Caral: The Oldest Pyramids in the World
By Dr. Greg Little
The January 27, 2001 issue of Science announced the discovery of “America’s Oldest City” — Caral, located 120 miles north of Lima, Peru and 18 miles inland from the Pacific coastine. Caral is one of 18 ancient pyramid complexes located in the Supe Valley, all of which are essentially mud brick pyramid sites.Caral is a 200 acre site which has a huge plaza surrounded by six truncated pyramids. The largest pyramid has a base of 450 by 500-feet, and it stands 60 feet high. The site had three large, circular plazas, which were sunken into the ground much like a kiva. The pyramids were covered with rooms, stairs, open areas, and other structures. Like many other South American pyramids, the Caral pyramids are believed to be honeycombed with tunnels. Caral has been carbon-dated to 2727 B.C. and only one of the other related complexes has been dated. It dated at 2800 B.C. making it older than the pyramid long thought to be the oldest: the Step Pyramid of Zozer in Egypt. In addition, pyramids at the Aspero site, related to Caral, are dated to 3500 B.C. It is curious that the oldest known pyramids in the world are in S. America.
The discovery of Caral and the associated sites is forcing a major change in how archaeologists think about South America. South American archaeologists have published evidence showing that the continent was certainly inhabited by 50,000 B.C., but other evidence, including data gathered by the U.S. Geologic Survey, shows that the continent had human occupants as long ago as 300,000 B.C. More information can be found in our book, Ancient South America.
