Everything about Norte Chico Civilization totally explained
The
Norte Chico civilization (also
Caral or
Caral-Supe civilization) was a complex
Pre-Columbian society that included as many as 30 major population centers in what is now the
Norte Chico region of north-central coastal
Peru. It is the oldest known
civilization in
America, having flourished between the 30th century BC and the 18th century BC. These dates are contemporaneous with the
Valdivia culture in
Ecuador. The alternative name, Caral-Supe, is derived from
Caral in the
Supe Valley, a large and well-studied Norte Chico site.
In archaeological nomenclature, Norte Chico is a Preceramic culture of the pre-Columbian
Late Archaic; it completely lacked
ceramics and was largely without (archaeologically apparent)
art. The most impressive achievement of the civilization was its monumental architecture, including large
platform mounds and sunken circular
plazas. Archaeological evidence suggests use of
textile technology and, possibly, the worship of common god symbols, both of which recur in pre-Columbian
Andean cultures. Sophisticated government is assumed to have been required to manage the ancient Norte Chico, and questions remain over its organization, particularly the impact of food resources on politics.
Archaeologists have been aware of ancient sites in the area since at least the 1940s; early work occurred at
Aspero on the coast, a site identified as early as 1905, and later at Caral further inland. Peruvian archaeologists, led by
Ruth Shady Solís, provided the first extensive documentation of the civilization in the late 1990s, with work at Caral. A 2001 paper in
Science magazine, providing a survey of the Caral research, and a 2004 article in
Nature, describing fieldwork and
radiocarbon dating across a wider area, revealed Norte Chico's full significance and led to widespread interest. Complex society in Norte Chico emerged just a millennium after
Sumer, was contemporaneous with the pyramids of
Ancient Egypt, and predated the
Mesoamerican Olmec by nearly two millennia.
History and geography
Andean Peru has been recognized as one of six global areas that saw the indigenous development of civilization, and one of two, along with
Mesoamerica, in the Western Hemisphere.
The discovery of Norte Chico has also shifted the focus of research away from the highland areas of the Andes (where the Chavín, and later
Inca, had their major centers) to the Peruvian
littoral, or coastal regions. Norte Chico is located in a north-central area of the coast, approximately 150 to 200
km north of
Lima, roughly bounded by the
Lurín Valley on the south and the
Casma Valley on the north. It comprises four coastal valleys: the
Huaura,
Supe,
Pativilca, and
Fortaleza; known sites are concentrated in the latter three, which share a common coastal plain. The three principal valleys cover only 1,800 km², and research has emphasized the density of the population centers. The Peruvian littoral appears an "improbable, even aberrant" candidate for the "pristine" development of civilization, compared to other world centers. It is extremely arid, bounded by two
rain shadows (caused by the Andes to the east, and the
Pacific trade winds to the west). The region, however, is punctuated by more than 50 rivers that carry Andean snowmelt, and the development of widespread
irrigation from these water sources is seen as decisive in the emergence of Norte Chico; all of the monumental architecture at various sites has been found close to irrigation channels.
The
radiocarbon work of Jonathan Haas
et al., found that 10 of 95 samples taken in the Pativilca and Fortaleza areas dating from before 3500 BC; the oldest, dating from 9210 BC, provides "limited indication" of human settlement during the Pre-Columbian Early Archaic era. Two dates of 3700 BC are associated with communal architecture, but are likely to be anomalous. It is from 3200 BC onward that large-scale human settlement and communal construction are clearly apparent.
Confirmed diet
A broad outline of the Norte Chico diet has been suggested. At Caral, the
edible domesticated plants noted by Shady are
squash,
beans,
lucuma,
guava,
pacay, and
camote. MFAC was out of keeping with general consensus on the rise of civilization: intensive agriculture, particularly of at least one
cereal, has long been seen as essential in the emergence of complex society. Moseley's ideas would be debated and challenged (that maritime remains and their caloric contribution were overestimated, for example) but have been treated as plausible as late as Mann's summary in 2005.
Concomitant to the maritime subsistence hypothesis, was an implied dominance of sites immediately adjacent to the coast over other centers. This idea was shaken by the realization of the magnitude of Caral, an inland site. Supplemental to Shady's 1997 article dating Caral, a 2001
Science news article emphasized the dominance of agriculture and also suggested that Caral was the oldest
urban center in Peru (and the entire Americas), deprecating the idea that civilization might have begun adjacent to the coast and then moved inland. One archaeologist was quoted as suggesting that "rather than coastal antecedents to monumental inland sites, what we've now are coastal satellite villages to monumental inland sites." It is now not disputed that the inland sites did have significantly greater populations, and that there were "so many more people along the four rivers than on the shore that they'd to have been dominant." Haas rejects suggestions that maritime development at sites immediately adjacent to the coast was initial, pointing to contemporaneous development based on his dating; (Given the still limited extent of Norte Chico research, such claims should be treated circumspectly.) Other reports on Shady's work indicate Caral traded with communities in the jungle farther inland and, possibly, with people from the mountains.
Ideology, religion, and warfare
Ideological power would have rested on access to
deities and the
supernatural. Like much other research at Norte Chico, the nature and significance of the find has been disputed by other researchers.
The act of architectural construction and maintenance may also have been a spiritual experience: a process of communal exaltation and
ceremony.
What is absent is any suggestion of physical bases of power. There is no evidence of
warfare of "of any kind or at any level during the Preceramic Period." builders would have hauled the material to sites by-hand.
Archaeology magazine describes the process:
In this way, the people of Norte Chico achieved formidable architectural success. The largest of the platforms mounds at Caral, the
Piramide Mayor, for instance, measures 160
m by 150 m and rises 18 m high. Mann points to "ideology, charisma, and skilfully timed reinforcement" from leaders. (The discovery was reported by Mann in
Science in 2005, but hasn't been formally published or described by Shady.) The exact use of Quipu in this and later Andean cultures has been widely debated. It was originally believed to be simply a
mnemonic used to record numeric information, such as a count of items bought and sold. Evidence has emerged that the Quipu may also have recorded
logographic information in the same way writing does. Research has focused on the much larger sample of a few hundred Quipu dating to Inca times; the Norte Chico discovery remains singular and undeciphered.
Other finds at Norte Chico have proven similarly fascinating. While visual arts appear absent,
instrumental music may have been present: thirty-two
flutes, crafted from
pelican bone, have been discovered.
At issue is credit for the discovery of the civilization, its name, and the theoretical models underlying it. That Shady was describing a civilization is clear in 1997 ("los albores de la civilización en el Perú"
In 2004, Haas
et al. would write: "Our recent work in the neighbouring Pativilca and Fortaleza has
revealed that Caral and Aspero were but two of a much larger number of major Late Archaic sites in the Norte Chico," while only noting Shady in footnotes.
[ Attribution of this type is what has angered Shady and her supporters. Shady's position has been hampered by a lack of funds in her native Peru, and the advantages of North American researchers in disputes of this type.][
Haas and Creamer were cleared of the plagiarism charge by their institutions, but the Field Museum’s science advisory council rebuked Haas for press releases and web pages that gave too little credit to Shady and inflated the couple’s role as discoverers.][ The dispute remains heated, and there are concerns that it could make it more difficult for American archaeologists to receive permission to work in Peru.][Further Information]
Get more info on 'Norte Chico Civilization'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://norte_chico_civilization.totallyexplained.com">Norte Chico civilization Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
