Around the year 3,700 BC, in the north central area of present-day Peru, the first civilization of America arose. The Carals forged, in the arid valley of the Supe River, 40 kilometers from the coast, the first complex society on the continent. The Holy City was the largest of its up to 25 settlements.
It is not surprising that religion was the main means of cohesion of these peoples. Sample of them are its great pyramids, its squares and even its ceremonial altars of the sacred fire. They even established commercial and cultural ties with other groups from Ecuador, Bolivia or Chile.
"But always on peace missions," highlights Ruth Shady Solís, the director of the Caral Archaeological Zone. After almost three decades studying this town -precursor of the rest of the Andean civilizations-, the Peruvian archaeologists have been totally surprised because they have found neither weapons nor walls.
"To date, no walled city or war artifacts have been found" around the Supe River, located about 130 kilometers north of Lima, which housed the first civilization on the American continent between 3,700 and 1,800 BC.
Ruth Shady Solís, who was the one who discovered and named the Caral people, stressed at a press conference that there is much to learn from the vision of "living well" that this Andean culture had regarding its neighbors and the nature that surrounded it.
"It was a society that knew how to live in harmony with nature, with the hills... The land was called Pachamama, the water of the Mamacocha rivers, which were deities that should be respected," he said, taking stock of the 28 years of research he has led.
The discoveries in the Sacred City, the authentic Caral capital, have been accompanied by continuous surprises, an example of the advanced technological and scientific knowledge of this town that even managed to erect earthquake-resistant constructions. And always surrounded by a peaceful atmosphere, in which they bet on exchange before war.
The team led by Shady has also discovered numerous altars with important fires inside buildings that worked under underground conduits thanks to fluid mechanics and they have also found models of urban centers, which demonstrate the planning and organization they had.
This civilization built extensive cities, with monumental buildings made in a very ingenious way with stone, mud and plant materials. The predominant forms were the stepped pyramids, the circular or semicircular squares sunken in the fronts, with stairs that gave access to the top, where rooms and spaces for rituals and ceremonies are observed.
The Caral also knew how to take advantage, according to the Peruvian researchers, of natural resources such as the sun and the wind to dry fish such as anchovy (Engraulis ringens), a commodity that they later exchanged in markets and fairs with other peoples.
Archaeological evidence shows a significant agricultural production of cotton to make fishing nets and woven garments, as well as very sophisticated expressions of musical art through the making of flutes with incised figures of mythical animals that suggest a religious character.
