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02Archaeology

Pyramids in Peru

Long before the Incas, people in what is now Peru built huge stepped pyramids from stone and mud brick. Some are about 5,000 years old.

Field notes

Dig log

Imagine one hole that goes down through 5,000 years. Scroll to dig. The gauge shows the year you have reached.

In real life these places are far apart. We stack them here so you can feel the time between them.

Day one

A dry hill

From here it looks like a dusty hill in the desert. It is the Great Pyramid of Caral, about 182 km north of Lima, and sand covers it.

Take the brush and wipe the hill clean.

Caral, Supe Valley, Peru. Today.

Wipe the sand away: drag across the hill. On a touch screen, swipe left and right.

Around 1450 the Inca build Machu Picchu. Caral is already more than 4,000 years old by then, and has been empty for over 3,000.

Day two

Books on a shelf

In the middle of modern Lima stands a stepped pyramid of handmade adobe bricks, about 22 m high. The Lima culture built it between AD 200 and 700.

Look at how the bricks are laid. Many of them stand on their ends, like books on a shelf, with small gaps between them.

A close view of the wall
Huaca Pucllana, Lima. AD 200 to 700.

Bricks laid flat in rows, like most walls. A hard, solid wall.

Day three

Every brick has a mark

The Moche built the Huaca del Sol from more than 140 million adobe bricks. Many of the bricks carry a stamp.

The archaeologist Michael Moseley found more than 100 different marks. Different parts of the pyramid use different marks. That suggests different groups of workers each built their own section.

A sketch of a wall, not a survey
Huaca del Sol, Moche Valley, near Trujillo. About AD 100 to 700.

Pick a mark to see where it was used. You can also tap a brick.

Day four

Bags of stone

Back at Caral, go deeper. The walls of the stepped pyramids are held up from behind.

Workers wove loose bags from reeds and grass, called shicras, filled them with stones, and packed them behind each retaining wall. Slide to peel the wall open.

reed bagstones insidestone face
Caral, about 2600 to 2000 BC.

A wall of neat stone blocks. It looks solid. Slide to peel it open.

Day five

Fish for cotton

Why was a city built here? Caral lies about 20 km from the sea. People in the valley grew cotton, not to eat but for string and nets. People on the coast caught anchovies and sardines.

Each side had something the other needed. Switch the trade on and off and see what happens to the people.

the coastthe valley
The Supe Valley and the coast.

Cotton goes to the coast and fish comes back. Nets catch fish, and fish feeds the valley. A big town can grow.

Night

Shake it

Peru lies on the Pacific coast, where the ground shakes often. Three ways to build a wall: rigid stone, bricks on end, and stone bags.

Set the strength, press Shake, and see which wall stands. This is a toy model. It shows the idea, not real engineering numbers.

Back at camp. A toy model.

Rigid stoneNot shaken yet.

Bricks on endNot shaken yet.

Stone bagsNot shaken yet.

Set the strength, then press Shake. A gentle shake is about 3. A violent one is 9 or 10.

Last night

When was all this?

Drag the year and see what was going on. When the Great Pyramid of Giza went up in Egypt, Caral was already a busy city.

  • Caral is a busy city
  • The Great Pyramid of Giza goes up
  • The Moche build the Huaca del Sol
  • The Lima culture builds Huaca Pucllana
  • The Inca empire
Back at camp. The year line.

Today. All five of these are long over, but you can still visit the pyramids.

Key takeaways

  1. Pyramids in Peru are far older than the Inca. Caral was a busy city from about 2600 to 2000 BC.
  2. The builders lived with earthquakes. Stone-filled reed bags at Caral and bricks stood on end in Lima both let a wall move a little and settle back.
  3. Big pyramids were group work. The brick marks at the Huaca del Sol suggest that teams each built their own section.
  4. Caral was tied to the coast. The valley grew cotton for nets, and the coast sent fish.

Sources

The facts on this page come from the pages below. The pictures are drawings, and the wall and shake tools are simple models that show an idea, not measurements.