Archaeologists have announced the discovery of an old city in the northern Barranca province of Peru.
The 3,500 -year -old city named Peñico is said to have served as an important trade center for the early Pacific coast communities with those who live in the Andes Mountains and Amazon Basin.
The location is located about 200 km north of Lima and is about 600 meters above sea level and is said to be between 1,800 and 1,500 BC.
Researchers say that the discovery illuminates what has become of the oldest civilization of America, Caral.
Drone material published by researchers shows a circular structure on a breed of hills in the center of the city, surrounded by the remains of stone and mud buildings.
Eight years of research at the location discovered 18 structures, including ceremonial temples and residential complexes.
In buildings at the location, researchers discovered ceremonial objects, clay sculptures of human and animal figures and necklaces made of pearls and mussels.
Peñico is located near that where Caral, who is recognized as the oldest known civilization in America, is located 5,000 years ago in Peru’s Supe Valley with around 3,000 BC. Was founded.
Caral shows 32 monuments, including large pyramid structures, sophisticated irrigation agriculture and urban settlements. It is believed that it has developed in isolation to other comparative early civilizations in India, Egypt, Sumeria and China.
Dr. Ruth Shady, the archaeologist, who led the recent research into Peñico and the excavation of Caral in the 1990s, said that the discovery was important to understand what became of the Caral civilization after it was decimated by climate change.
The municipality of Peñico was “in a strategic place for trade, for the exchange with companies from the coast, the Highlands and the jungle,” said Dr. Shaady of the Reuters news agency.
At a press conference that unveiled the results on Thursday, archaeologist Marco Macacuay, a researcher of the Ministry of Culture, said Peñico’s importance is that it was a continuation of the Caral Society.
Peru houses many of the most important archaeological discoveries in America, including the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu in the Andes and the mysterious Nazca lines that are engraved into the desert along the central coast.
