History of Peru

Ancient and pre-Inca  Back to top

People are thought to have lived in what is now Peru for about 15,000 to 20,000 years, having migrated from Asia via the Bering strait. Human remains have been found dating from 7,500 B.C. and people are thought to have lived nomadically until about 2,500 B.C. Domestication of the Alpaca, Llama and Guinea pig started about 4,000 B.C. and was important for the highland people around Lake Titicaca, and the many coastal settlements relied on fishing, and later farming as irrigation systems were slowly developed. Beans and cotton crops were raised from about 3,000 B.C, maize being cultivated from about 1,500 B.C.

As farming methods became more efficient, more time was devoted to producing pottery and simple jewellery. Trade increased, and states began to develop particularly throughout the northern half of Peru.

Around 950 B.C. the Chavin culture became more influential, based at Chavin de Huantar, which is in the central Andes near Huaraz. The culture is thought to have originated in the Amazon basin, and its culture influenced much of the coast, and the northern sierra particularly with the typical design of pottery and artefacts using symbolic pictures of monkeys and jaguars. Ceramics, weaving, architecture, religion and metallurgy (including the symbolic religious use of gold) all developed during this time, with Chavin idols being found at many sites distant from Chavin de Huantar.

The Sechin, based about 250 miles north of Lima, are thought to have been a powerful group during this time, with either an alliance with the Chavin, or at least strongly influenced by its culture. The influence of the Chavin declined strongly between about 500 B.C. and 300 B.C.

The Paracas culture emerged on the southern coast about 300 B.C. and later developed, or at least influenced the Nazca. The Paracas culture is known for their advanced textiles, many of which have been preserved, along with many mummified human remains, by the extremely dry conditions of the Atacama desert. The coastal Nazca civilisation flourished from approximately 100 B.C. to about 700 A.D. The Nazca produced many fine ceramics using colour and decoration to illustrate their lives, but are best remembered today for the Nazca lines which they left in the arid Atacama desert outside Nazca, south of Lima. These are many straight lines formed in the desert by moving small stones from the darker surface exposing the lighter ground underneath, and many of these completely straight lines stretch for miles. There are many abstract outlines of animals in the desert and are fascinating to visit, although no one is sure of their purpose.

Around the same time as the Nazca, the Moche culture grew in the north, between about 100 A.D. and about 800 A.D. They were a military culture, and built an empire stretching almost 300 miles along the northern coast, centred on the city of Chan-Chan, just outside modern day Trujillo. They built many adobe pyramids, including the enormous tombs of the sun and moon. The pyramids at Sipan are worth a visit, including the royal tomb of the ‘Lord of Sipan’, which included many examples of their skills with jewellery and pottery, and is one of the few tombs discovered relatively intact, not destroyed by ‘huaceros’, grave robbers.

These coastal cultures eventually declined between about 600 A.D. and 800 A.D. as a result of a series of devastating floods and droughts.

Between about 700 A.D. and 1,000 A.D. a militaristic people, the Wari, subdued many of these cultures, and their influence is seen in the ceramics and textiles of the period. However, their empire fragmented into a series of city-states, the best known being the Chimu who developed Chan-Chan, the world’s largest adobe city.

From about 600 A.D onwards, the Huari-Tiwanaku people from further south and higher in the Andes became the predominant cultures of much of modern-day Peru, northern Bolivia and northern Argentina. The Tiwanaku were a religious culture based in the Titicaca basin and the Huari were a more military people from the central highlands, but over time the cultures slowly merged. Their efficient labour and administration systems were later copied and further developed by the Incas who conquered the region around 1440 A.D.

 

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