Peru: Ruins of A 3,500-Year-Old City Found Near Lima

Old City, New Clues Archeologists recently unveiled their discovery of an ancient city in Peru’s northern Barranca province, a find that shed light on the Americas’ oldest known civilization, the Caral. The city, named Peñico, is 3,500 years old, and researchers think it was an important trade center linking early Pacific coastal communities with populations in the Andes and the Amazon basin. “The (Peñico community) was situated in a strategic location for trade, for exchange with societies from the coast, the highlands and the jungle,” lead archeologist Ruth Shady told Reuters. Peñico is about 125 miles north of Peru’s capital, Lima, at almost 2,000 feet above sea level. It was likely founded between 1,800 and 1,500 BCE. At around the same time, early civilizations were flourishing in the Middle East and Asia, the BBC explained. After eight years of digging, the team uncovered 18 structures, ranging from ceremonial temples to living quarters. Researchers’ drone footage captured a circular structure perched on a hillside terrace at the city’s center, encircled by remnants of stone and mud buildings. The walls of the central plaza are notable for their sculpted reliefs, including images of the pututu, a conch shell trumpet known for its ability to project sound over long distances. In other buildings at the site, archeologists found more ceremonial objects, clay sculptures of humans and animals, and necklaces made from beads and seashells. Peñico is located near the city of Caral in the Supe Valley of Peru, where the Caral civilization was established 5,000 years ago. The city of Caral contains 32 monuments, including large pyramid structures, advanced irrigation agriculture and urban settlements. The civilization likely developed on its own, without contact or influence from other early ancient civilizations like those in India, Egypt, China, Sumer in Mesopotamia, or present-day Iraq. Shady, who had already participated in the excavation on Caral in the 1990s, said that the discovery of Peñico is an important clue to what happened to the Caral civilization: Experts believe the city emerged as the Caral civilization began to abandon its major urban centers after nearly 1,000 years of habitation. While researchers are not certain why the Caral civilization disappeared, they believe factors such as climate change and internal strife played a role in their decline, the Smithsonian Magazine noted.