State · c. 2600–2000 BCE
Caral, first cities of the Americas
Caral, Supe Valley (Peru)
On Peru's dry north-central coast, the Caral–Supe (Norte Chico) civilisation built the earliest known monumental centres in the Americas, with large-scale construction from about 3200 BCE. Caral itself, inhabited from about 2600 to 2000 BCE, had six monumental complexes each built around a pyramid, sunken circular plazas and around 3,000 residents.
Its people irrigated cotton for fishing nets and textiles, ate fish and shellfish as well as crops, and made no pottery.
Why it mattered
Caral shows that cities and monumental architecture arose in the Americas entirely independently, and almost as early as in Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Related
- The world in 3000 BCE: The First Kings chapter
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