Peruvian Pyramids Rival The Pharaohs'

The Times Of London ^ | 8-20-2005 | Norman Hammond

[blam]

August 20, 2005

Peruvian pyramids rival the pharaohs'

By Norman Hammond, Archaeology Correspondent

RUINS on Peru’s desert coast dated to some 4,700 years ago suggest an earlier focus of civilisation than any so far identified in the New World. The site of Caral, in the Supe Valley north of Lima, covers 66 hectares (165 acres) and includes pyramids 21m (70ft) high arranged around a large plaza.

“What really sets Caral apart is its age,” Roger Atwood reports in Archaeology. “Carbon dating has revealed that its pyramids are contemporary with those of Egypt and the ziggurats of Mesopotamia.” These are among the earliest monumental architecture in the Old World. Surveys and excavations in neighbouring valleys, Atwood says, suggest that Caral “stood at the centre of the first society in the Americas to build cities and engage in trade on a large scale”.

Caral has been investigated over the past decade by a Peruvian team headed by Dr Ruth Shady. Other sites in Peru are as early, but the report notes that “none approach the size and scope of its architecture. Caral’s people dedicated themselves to their buildings with civic intensity, constantly making and remaking their stone-and-mortar walls, sunken plazas and densely packed residences”.

The population is thought to have been about 3,000. Much of the construction was done using “shicra bags”, loosely woven containers resembling a horse’s hay-net which were packed with boulders and used as building blocks. Shicra is a long-bladed annual grass, and thus ideal for radiocarbon dating: sample ages were as early as 2727BC, and when the dates were published in 2001 they opened a new debate on the orgins of Peruvian civilisation.

That Caral was not a unique site was shown by surveys carried out by Drs Jonathan Haas and Winifred Creamer in three neighbouring coastal valleys, which revealed a number of coeval sites: “There is now evidence of an extraordinary complex of more than 20 separate major residential centres with monumental architecture concentrated in just three small valleys,” they reported. The American team disputes Shady’s claim that Caral is the “capital” of this early polity, seeing it rather as an important regional centre.

At Caral, the two unusual circular plazas have been consolidated: at one of them a cache of 32 decorated flutes made from condor and pelican bones was found. Rubbish from nearby houses showed that sardines, anchovies and mussels were dietary staples. Caral was occupied for perhaps a millenium before it was abandoned.

Whether it can truly be seen as a civilisation comparable in attainment with contemporary Egypt and Mesopotamia is doubtful, but it demonstrates that the tradition culminating in the Inca Empire had deeper roots than anyone imagined.

Archaeology Vol 58 No 4:18-25

[sine_nomine]

Got it.

[dsc]

"According to the author, tantalizing archaeological evidence exists of settlements under a ``silt curtain'' left by the sea floods in drowned coastal regions from Southeast Asia to the Middle East"

Don't we have the technology now to look and see if there are any interesting shapes under that silt curtain?

[orionblamblam]

> do you really believe thousands of slaves hauled MILLIONS of 10 ton stones up the egyptian pyramids?

Nope. They weren't slaves.

[blam]

"Don't we have the technology now to look and see if there are any interesting shapes under that silt curtain?"

Yup. But, the area is twice the size of present day India, called Sundaland. I've posted some articles about some interesting things found underwater in that region. I'll see if I can find some.

[blam]

Here's one:

Archaeologist Announce Discovery Of Underwater Man-made Wall (Very Old)

[Question_Assumptions]

If the ancient Peruvians built their pyramids out of stone and cased them in limestone (now gone) that was polished so they glistened in the Sun, I'll believe they were comparable. That's not to say that the Peruvian pyramids weren't impressive, though.

[dsc]

Thanks, 'preciate it.

[ForGod'sSake]

In an exhaustively researched and creatively argued reassessment of mankind's origins, British physician Oppenheimer, an expert in tropical pediatrics, contends that the now-submerged area of Southeast Asia was the cradle of ancient civilization.

Oppenheimer's model has "ancient" civilization beginning in east Africa......color me confused!

.

[wildbill]

Actually, the 'pyramids' look pretty good for constructions made with stacked bags of rocks.

Of course, another interpretation could be they were just cleaning up the yard and stacked the bags of rocks in a few convenient locations.

Those pesky aliens were clever.