Latest Caral Stories

Due to climate change and overfishing, the popularity of the anchovy may be short-lived.Peru's fishermen can catch around 20,000 tons a day in about a 3 mile radius.In contrast, a European zone where a ban is in effect through at least 2010, the catch level has been set at between 20,000 and 30,000 tons of adult anchovy.Anchovy stock has enjoyed protected status for the past four years the Bay of Biscay along the western coast of France and the northern coast of Spain.In Peru's Pacific...

Researchers say that nature lashed out against civilization 3,600 years ago, by using earthquakes and floods, followed by blowing sand, which drove away residents of an area that is now in Peru."This maritime farming community had been successful for over 2,000 years, they had no incentive to change, and then all of a sudden, boom, they just got the props knocked out from under them," anthropologist Mike Moseley of the University of Florida said in a statement.Moseley and other...

German and Peruvian archaeologists claim they have uncovered the oldest known monument in Peru, adding further proof of an advanced civilization in Peru at the same time as what is now the Middle East and South Asia.The 5,500-year-old ceremonial plaza was discovered near Peru's north-central coast by a team led by Peter Fuchs, a German archaeologist. Built of stone and adobe, the plaza was found in Andes foothills, 206 miles northwest of Lima. Fuchs said carbon dating of material from the...

LIMA, Peru - The sophisticated design and colorful artwork found in a 4,000-year-old temple unearthed near Peru's northern desert coast suggests that early civilization here was more complex than originally thought, archaeologists said.Ventarron, a 7,000-square-foot site - a bit larger than a basketball court - with painted walls and a white-and-red mural of a deer hunt, points to an "advanced civilization," said the lead archaeologist who excavated the site last week."We have...

LIMA, Peru (AP) - Carbon dating tests and excavation of a colorful pre-Incan temple indicate that it was built thousands of years ago by an advanced civilization, a prominent archaeologist said in comments published Sunday by a Peruvian newspaper.Unearthed in Peru's archeologically rich northern coastal desert, the temple has a staircase leading to an altar that was used for worshipping fire and making offerings to deities, Walter Alva, who headed the three-month excavation, told El...

LIMA, Peru -- In the Peru's Andean foothills, a group of archaeologists say they have found remnants of the oldest known irrigation canals in South America, which they hope will provide clues to the origin of the region's agriculturally based societies. "There are four sites in the area that have canals that date minimally 5,300 years ago, maybe a little earlier," team leader Tom D. Dillehay, an archaeologist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, told The Associated...

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Incas' curious knotted strings called khipu were probably used by bosses and accountants to keep track of taxes and tributes and carried both words and numerical information, two experts said on Thursday. The dyed bunches of string, also spelled quipu by some scholars, have confused outsiders since Spanish conquerors first described them 500 years ago. Most experts agree they are ledgers of a sort but no one has...