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5 min readCaral: Oldest City in the Americas?
About 5,000 years ago, in the Supe Valley of coastal Peru, people began building stone pyramids and sunken circular plazas that would eventually rise nearly 30 meters above the desert floor. These structures predate the Egyptian pyramids and challenge long-held assumptions about when and how complex societies emerged in the Americas. The site of Caral, discovered in 1948 but only properly understood since the 1990s through the work of Peruvian archaeologist Dr. Ruth Shady, sits at the center of an ongoing debate: was it a true city, or something else entirely?
What Caral Actually Is
Caral occupies about 65 hectares (roughly 160 acres) in the Norte Chico region, a cluster of four river valleys about 200 kilometers north of Lima. It was occupied from roughly 3000 BC to 2000 BC, making it contemporaneous with early Mesopotamian cities and predating the Olmecs in Mesoamerica by over a thousand years. The site's population has been estimated at around 3,000 people—modest by modern standards but enormous for its time and place.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (04:01) **Defining Caral: City or Ceremonial Center?** - The debate over whether Caral qualifies as a city depends on definitions of urbanism, population estimates, and the function of its monumental architecture.
- 2 (05:52) **Geographic and Environmental Context of the Norte Chico** - Caral is located in the Supe Valley, part of a cluster of over 30 monumental sites in the Norte Chico region, 200 km north of Lima.
- 3 (06:36) **Contemporaneity and Exchange Networks** - Radiocarbon dates suggest many of the 30+ monumental sites in the Norte Chico were occupied at the same time and were connected through exchange.
- 4 (07:39) **The Late Pre-Ceramic Period: A Broader Andean Phenomenon** - The development of Caral is part of a wider explosion of monumental architecture across both the Peruvian coast and highlands after 3000 BC.
- 5 (12:11) **The Monumental Core: Scale and Layout** - Caral covers 65 hectares and is defined by large platform/pyramidal structures, sunken circular plazas, and residential areas.
- 6 (16:55) **The Sunken Circular Plazas: Ritual Arenas** - These semi-subterranean stone structures, ranging from 15 to 45 meters in diameter, were likely used for public ritual activities and processions.
- 7 (22:31) **The Pyramids: Stages for Restricted Ritual** - Unlike Egyptian pyramids, Caral's stepped platforms were not tombs but stages with restricted room complexes on their summits.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Long before the age of the Inca and Maya, a remarkable city once flourished on the coast of modern Peru. Founded more than five thousand years ago, the sacred city of Caral is home to monumental pyramids, lavish temples and one of the world's earliest urban societies.
Tristan Hughes is joined by Jason Nesbitt to uncover the story of this remarkable Mesoamerican settlement. How did this ancient city emerge in the arid Supe Valley? What do its pyramids and plazas reveal about life 5,000 years ago? And is Caral truly the oldest city in the Americas?
See photos of the Sacred City of Caral-Supe here
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Presented by Tristan Hughes. Audio editor is Aidan Lonergan. The producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.
All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds
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