Peru is influenced by the archaeological discoveries of many civilizations, from the highlands to the coast. Two decades ago, a National Geographic team tracked down Juanita the Ice Maiden, an Inca princess sacrificed on Mount Ampato more than 500 years ago. In the past decade alone, archaeologists have unearthed more than 2,000 rather adequately preserved mummies from one of Peru's largest Inca burial sites, located beneath a shantytown on the outskirts of Lima. Researchers describe Caral, a domain in important Peru dating back to 2600 BC, as the oldest city in the Americas, and archaeologists recently celebrated the invention of a 4,000-12 month old temple on the northern coast. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay First inhabited as many as 20,000 years ago, Peru became the cradle of several of the world's most historic and complex pre-Columbian civilizations. Americas. Chavín, Paracas, Nazca, Huari, Moche and Inca, among others, form a long series of complex, sometimes overlapping and often warring cultures, dating back to 2000 BC before the Inca, two other civilizations, the Chavín and the Huari -Tiahuanaco, created pan-Andean empires. Most of what is thought of pre-Columbian cultures is based on the discovery of temples and tombs because no one had a written language. In addition to complicating matters, there is the fact that when a lifestyle succeeded a previous one, it imposed its own values ​​and social form on the vanquished but also assimilated useful skills to it, making the difference between some primitive cultures quite difficult. . During Prehistory (20,000 BC–6,000 BC), early societies were located primarily in coastal regions and highlands. Many have fallen victim to wars, cyclical floods, prolonged drought and earthquakes. evidence of important pre-Columbian cultures, along with ruined temples; wonderful collections of ceramics, masks and jewellery; and identified tombs with properly preserved mummies – is found everywhere in Peru, and some sites are now being excavated and combed for clues. According to most historians, the primary population is believed to have crossed the Bering Strait into Asia during the last Ice Age, made their way across the Americas, and settled the region around 20,000 BC (although this migration pattern has been disputed by some students). They were nomadic hunter-gatherers who lived along the Main and Northern Coasts. Pikimachay Cave, which dates back to 12,000 BC, is the oldest known inhabited site in Peru. The earliest human remains, found near Huánaco in the Peruvian plateau, date back to around 7000 BC. Early Peruvians were responsible for the rock art at Toquepala (Tacna, 7000 BC) and the houses at Chillca (Lima, 5000 BC). Experts say the current assessment of finds at the coastal site of Caral, in the Supe Valley, demonstrates the existence of the first complex civilization in the Americas. The metropolis was inhabited already four or seven hundred years ago, a thousand years earlier than previously believed. In the pre-Inca cultures (6000 BC-1100 AD), a long line of similarly superior cultures preceded the rather rapid Inca empire. Over many thousands of years, civilizations up and down the southern Pacific coast and deep in the highlands developed ingenious irrigation structures, created cutting-edge pottery and weaving strategies, and built towering pyramids, temples, fortresses, and cities of bricks. . The first people built mysterious cylindrical towers and even more enigmatic traces of Nazca, gigantic drawings of animals and symbols in someway engraved in the desolate plains for eternity. Over the course of nearly 15 centuries, pre-Inca cultures settled primarily along the Peruvian coast and highlands. Around 6000 BC, the Chinchero people along the desolate southern coast were mummifying their dead, much earlier than the ancient Egyptians had any idea. by the first century BC, during what is called the formative, or initial, period, Andean society had designed sophisticated irrigation canals and produced major decorative textiles and ceramics. another essential improvement is the specialization of work, aided in large parts by the development of a hierarchical society. The first Peruvian civilization considered was the Chavín subculture (1200–400 BC), a theocracy that worshiped a kitten, jaguar-like god, and settled in present-day Huántar, Ancash (central Peru). Over the course of eight centuries, the Chavín, who never evolved into a naval empire, unified guilds of peoples across Peru. The greatest marvelous remnant of this way of life, known for its advances in stone carving, ceramics, weaving and metallurgy, is the Chavín de Huántar temple, 40 km (25 miles) east of Huaraz. The ceremonial center, a place of pilgrimage, contained wonderful examples of spiritual sculpture, including the Tello Obelisk and the Raimondi Star. The temple is evidence of sophisticated engineering and hard working department. A later society, the Paracas way of life (700 BC-200 AD), settled along the southern coast. today it is renowned for its excellent cloth weaving, considered perhaps the finest example of pre-Columbian textiles in the Americas. The Paracas people were sophisticated enough to dare to practice trepanation, a type of brain surgery that involved drilling holes inside the skull to treat various diseases and correct cranial deformation. you can see high-quality examples of Paracas textiles and ceramics at the Julio C. Tello Museum in Paracas. The classical period (200-1100 AD) was considered one of great social and technological development. perhaps the descendants of the Paracas, Moche, and Nazca cultures are some of the greats studied in pre-Columbian Peru. The Moche (or Mochica) civilization (200-700 AD), one of the first truly urban societies, dominated the north coast valleys near Trujillo and conquered some smaller groups in building their sizable empire. The Moche were a remarkably accomplished hierarchical civilization who created incredible brick platform complexes, including the Temples of the Sun and Moon near Trujillo (the former was the largest man-made building of its day in the Americas) and burial site. of Sipán, near Chiclayo, where the remains and riches of the famous Lord of Sipán, religious and maritime authority, were found in extraordinarily preserved royal tombs (extraordinarily brought back into existence, because it had been, at the Museo de Tumbas Reales in Lambayeque). Moche pottery, made from molds, carries critical clues about their way of life, down to very specific sexual representations. Its frank depictions of phalluses, labia, and nontraditional bedroom practices may strike some site visitors as pre-Columbian pornography. The first-rate place to admire the exceptional (in every sense of the word) Moche ceramics is the Rafael Larco Herrera Museum in Lima. The Nazca culture (300–800 AD) settled along the wild coast south of Lima. Nazca engineers created world-class underground aqueducts, which enabled agriculture in one of the world's driest regions, and its artisans brought polychrome techniques to ceramics. However the civilization is recognized internationally for the enigmatic Nazca traces, geometric and animal symbols.