Ruth Shady Solis investigated further, proving that this complex and extremely advanced civilization had actually emerged in Peru at least 1,000 years before previously thought. When the ancient city of Caral was first discovered in the early 20th century, the world took little note, largely because archaeologists believed the city they had uncovered was relatively recent. Kuoda can arrange for you to find out more about the Nazca culture at the Regional Museum of Ica before flying over the Nazca Lines – they are so big that the only way to see them properly is by zooming overhead!
#Ancient cities of peru series
This series of etchings in the Nazca Desert are a world-famous UNESCO-listed attraction, though the purpose behind them still causes a lot of head-scratching among experts. Of course, we can’t mention the Nazca Culture without mentioning the iconic memento they left to the world: the Nazca Lines. The Nazca people also built underground aqueduct systems that still function today – a testament to their enduring quality – and used coca and the hallucinogenic San Pedro cactus for spiritual ceremonies. The similarities don’t end there: elongated skulls have also been found at Nazca sites, though the head-binding practice appears to have been a lot less widespread in their civilization compared to how prevalent it was among the Paracas. Like the Paracas, they also practiced fishing, supplementing their food source by rearing llamas and with crops such as maize, squash and sweet potatoes – all still mainstays in modern-day Peruvian agriculture. Picking up where the Paracas people before them had left off, they were skilled craftsmen and produced highly refined and intricate textiles and ceramics, using at least 15 different colors to paint their pottery. 800, the Nazca culture thrived in Peru’s Ica Valley.
The Regional Museum of Ica also contains a large collection of the aforementioned stretched-out skulls.īetween 100 B.C. If you are interested in finding out more about the Paracas people during your tour of Peru, make a beeline for the Paracas History Museum. The discovery spurred much speculation as to their origin, and whispers began of possible extra-terrestrial findings, though most scientists concluded these unusually shaped heads were the result of a binding technique used on babies while their skulls were still pliable.īesides the elongated skulls, other artifacts including ceramics and stone tools were uncovered, revealing the Paracas to have been fishing people with an intricate knowledge of water systems and irrigation, as well as being well-practiced in textile art. Of all the many things unearthed here, there was one type of object that caught the public imagination more than any other: elongated human skulls. Chimú metalwork can be seen today at the Gold Museum in Lima.īack in the 1920s, Peruvian archaeologist Julio Tello began excavating and studying a huge oceanside ruin on the Paracas Peninsula, introducing the world to yet another fascinating ancient Peruvian culture. Remarkably, no evidence of arms or military relics has ever been found at Chimú sites, suggesting they were relatively peaceful people.Īmong the most prized Chimú creative outputs are their highly distinctive shiny black pottery and fine metalwork items, which were made using copper, gold, silver, bronze, and tumbaga, a mixture of copper and gold. The Chimú were a moon-worshipping people and – as with the Moche – human sacrifice was an important part of their religion. The Chimú also raised llamas and practiced fishing. Their capital, Chan Chan, was the largest adobe city in the Americas, and features elaborate irrigation systems that would have been used to bring water to crops of papaya, sweet potatoes, cotton and beans. 900, and were conquered by the Inca around A.D. They occupied an area in the Moche Valley near Trujillo starting around A.D. The Chimú people arose from the remnants of the Moche culture in northern coastal Peru.