{
  "author": "ChronologiaOS editorial guides",
  "date": "2026-10-07",
  "department": "Cities & Civilizations",
  "department_id": "CITIES",
  "epistemic_label": "Source guide",
  "epistemic_status": "SOURCE_GUIDE",
  "period": "c. 3000\u20131800 BCE",
  "place": "Supe Valley, Peru",
  "public_sources": [
    {
      "publisher": "UNESCO World Heritage Centre",
      "title": "Sacred City of Caral-Supe \u00b7 World Heritage record 1269",
      "type": "Site record and nomination materials",
      "url": "https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1269/"
    }
  ],
  "publication_state": "PUBLIC",
  "read_time": "3 min read",
  "sections": [
    {
      "body": "UNESCO describes Caral-Supe as an early urban center in Peru's Supe Valley, with monumental platform mounds and sunken circular courts. Its account places the site's development broadly between 3000 and 1800 BCE, citing radiocarbon evidence.",
      "heading": "Begin with a place",
      "source": 0
    },
    {
      "body": "A broad period helps orient a reader; it does not mean every building or activity has the same date. Compare the source's dating discussion with its architectural description before turning a range into a precise event.",
      "heading": "Read a date as a range"
    },
    {
      "body": "Putting two societies on the same timeline can reveal a useful question. A claim that they exchanged ideas needs its own evidence: a route, a material trail, a text, or another defensible connection. Shared dates alone do not supply that connection.",
      "heading": "Compare without inventing a route"
    },
    {
      "body": "Use the UNESCO description as an orientation point, then open the site's nomination materials for more detail. Keep the geographic setting and the evidence for chronology beside the story you are building.",
      "heading": "Continue the investigation"
    }
  ],
  "short_title": "Where do cities begin?",
  "slug": "caral-seeing-early-cities-in-context",
  "summary": "Visit an early urban center in Peru and learn why a shared timeline helps us compare societies without assuming a connection.",
  "tags": [
    "Caral",
    "Andes",
    "Cities",
    "Chronology"
  ],
  "title": "Caral: a wider map of early urban life."
}