Juan Pablo Seminario
Caral, The Mother City
Our historical origins present the conventional basis of our identity as a species, provide the background for our sense of progress, and a vision of what the future has in store for us. In that sense Caral answers one of the great questions of archaeology: the origin of civilization. Though what is Caral?, as a matter of fact Caral is no recent finding. Caral is a magnificent ancient city of pyramids discovered in 2001 in Peru; but Caral is much more than a mere archeological site, it represents a hope for the human race.
Working for Hewlett Packard Peru provided me with a chance to give lectures on science and technology in the majority of universities in my country. My lectures discussed how these advances are changing our world, our lives, even our culture. In fact, science and technology have made the world a neighborhood, but it will take love to make the world a brotherhood, a community of peace with justice. Ever since I heard about Caral I decided to include it at the beginning of each of my presentations. I believe that probably Caral is one of the most important discoveries for the whole of humankind rather than any other discovery in science or technology. But unfortunately very few people know about it. For this reason and as the beginning of my presentations I want to bring this news to the Willamette community as the beginning of my reports in the Willamette World News.
Most of the 20th Century historians agreed that the origins of civilization could be traced to the organization of society for the purposes of war and conquest. However, in 2001 a lone woman archeologist changed this view. At Caral in the Peruvian desert, archeologist Ruth Shady found the remains of a “mother city” (the technical term for a site that exhibits the first stage of city-building, without preceding layers of settlement). In pristine condition, this city is now recognized as the oldest in the Americas, dating to the times of the earliest Egyptian dynasties, circa 3200 BC. To the shock and bafflement of many experts, Caral reveals no battlements, no weapons, no murals or sculptures to glorify conquest, no bones evidential of a violent ending. It appears to have been a peaceful settlement whose inhabitants dedicated their time to commerce, play, religious ceremony, dance, theatre and hedonistic activities. Caral has changed the paradigm on what brings people together in large urban settlements. Love, not war, proves to be the prime motivating force in the rise of civilizations, and only love can be the prime motivating force capable of making the world a better place.