Yet Another Reason to Visit Peru
This past week’s article about the ruins of Caral in the Globe and Mail talks about a new, still undeveloped destination in Supe Valley near Lima, Peru. The significance of the discovery, which happened about a decade ago when they first excavated the site, is that it unveils the oldest ‘complex society’ in America. This means that a society that engaged in trade and had power and wealth structures existed as early as 2600 B.C. in this region, right around the time that the pyramids were being built in Egypt. This is about 1500 years earlier than they previously thought civilization sprung in the New World. “What we're learning from Caral is going to rewrite the way we think about the development of early Andean civilization," says study leader Jonathan Haas of the Field Museum in Chicago, US. Don’t you love it when all that history you studied as a kid is thrown into question?! More importantly, a comment on its significance to the local population from Ruth Shady, a Peruvian archaeologist working on the site: “…native peoples see it as a symbol that in America there had been the same capacity to create civilizations as ancient as in the Old World."
by mariosalazar100
It’s fascinating to think that while people in Caral were constructing complex architectural sites they still had not discovered pottery, so they cooked all their vegetables by roasting them, they did not eat any grains, and they did not have a writing system. The only indication of a form of recording was the finding of Quipus, a recording device formed of tied knots on strings also used later on in the Inca Empire to keep track of accounts, taxes, census and other unknown uses.
The site wasn’t excavated until around 1994, though it may have been spotted as early as 1900 by archaeologists who found the pyramid formations unnatural. At first I thought it was a shame that countries like Peru don’t have the means to fund archaeological digs and that it had taken them this long to excavate a site of this importance. But in a way I think that is part of the wonder of places with so much history – the fact that you will continue finding pieces of the puzzle and there will always be some mystery left. As a traveler I think it’s encouraging and exciting to realize that there are still discoveries of this significance being made in front of our eyes in our time. For visitors devoted enough to stick it out through the tough terrain to get to Caral, they will be rewarded with a still rare experience of being able to walk through ancient ruins unguarded, no tourist trinkets being sold at each turn. This site does not yet have security guards nor official tours. Apparently the archaeologists themselves get up to give tours when tourists show up in order to prevent damage to the site.
As a tourist attraction it will be tough to beat Macchu Picchu, which was so well preserved by the jungle that covered it for many years. Caral is in the middle of the desert, completely exposed to nature. This means one will have to have a bit of imagination to get the full picture of what the site looked like. A bit like visiting the Forum in Rome perhaps, where you can see the structure of what once was there but the details are to be visualized. Not for all tourists. However, its location, 23 kms from the Pacific coast, only 1.5 hour drive from Lima (probably less in a 4x4) is an advantage as it will attract local tourism from the city and will also appeal to foreign tourists who didn’t have the time to get on a plane to Cuzco but still want a taste of history in their visit to Peru. This is also one more destination for travelers who have already done the Cuzco, Puno, Arequipa trail and want a new excuse to visit Peru.
Adding to the charm to this place, lodging is still hard to come by (archaeologists had to convince a local to start a lodge in order to start attracting tourists to fund the excavation), restaurants and other attractions are scarce. This is the place to go to get a feel for the local culture as it is today and as it was 5000 years ago. Stay tuned for our coverage of Peru in the near future.
This article was posted by Veronica Montero.
