Huaca Prieta

Huaca Prieta 

the remains of a settlement dating from the second half of the third and the first half of the second millennium B.C., situated at the mouth of the Chicama River on the coast of Peru. Excavations have uncovered the remains of small subterranean dwellings, stone implements, and fragments of cloth and fishing nets. Pottery was not yet known. Also found were early examples of ancient Peruvian art: depictions of human beings, condors, snakes, and crabs carved on gourds or woven in cloth. Fishing and gathering were the chief occupations of the inhabitants. Evidence of the cultivation of cotton, gourds, squash, chili peppers, and beans was found in Huaca Prieta, the first known example of plant cultivation in a culture ignorant of pottery. Remains have been discovered on the Peruvian coast that belong to the same culture as that of Huaca Prieta.

REFERENCES

Berezkin, Iu. E. “Nachalo zemledeliia na peruanskom poberezh’e.” Sovetskaia arkheologiia, 1969, no. 1.
Bird, J. B. “Pre-ceramic Cultures in Chicama and Virú.” In A Reappraisal of Peruvian Archaeology. Assembled by W. C. Bennett. (Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology, no. 4.) Menasha, Wis., 1948.