Andean preceramic

The most impressive achievement of this civilization was its monumental architecture, including large earthwork platform mounds and sunken circular plazas.

Also, recent studies (2013) indicate that maize played a significant role in this civilization starting as early as 3000 BC, contrary to previous findings.

During the third millennium BC, Caral/Norte Chico may have been the most densely populated area of the world (excepting, possibly, northern China).

[5] A 2001 paper in Science, providing a survey of the Caral research,[6] and a 2004 article in Nature, describing fieldwork and radiocarbon dating across a wider area,[7] revealed Norte Chico's full significance and led to widespread interest.

[8] As a result, Caral/Norte Chico has pushed back the horizon for complex societies in the Peruvian region by more than one thousand years.

Some scholars suggested that Norte Chico was founded on seafood and maritime resources, rather than on the development of an agricultural cereal and crop surpluses, as has been considered essential to the rise of other ancient civilizations.

The Kotosh Religious Tradition is a term used by archaeologists to refer to the ritual buildings that were constructed in the mountain drainages of the Andes between circa 3000 and c.1800 BCE, during the Andean preceramic.

[1] Archaeologists have identified and excavated a number of these ritual centers; the first of these to be discovered was that at Kotosh, although since then further examples have been found at Shillacoto, Wairajirca, Huaricoto, La Galgada and Piruru.

[3] El Paraiso, Peru is a very large early center in the Ancón-Chillón Valley, that may be somewhat related to the Norte Chico tradition.

Another important site is Bandurria, Peru, on the Huaura River, featuring monumental architecture that may go back to mid-fourth millennium BC.

According to Jeffrey Quilter, Ecuador yielded plentiful evidence of early dense occupations of the highlands that is so far not found either in Peru or in Bolivia.

It is believed that, from the archaeological perspective, this area is one of the most important in South America, and it may have existed along an ancient trade route.

A necklace consisting of nine gold beads was found in an excavated grave located next to a Terminal Archaic pit-house.

Charcoal recovered from the burial dates the gold beads to 2155-1936 cal BC[21] Some of the early preceramic cultures flourished both in Peru and in Chile.

This culture left us the Chinchorro mummies; these are the oldest examples of artificially mummified human remains in the world.