The Norte Chico: "Cradle of Ancient Civilization"

THE NORTE CHICO

 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 the Americas, having flourished between the thirtieth century B.C.E. and the eighteenth century B.C.E. The alternative name, Caral-Supe, is derived from Caral in the Supe Valley, a large and well-studied Norte Chico site. 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. 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.

The Norte Chico civilization, one of the oldest and most sophisticated in the world, reminds us that no one part of the world can claim to have led the whole world and the whole human race in developing technology, culture, society, political organization or ideas of the divine. There is no evidence that this society engaged in any type of violence. People moved from family units into larger units resembling "states" for mutual defense of often scarce resources but the move to greater complexity does not appear to have been driven by the need for defense or warfare. Perhaps these states had enough resources to enable people to live happily, so taking from others was not necessary, or was seen as immoral. The picture of this ancient way of life that emerges from the archaeological record raises interesting questions about whether humanity has really matured. Technology has advanced, but instead of investing effort to improve food production and to make the environment more sustainable, too often effort and intellect has instead been invested in developing weapons, or in enabling the few to prosper while the many go hungry. The basis of power in this society lay in promoting the common good.

Background

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,[1] 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.[2] A 2001 paper in Science magazine, providing a survey of the Caral research,[3] and a 2004 article in Nature, describing fieldwork and radiocarbon dating across a wider area,[4] revealed Norte Chico's full significance and led to widespread interest.[5]

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.[4] Norte Chico[6]) has pushed back the horizon for complex societies in the Peruvian region by centuries. The Chavín culture, circa 900 B.C.E., had long been considered the first civilization of the area and is still regularly cited as such in general works.[7][8]The implied laggardness appears disproved by Norte Chico; in his work, Mann is sharply critical of the inattention provided the Pre-Columbian Americas.[9]

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 present day 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.[10] The Peruvian littoral appears an "improbable, even aberrant" candidate for the "pristine" development of civilization, compared to other world centers.[9] It is extremely arid, bounded by two rain shadows (caused by the Andes to the east, and the Pacific Ocean 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;[11][12] all of the monumental architecture at various sites has been found close to irrigation channels.

Cotton!!! and politics!!!!!!

Cotton (of the species Gossypium barbadense) likely provided the basis of the dominance of inland over coast (whether development was earlier, later, or contemporaneous).[10][9] Though not edible, it was the most important product of irrigation in the Norte Chico, vital to the production of fishing nets (that in turn provided maritime resources) as well as to textiles and textile technology. Haas notes that "control over cotton allows a ruling elite to provide the benefit of cloth for clothing, bags, wraps, and adornment."[10] He is willing to admit to a |mutual dependency dilemma: "The prehistoric residents of the Norte Chico needed the fish resources for their protein and the fishermen needed the cotton to make the nets to catch the fish."[10] Thus, identifying cotton as a vital resource produced in the inland does not by itself resolve the issue of whether the inland centers were a progenitor for the coast or vice versa—Moseley argues, for instance, that successful maritime centers would have moved inland to find cotton[9]—and the exact relationship between food resources and political organization remains unresolved.

Regardless of the status of maritime food resources, Norte Chico's development is still remarkable for the apparent absence of a staple cereal. Maize formed the dietary backbone of later pre-Columbian American civilizations, and is now a globally vital crop. There is no evidence of its widespread cultivation in Norte Chico. Moseley found a small number of maize cobs in 1973 at Aspero (also seen in site work in the 1940s and 1950s)[1] but has since called the find "problematic";[16] other researchers have suggested no evidence of the crop.

publisher: Arashel

source: https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Norte_Chico_civilization