Caral Archaeological Site

The site is comprised by eight archaeological components that correspond to different periods.

The first and largest one is the Sacred City of Caral, which dates back to the Initial Formative period. The second component corresponds to the Intermediate Formative period. It is a small urban center with pyramidal buildings and sunken quadrangular plazas in the northeastern area of the archaeological site (Sector F). This new population recognized the sacred significance of the ancient city and, thus, it only used some of the buildings that were already in ruins, to burry their lost ones.

The third and fourth components correspond to the Late Formative and Early Intermediate periods. Dwellers built rustic residences on the ruins of the low slope of the Major Pyramidal Building, nearby the agricultural fields. Furthermore, there are public buildings with adobe walls that surrounded a dense domestic occupation in the eastern area of the settlement.

Moreover, in Caral, small areas used as cemeteries at the end of the Medium Horizon have been found. These correspond to the fifth component. Adobe buildings of the same period, built on the ruins of the Initial Formative period buildings, have been identified.

During the Late Intermediate period they erected buildings with adobe walls, surrounded by rustic houses made of quincha (wattle and daub). This sixth component, located in the northeastern area of the archaeological site, in a plane next to farming areas, include a wide cemetery in the sandbanks, at the base of the Gozne Mountain.

The seventh component corresponds to the Late Horizon. Apparently, the descendants of those who lived in the Late Intermediate period expanded to the West, since it occupies the same space. In this period some bodies were buried at the top of the main buildings of the Sacred City of Caral.

Furthermore geoglyphs have also been found in the gullies, located in the southern and southeastern are of the settlement. In these places there is also evidence of transit areas, used in all archaeological periods to connect the populations of the Supe, Pativilca and Huaura valleys.