![]() ![]() ![]() (although this migratory pattern has been disputed by some scholars). The first inhabitants are thought by most historians to have crossed the Bering Strait in Asia during the last ice age, worked their way across the Americas, and settled in the region around 20,000 B.C. ![]() Evidence of pivotal pre-Columbian cultures-including ruined temples spectacular collections of ceramics, masks, and jewelry and tombs found with well-preserved mummies-is everywhere in Peru, and some sites are only now being excavated and combed for clues. Many fell victim to warfare, cyclical floods, extended drought, and earthquakes. Further complicating matters is the fact that, as one culture succeeded a previous one, it imposed its values and social structure on the vanquished but also assimilated features useful to it, making distinction among some early cultures exceedingly difficult.Įarly societies were located mainly in the coastal areas and highlands. Most of what is known about pre-Columbian cultures is based on the unearthing of temples and tombs because none possessed a written language. Before the Incas, two other civilizations, the Chavín and the Huari-Tiahuanaco, achieved pan-Andean empires. The Chavín, Paracas, Nazca, Huari, Moche, and Incas, among others, form a long line of complicated, occasionally overlapping, and frequently warring cultures stretching back to 2000 B.C. Researchers describe Caral, a site in central Peru believed to date to 2600 B.C., as the oldest city in the Americas, and archaeologists recently celebrated the discovery of a 4,000-year-old temple on the northern coast.įirst inhabited as many as 20,000 years ago, Peru was the cradle of several of the most ancient and sophisticated pre-Columbian civilizations in the Americas. Only in the last decade, archaeologists unearthed more than 2,000 extraordinarily well-preserved mummies from one of Peru’s largest Inca burial sites, found under a shantytown on the outskirts of Lima. Two decades ago, a National Geographic team discovered Juanita the Ice Maiden, an Inca princess sacrificed on Mount Ampato more than 500 years ago. Peru is littered with archaeological discoveries of many civilizations, from highland to coast. ![]()
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