Archeologists in Peru Uncover the Oldest Pyramids on Earth
by Eleanor Pleasnick, age 13
It is considered common knowledge that Egypt is home to Planet Earth’s oldest pyramids. But recent discoveries seem to show that Peru has equal claim to this title. Scientists believe a pyramid excavated in the sacred city of Caral Supe was constructed around to 2,600 B.C.E. That means the pyramids in Egypt and Peru are about the same age.
Caral is known as the biggest and most complex community built by the oldest known civilization in the Western hemisphere. The 1,500-acre city is located 125 miles north of Lima (the capital of Peru) and 14 miles from the Pacific coast. The site contains six pyramids, sunken circular plazas, and a huge staircase all resting on a desert terrace looking over the Supe river.
The largest pyramid in Caral is called Piramide Mayor and is approximately 100 feet tall with a base that covers about four football fields. Archeologists say that this stunning artifact is around four to five thousand years old, which construction took place around the same time as the earliest Egyptian pyramid.
Caral Supe is now believed to be one of the oldest known cities in the Western Hemisphere. It was first excavated by historian Paul Kosok. Researchers also believe Caral Supe is the oldest center of civilization located in the Americas. The city thrived about 4,000 years before the Incan Empire.
The existence and size of Caral Supe wasn’t fully known or proven until about the 1990’s. Caral’s massive size made some archeologists think that it was developed more recently, which originally made it less interesting to scientists.
But in 1994, archeologist Ruth Shady from the University of San Marcos began to study the area more closely. She realized that she wasn't finding any ceramics, which led her to believe that Caral may have been created before pot firing technology.
Shady needed evidence to support her claim. While exploring a pyramid in Caral, she and her team discovered remains of shicras (woven reed bags) filled with large stones which were used to support the remains of the pyramid. The samples were sent for radiocarbon (a radioactive isotope of carbon) to archeologist Jonathan Hass at Winifred Creamer at Northern Illinois University.
The results were fascinating, showing that the site was thriving around 4,000-5,000 years ago.
Caral Supe was “the locus of some of the earliest population concentrations and corporate architecture in South America” according to a recent report in The New York Times. At the time Caral was thought to be the oldest city in the hemisphere. But since then other, even older sites have been discovered.
Shady has continued to study and learn more about Caral Supe. Her findings have revealed a fascinating site containing massive pyramids, and many more ancient relics. This research has revealed a new site that hardly anyone had known about before.
Although we already know a lot about Mayan and Incan civilizations, these new discoveries are showing us that even earlier sites existed in the Americas.
[Sources:
history.com
;
Chicago Field Museum; nytimes.com
]