Roughly around the same time that ancient Egypt united into a single kingdom, a little-known ancient society was also born on the other side of the world: the Caral-Supe civilization, also known as the Caral civilization or the Norte Chico civilization (3,000 to 1,800 BCE). Some scholars suggest that Caral-Supe represents the earliest civilization, not just in Peru but in the Americas. Researchers have made an extraordinary discovery in an ancient Caral town.
Archaeologists have uncovered the burial site of an elite woman in Áspero, an ancient Caral fishing town in Peru’s Lima region. Her skin, hair, and nails are exceptionally preserved, which is an extremely rare feature for this region, as detailed in a recent government statement.
The woman died between the ages of 20 and 35. Archaeologists found her body wrapped in materials including cotton, reed mats, and an exquisite panel arranged in a net over bundles of plant fibers and embroidered with macaw feathers—one of the earliest known pieces of feather art in the Andes.
The woman also wore a headdress made of fibers with bundles of twisted threads. Led by Ruth Shady Solís, the Peruvian archaeologist who discovered Caral’s oldest urban center, the team also found impressive grave goods including reed baskets, an intricately designed needle, an Amazonian snail shell, a toucan’s beak decorated with green and brown beads, gourds, wool textiles, a fishing net, weaving tools, and dozens of sweet potatoes. The archaeologists didn’t provide an exact age of the woman’s remains, but given that Áspero was inhabited between 3,000 and 2,500 BCE, they date back to at least 4,500 years ago.
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A panel visually outlining the elite woman’s burial. © Peruvian Ministry of Culture
Altogether, the burial indicates that the woman belonged to an elite class in Caral society, bolstering the pre-existing theory that women played an important role within this ancient community. More broadly, the discovery also emphasizes that Caral civilization achieved a highly developed and specialized culture. Going forward, the archaeologists hope to continue investigating the artifacts, including their origin and potential association to the Caral people’s health, death, and diet.
The woman’s burial joins a host of other discoveries testifying to the Caral civilization’s endurance and cultural significance. Archaeologists uncovered two other burials of elite individuals in 2016 and 2019, respectively, less than 10 feet (3 meters) away from the recently discovered burial, according to the statement. In addition to the elite burials, the ocean-front archaeological site has yielded 22 architectural complexes.
Artifacts indicate that the Caral people developed products from marine materials and engaged in both short and long-distance trade networks to access products from the jungle and mountains. Nonetheless, scholars suggest that the Caral civilization was significantly more isolated than contemporary ancient communities, such as the Sumerians in Mesopotamia or the Harappans in India.
Once buried beneath a modern municipal dumping ground, Áspero and its deceased nobles stand as a testament to the enduring legacy of what might be the Americas’ first civilization.
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