Oldest civilisation in the Americas peacefully survived climate crisis

Archaeologists in Peru have found new evidence showing how the oldest known civilisation in the Americas adapted and survived a climate catastrophe without resorting to violence.

- Dan Collyns

A team led by the renowned Peruvian archaeologist Ruth Shady, 78, concluded that about 4,200 years ago, severe drought forced the population to leave the ancient city of Caral, and resettle nearby.

In the new settlements, they left intriguing friezes depicting victims of a famine with messages for future generations, Shady said. "They left behind all this evidence so that people would not forget that the climate change was very severe, causing a crisis in Caral's society and its civilisation, and they did not want people to forget what caused it."

One of the sites where the people of Caral made a new home was Vichama, to its west, on the arid Pacific coast, where the inhabitants survived by fishing in the sea and farming in the Huaura River valley. The other settlement, dating from the same period (1800-1500BC), was Peñico, 10 miles east of Caral, nestled in the same valley of the Supe River. It was established around the same time that early civilisations in the Middle East and Asia were developing.