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ARCHITECTURE AND LANDSCAPE · 01

Caral: sunken plaza and platform

Caral formed part of a network of settlements with plazas and large platforms in the Supe Valley.

Museum documentation · free public access, no account required.

DECLARED VISUAL RECONSTRUCTION · AI-GENERATED IMAGE · TRACEKEEPERS

Generated reconstruction · Declared visual hypothesis

Declared visual reconstruction, created for museographic contextualisation; not a photograph of the original nor does it constitute documentary evidence.

Image of Caral: sunken plaza and platform
DECLARED VISUAL RECONSTRUCTION · AI-GENERATED IMAGE · TRACEKEEPERS

Generated reconstruction · Declared visual hypothesis

Declared visual reconstruction, created for museographic contextualisation; not a photograph of the original nor does it constitute documentary evidence.

History and context

It was not an inevitable model for Chavín nor for the Inca state.

Evidence and interpretation

Synthesis based on UNESCO · Chavín; UNESCO · Caral; UNESCO · Tiwanaku. The comparison serves to formulate questions, not to fill gaps in the record with certainties.

Catalogue facts

Civilisation or trajectory
Pre-Inca cultures
Scope
Building and Power
Main area
Coast, highlands and Altiplano of the central Andes: Caral, Chavín, Nazca, Moche, Tiwanaku, Wari and Chimú.

A closer look

About 1 min to read · 1 section. Further reading and sources · free access. Editorial review recorded: .

The bags that remained inside the buildings

Shicras were bags of vegetable fibres, such as reed or totora, used to transport stones and later could remain incorporated into the structural fill. Findings at different Caral centres show examples of variable sizes, so they were not a uniform accessory. The Caral Archaeological Zone relates their use to the damping of seismic movements. It is advisable to separate the archaeological presence of bags and stones from the reconstruction of their structural advantages. The technique reveals, in any case, a material connection between textile, collective transport and the raising of monumental platforms.

Location and territory

Physical world map with routes of human evolutionPresent-day world coastline from Natural Earth in an equirectangular projection. The overlaid markers let you explore each milestone.Map base: Natural Earth 1:110m · public domain · present-day reference coastline

REGIONAL AREA

Coast, highlands and Altiplano: seven areas and overlapping chronologies, not a frontier nor a single civilisationCoast, highlands and Altiplano: seven areas and overlapping chronologies, not a frontier nor a single civilisation. The footprint marks the orientative centre of the realm, not a frontier nor an exact point.

Sources and references

Consult the sources of this cultural synthesis

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