The magnificent ancient city of pyramids at Caral in Peru hit the headlines in 2001. The site is a thousand years older than the earliest known civilisation in the Americas and, at 2,627 BC, is as old as the pyramids of Egypt. Many now believe it is the fabled missing link of archaeology - a ‘mother city‘. If so, then these extraordinary findings could finally answer one of the great questions of archaeology: why did humans become civilised? The mother of all cities For over a century, archaeologists have been searching for what they call a mother city. Civilisation began in only six areas of the world: Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, China, Peru and Central America. In each of these regions people moved from small family units to build cities of thousands of people. They crossed the historic divide, one of the great moments in human history. Why? To find the answer archaeologists needed to find a mother city - the first stage of city-building. Civilisation through conflict They couldn‘t find one anywhere. Everywhere this first stage seemed destroyed or built over. And so, instead, scientists developed a number of theories. Some said it was because of the development of trade, others that it was irrigation. Some even today believe it was all because of aliens. Gradually an uneasy consensus emerged. The key force common to all civilisations was warfare. The theory was that only the fear of war could motivate people to give up the simple life and form complex societies. To prove it, archaeologists still had to find a city from that very first stage of civilisation. If it showed signs of warfare, then the theory had to be true. When archaeologist Ruth Shady discovered her 5,000 year old city of pyramids in the Peruvian desert, all eyes were on the New World. Ruth‘s extraordinary city, known as Caral, is so much older than anything else in South America that it is a clear candidate to be the mother city. It also is in pristine condition. Nothing has been built on it at all. Instead laid out before the world is an elaborate complex of pyramids, temples, an amphitheatre and ordinary houses. Make love not war Crucially, there is not the faintest trace of warfare at Caral; no battlements, no weapons, no mutilated bodies. Instead, Ruth‘s findings suggest it was a gentle society, built on commerce and pleasure. In one of the pyramids they uncovered beautiful flutes made from condor and pelican bones. They have also found evidence of a culture that took drugs and perhaps aphrodisiacs. Most stunning of all, they have found the remains of a baby, lovingly wrapped and buried with a precious necklace made of stone beads.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A line of 13 stone towers that top a coastal hillside in Peru are in fact the Western Hemisphere‘s oldest solar observatory, researchers said on Thursday. The 2,300-year-old site points to a sophisticated culture that used the dramatic alignment of the sun and the structures for political and ceremonial effects, the researchers said. The site, called the Thirteen Towers of Chankillo, precisely spans the annual rising and setting arcs of the sun when viewed from two specially constructed observation points. “Thousands of people could have gathered to watch impressive solar events. These events could have been manipulated for a political agenda,“ said Ivan Ghezzi, who made the discovery while a graduate student at Yale University and who is now archeological director of the Instituto Nacional de Cultura (National Institute for Culture) in Peru. For instance, at the time of the summer solstice in June, the longest day of the year, the sun rises just to the left of the northernmost tower, Ghezzi said in a telephone interview. Chankillo is a large ceremonial center laid out over several square miles (kilometers). It has a heavily fortified hilltop structure, thick walls and parapets. But no one quite understood a 300-yard-long (meter-long) line of towers that sits on a nearby hill like spines on a dragon‘s back.

HUACA CAO VIEJO, Peru (Reuters) - Archeologists probing Peru‘s lifeless northern desert discovered a 1,500-year-old mummy that may unlock secrets of the Moche, one of the mysterious civilizations that once ruled the Andean nation. Baptized the Lady of Cao by researchers after it was found by a ceremonial pyramid near the Pacific Ocean, the tattooed mummy is the first female Moche leader ever discovered. It could debunk theories that the culture, known for its pottery and human sacrifices, was governed only by men. Unveiling the mummy this week, U.S. and Peruvian archeologists said the woman, who probably died during childbirth at age 25, had religious and magical figures of spiders and snakes tattooed on her arms, much to the surprise of the investigating experts. “The conservation of her body is exceptional. We found her buried with mercury sulfide that helped eliminate microorganisms and help the preservation,“ said Regulo Franco, one of the archeologists who has spent 16 years excavating the Huaca Cao Viejo pyramid with funding from a Peruvian bank. The Lady of Cao was found with two ceremonial war clubs and 23 spear throwers -- sticks that propel spears -- puzzling archeologists who say such items have previously only been found in male Moche graves. The woman was also buried with three other mummies, including a teenage girl found alongside her who was probably strangled as a sacrifice to the Moche leader. Those mummies will be unwrapped over the next few months. Archeologists, backed by Peruvian bank and government funding and by the U.S.-based National Geographic Society, hope to extract DNA to see if they are the bodies of relatives. The culture of the Moche, who constructed the largest adobe pyramid in the Americas, the Moche Sun Pyramid, developed along Peru‘s northern coast near what is now the country‘s third-largest city Trujillo. It flourished in the river valley oases from 100 A.D. to 800 A.D. The Lady of Cao dates to 450 A.D. The Moche were later conquered by the Chimus, who were known for elaborate irrigation systems and built Chan Chan, one of the world‘s largest adobe cities. They in turn were conquered by the Incas, who built a civilization that stretched from the Equator to the Pacific coast of Chile and are best known for the Machu Picchu citadel in southern Peru. Their rule came to an abrupt end in the 1530s when they were subjugated by the Spanish Conquistadors. The Moche‘s Huaca Cao Viejo pyramid is covered in reliefs that suggest prisoners were sacrificed to the gods by a warrior-priest. It was abandoned for centuries. Moche pottery has been the main way that experts had interpreted their culture. The ceramics showed the Moche had well-developed weaving techniques, but because of rainstorms every few decades, most of their textiles have been destroyed.