EduNETConnect.com - Time Machine

Please select a historical period:

25 years ago / 50 years ago / 80 years ago / 125 years ago / 150 years ago
250 years ago / 400 years ago / 700 years ago / 1,200 years ago
1,500 years ago / 2,000 years ago / 3,000 years ago / 4,000 years ago / 5,000 years ago / 10,000 years ago

3,000 Years Ago in South America

Flimsy houses The Huaca Prieta site on the Chicama River in Peru dates from about 3000 BC. Pottery was not yet in use, but a sling made from woven cords has been found.

Dating from about the same time, villages in Ecuador were more advanced, using pottery bowls and cooking pots, as finds from the Valdivia site show. People lived in fairly flimsy houses made from woven cane stocks, and built on top of stilts, both for ventilation and protection against flooding. Houses such as this were still used until a few years ago. A religious shrine built on Plata island was used by the Valdivia people until the time of the Spanish invasion. It is 23 kilometres away over the open ocean, and these people must have had a considerable knowledge of seafaring.

Chavin culture (named after the town where the most important archaeological site has been found), based in the Peruvian Andes, flourished from 1500 to 300 BC. Surviving artifacts include stone sculpture. The Chavin people, the first "civilization" of South America, had a major influence on the cultures that followed it. They appear to be the ancestors of the Aymara speaking peoples of the Andes. While the Chavin culture dominated the Peruvian highlands, culturally distinct societies were developing on the north coast of Peru. These people were probably from the other major language group of western South America, Quechua. Metallurgy had been established since at least 2100 BC.

Agricultural settlements begin to develop in Amazonia.

Stone sculpture - The highly stylized form of this jaguar was typical of Chavin art. It is based on a bas relief stone sculpture. The colours are not known for sure, but are based on ancient textiles. Much other art from South and Central America shows use of stylized forms.

back to map