For Immediate Release Media contacts: The Field Museum Greg Borzo 312/665-7106 gborzo@fieldmuseum.org The findings confirm the emergence, development and continuous occupation of a major cultural complex in this region during the Late Archaic period (3000 BC to 1800 BC). The period is also known as the Cotton Preceramic since the people in this region had not yet developed pottery but did grow cotton and weave cotton textiles. They also made the cotton into fishing nets and traded for fish from fishing communities along the coast. In fact, earlier scholarship indicated that the emergence of complex society in this region at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC was centered along the coast and based on maritime resources. Subsequent work demonstrated the existence of a substantial agriculturally based society at nearby inland sites. The new research indicates the inland sites were far more numerous, extensive and complexly organized than the coastal sites. The inland sites range in area from 25 to more than 250 acres (10 to more than 100 hectares). They include from one to seven platform mounds – rectangular terraced pyramids up to 85 feet (26 meters) high. The largest of these pyramidal mounds range from 105,000 to more than 196,000 cubic yards (80,000 to more than 150,000 cubic meters) in volume. Digital images available: Measuring Archaeologists map a cleared surface at the top of Mound C on Vinto Alto in the Pativilca Valley. Photo by Jonathan Haas, courtesy The Field Museum Digging buried wall Workers excavate a buried wall at Caballete in the Fortaleza Valley. Photo by Jonathan Haas, courtesy The Field Museum Making bags (mural) Color mural depicts people making chicra net bags that were filled with rocks for pyramid construction. Mural by Jose Salazar Worker Archaeologist excavates a cane and mud structure at Caballete in the Fortaleza Valley. Photo by Jonathan Haas, courtesy The Field Museum Excavating buried structure Archaeologists excavate a cane and mud structure at Caballete in the Fortaleza Valley. Photo by Jonathan Haas, courtesy The Field Museum Overview of Porvenir Aerial overview of the central ceremonial zone at Porvenir in the Fortaleza Valley, taken from an adjacent hill. The open area between the mounds is about 550 yards across. Photo by Jonathan Haas, courtesy The Field Museum <<Back to the Press Room“In Norte Chico, the path of cultural evolution in the Andean region diverged from a relatively simple hunting and gathering society to a much more complex pattern of social and political organization, with a mixed economy based on agriculture and marine exploitation,” said Alvaro Ruiz, a graduate student in anthropology at Northern Illinois University and co-author of the research. “With this new information, we need to rethink our ideas about the economic, social and cultural development of the beginnings of civilization in Peru and South America.”