wall spots with sturdy plant material for extra resistance and flexibility. Also, during their regular remodeling practices, “shicras” or woven reed rope sacks filled with river stones were used to bury previous floor layers and to build upward, maintaining anti seismic properties. Coarse sand was placed between these floor layers. The “shicra” technique is still occasionally used in a few places in Peru.

As with other early civilizations in which specialization existed, social stratification is evident by the fact that some groups of houses are better finished than others. It also seems that Caral was ruled by a priestly class that found an effective way to maintain, as said before, about 1000 years of peace, without the use of weapons. A generalized instructing worldview, Caral’s source of order, may have been so extensive and crucial to the spiritual-religious needs of peoples from within the urban center and throughout the region that the use of force may have seemed completely unnecessary. The lack of walls surrounding this site bears witness to this fact and gives us reason to hope that human civilizations don’t need to be riddled with unending series of grave conflicts. Perhaps, due to the lack of competing ideologies, social control was exerted mostly through group and social expectations.

When one arrives to Caral one may experience a sensation of openness and harmonious building in relation to nature and to the open sky. Six large platform mounds that could also be considered pyramids surround a large central plaza where great gatherings could have taken place to bring together peoples from the neighborhood. The religion could have been astronomical due to the respect for the open sky, the use of fires to burn offerings that rise up in heat and smoke. It could also have been quite participatory in nature, considering that people could have participated not only in the large central plaza but also in and around the sunken circular plazas. 32 flutes and 38 horns but no fire pits were found in the main sunken circular plaza or amphitheater. Perhaps people from all over the area and beyond arrived to Caral requesting divination services and the leaders were oracle-priests using religion instead of force to maintain cohesion and order.

Overall, we find 32 architectural structures. Due to a mild slope, the site is roughly divided into upper and lower Caral. Four residential areas have been excavated and one of them was built next to a pyramid facing a monolith with a private stairway to the top. The houses on the outskirts used smooth pebbles in their construction and those further inside within used quarried rocks and what Peruvians call “quincha” (walls of reeds mixed with adobe).

Three pyramids are being excavated: the largest one, called “Piramide Mayor” (60 feet tall with 2 sides of 450 feet and 2 of 500 feet) is where the burial of a 20-25 year old fingerless, well-groomed, tall sacrificed man was found. Also, a medium size pyramid and a small one are being excavated. All the stairs that go up the pyramids end up in atriums or walled areas. In fact, the “Piramide Mayor” possesses 3 atriums and 2 monoliths marking something like an entrance. Also as far as has been ascertained, none of these pyramids have secret passages and they were built piling up “shicras” aided by flat face rocks. In order to enlarge the pyramid, another one was built on top. Then, pyramids were plastered and painted in pink, yellow, beige, grey and blue grey and faint remnants of these colors are visible. It is believed that groups of people related to the residential areas close to each pyramid sat in their own pyramid ceremony.

While walking around Caral I was impressed by the most elaborate fire pit that had a 6 feet 5 inch tall circular wall and a special ground level duct to strengthen the fire. I was also impressed by the beauty of the largest sunken plaza (100 feet in diameter), by the large 6.5 feet tall monolith (called Huanca and a precursor of the Solar clock or “Inti Huatana” of the Incas) standing in front of a pyramid, by the alignment of the central pyramid stairways of various pyramids with the summer solstice, by a rock painting depicting what looks like a square-headed man, and by a form of concentric, diamond shaped woven cross called “the eye of God” found in the central plaza. This last finding in particular is very interesting because extremely similar “eyes of God” can be also found in Mexico and in southwestern U.S. lands. The fact that it was found in what is supposed to be the largest public area where peoples from different communities gathered suggests that this ubiquitous magical adornment may have been brought from somewhere else.

Due to its age and uniqueness Caral definitely needs to be researched carefully and in earnest if we are to piece together important clues about our mysterious America whose role in the world is being re assessed with findings like these.

Sources:

The Archaeology Channel (www.archaeologychannel.org/caralint.html) “Caral: Oldest City in the New World: A Conversation with Ruth Shady.”

BBC Documentary: “The Lost Pyramids of Caral” January 31st, 2002.

Belsie, Civilization Lost? The Christian Science Monitor, January 03, 2002.

Mauro, “Ancient City May Predate the Mayas,” The Miami Herald, March 03, 2002

Parisi, “Creamer Makes Headlines with Peru Research”, Northern Illinois University Today, May 07, 2001.

Pringle, Archaeology: The First Urban Center in the Americas “Science Magazine” April 27, 2001, 292: 621

Shady (interview), “La Cultura Caral Es Mas Antigua De Lo Que Se Creia”, El Tiempo, June 28, 2004.