Posted on 12/16/2007 8:19:48 AM PST by blam
The mother of all civilisations
16 Dec 2007, 0001 hrs IST,Shobhan Saxena,TNN
The ruins were so magnificent and sprawling that some people believed that the aliens from a faraway galaxy had built the huge pyramids that stood in the desert across the Andes.
Some historians believed that the complex society, which existed at that time, was born out of fear and war. They looked for the telltale signs of violence that they believed led to the creation of this civilisation. But, they could not find even a hint of any warfare. It was baffling. Even years after Ruth Shady Solis found the ancient city of pyramids at Caral in Peru, it continues to surprise historians around the world. It took Ruth Shady many years and many rounds of carbon dating to prove that the earliest known civilisation in South Americas—at 2,627 BC–was much older than the Harappa Valley towns and the pyramids of Egypt.
Solis, an archaeologist at the National University of San Marcos, Lima, was looking for the fabled missing link of archaeology— a ‘mother city’—when she stumbled upon the ancient city of Caral in the Supe Valley of Peru a few years ago. Her findings were stunning.
It showed that a full-fledged urban civilisation existed at the place around 2700 BC. The archaeologist and her team found a huge compound at Caral: 65 hectares in the central zone, encompassing six large pyramids, many smaller pyramids, two circular plazas, temples, amphitheatres and other architectural features including residential districts spread in the desert, 23 km from the coast.
The discovery of Caral has pushed back the history of the Americas: Caral is more than 1,000 years older than Machu Picchu of the Incas. They built huge structures in Caral hundreds of years before the famous drainage system of Harappa and the pyramids of Egypt were even designed.
But, it was not easy for Ruth Shady to prove this. It was only in 2001 that the journal Science reported the Peruvian archaeologist’s discovery. And, despite the hard evidence backing her, she is still trying to convince people that Caral was indeed the oldest urban civilisation in the world.
"There were many problems, many of them in my own country," says Ruth Shady, on a visit to India to discuss her discovery with other historians. "The discovery of Caral challenged the accepted beliefs. Some historians were not ready to believe that an urban civilisation existed in Peru even before the pyramids were built in Egypt," she says.
Basically, there were two problems. First, for decades archaeologist have been looking for a ‘mother city’ to find an answer to the question: why did humans become civilised?
The historians had been searching for this answer in Egypt, Mesopotamia (Iraq), India and China. They didn’t expect to find the first signs of city life in a Peruvian desert. Secondly, most historians believed that only the fear of war could motivate people to form complex societies. And, since Caral did not show any trace of warfare; no battlements, no weapons, and no mutilated bodies, they found it hard to accept it as the mother city.
That’s when Ruth Shady stepped in with her discovery. "This place is somewhere between the seat of the gods and the home of man," she says, adding that Caral was a gentle society, built on trade and pleasure. "This great civilisation was based on trade in cotton. Caral made the cotton for the nets, which were sold to the fishermen living near the coast. Caral became a booming trading centre and the trade spread," she says.
Caral was born in trade and not bloodshed. Warfare came much later. This is what this mother city shows: great civilisations are born in peace. Ruth Shady continues to battle for this great truth.
That would be the American Flavius Vegetius Renatus, around 375 AD. LOL
Why any Roman should be considered an authority on peace is beyond me.
That part of the tale is almost certainly buncomb. That there was an urban civilization in ancient Peru, on the other hand, is perfectly believable. It is even believable that there was more seagoing contact between old and new worlds than most historians think - 5000 years is an awful long time and lots happens in a stretch that long.
There is no "first" involved, however. There are urban civilizations in the near east back to the dawn of agriculture, 10000 years ago.
I’m not sure why the article considers 2,627 BC to be the world’s oldest urban civilization, since Sumer had many good-sized walled cities with massive temples by 5000 BC at the latest.
Keeley showed pretty conclusively that if the average death rate from primitive warfare in ancient and modern societies had been in effect during the century, the actual deaths from war in the 20th would have been at least 1B to 2B. 10 times as much.
Some primitive societies were far more violent than even this would indicate.
I admire and respect Ruth Shady for her lifetime of dedication and work, but my usual skepticism persists:
The search for the definitive history of civilized man will never end. There are too many unknowns. Many people don't realize that dinosaurs were not "known" until the 19th century.
What about the shoreline civilizations which are now under 300 of seas? How many might have disappeared permanently into subduction zones?
I do plan to read more about this lady's work. Sounds fascinating.
you bring up an interesting point here...a lot of these yaheys seem to assume that Earth’s geology has always taken place at the same rate that it currently does. How do we know that in the past continents did not drift more quickly? or how did those sea levels rise so much to engulf these cities off India without EEEEEEEEEVIL CO2 emissions from EEEEEEEEEEEVIL Western societies?
btt
Old Roman saying inscribed in tombs, meaning, if you wish peace, prepare for war. Used by Mussolini on many an occasion in his speeches.
Science doesn't ask or answer 'why' questions.
Perhaps because the Pax Romana lasted longer than any other similar period in history?
But that's just a wild stab in the dark guess from me.
Amazing how things change. I toured Mesa Verde as a child 50+ years ago and the guides said the Indians (they were called Indians then) moved into the cliff dwellings to protect themselves against their enemies.
Depends on your definitions. The Pax Romana is variously defined as lasting from 80 to about 200 years. Leaving aside the fact that such rather dramatic events as the Jewish War and Bar Kochba's rebellion occurred during this period, I'll go for the 200 year definition.
Similar periods of relative peace and prosperity are found for at least two Chinese dynasties, the Han and Tang, which controlled an equivalent stretch of territory and probably an even larger population and wealth.
I'll grant you that such periods have been darn rare in history.
My reference was more to the growth periods of the Roman Republic and Empire, during which they had at least one foreign war going almost continuously for many centuries. And of course, after 180 the history of the Empire is a constant succession of foreign and civil wars.
Frankly, I think the 80 year definition is more fair, as prior to this point the Empire had been expanding, although at a slower pace than under the Republic. Even during the true 2nd century Pax, Trajan fought major wars of expansionism against the Dacians and the Parthian Empire. The last 20 years of the Pax, under Marcus Aurelius, was taken up with major wars against Germania and Parthia, so I'm not even sure whether it should be included, which brings us down to about 60 years.
I realize the Pax Romana looked wonderful to people in the Dark Ages and its constant fighting, but it wasn't that long a stretch and it wasn't all that peaceful. If you define it as internal peace, the US has had it since 1815 (or 192 years), with the notable exception of that little sectional disagreement in the 1860s.
It was a good run but I expect that internal peace to shatter in the next 30 years.
Yup. Idiversity will prove to be our weakness.
Oh my, another book to add to my purchase list! Thanks for calling attention to this book By Schoch.
Buy this one first:
Book Description
This book completetly changes the established and conventional view of prehistory by relocating the Lost Eden—the world's first civilisation—to Southeast Asia. At the end of the Ice Age, Southeast Asia formed a continent twice the size of India, which included Indochina, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Borneo. In Eden in the East, Stephen Oppenheimer puts forward the astonishing argument that here in southeast Asia—rather than in Mesopotamia where it is usually placed—was the lost civilization that fertilized the Great cultures of the Middle East 6,000 years ago. He produces evidence from ethnography, archaeology, oceanography, creation stories, myths, linguistics, and DNA analysis to argue that this founding civilization was destroyed by a catastrophic flood, caused by a rapid rise in the sea level at the end of the last ice age.
What’s this ‘before’ ... you toss two feasts for the mind out and expect me to eschew one to buy the other? HAH! Now I have to buy both at the same bookstore visit. I mkae lists because I don’t go that often. At lats count—before you added more—I have seven books to find. Now I have nine and if you dare bring up any more ... well, just don’t name any Graham Hancock stuff with great photos from his lovely wife’s cameras.
I don’t read your post very well. Are you actually saying we haven’t had a war since 1815?
Indian Wars, Mexican American War very peaceful.
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