Norte Chico (Caral-Supe) · About 3000-1800 BC

Caral: the first city of the Americas

While Egyptians built their first pyramids, people on the desert coast of Peru built platform mounds and sunken plazas at Caral. Students explore one of the oldest civilizations of the Americas, built on cotton, fish and trade.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
11–14
On the map
3 steps, 2600 BC
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

While Egyptians built their first pyramids, people on the desert coast of Peru built platform mounds and sunken plazas at Caral. Students explore one of the oldest civilizations of the Americas, built on cotton, fish and trade.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Locate Caral and the Norte Chico valleys and explain how people lived in a coastal desert.
  • Describe the trade between coastal fishers and inland farmers.
  • Explain why Caral changed ideas about the history of the Americas.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

2600 BC

The desert coast

Open the map in 2600 BC and zoom in on the dry coast north of Lima. Find the area labeled Norte Chico. Rivers cross the desert from the Andes to the sea. Why were the valleys the only places to live?

Open this view on the map
b

2600 BC

Caral in the Supe valley

Zoom in on the Supe valley, about 23 km from the sea. Caral's platform mounds and sunken round plazas were built here. What was happening in Egypt at the same time?

Open this view on the map
c

2600 BC

Four early civilizations

Zoom out to the whole world in 2600 BC. Find Norte Chico, Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Indus valley. Which of these grew up with no contact at all with the others?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Caral had large mounds and plazas, but no city walls or weapons have been found. What could that mean?
  2. Fishers on the coast traded fish for cotton grown inland. Why was cotton so important to fishers?
  3. Caral is about as old as Egypt's first pyramids but far less famous. Why might that be?
  4. As far as we know, the people of Caral built big monuments without pottery or writing. Does a civilization need writing?
  5. Archaeologists found flutes made of bird bones at Caral. What can music tell us about a society?
4

Game round

9 min

No Rule History ruler lived in Caral, but Moctezuma II ruled a later civilization in another part of the Americas. Play one round as Moctezuma and discuss: what did Caral have in common with his capital, and what was very different?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.