Advance: before the Inca, Chancay, Moche, and Chavin there was the Caral civilization, in the North-central coast of Peru, five thousand years ago (3000 BC)) all these civilizations lived in the Supe Valley at one time except the Moche, who lived in Chan Chan, bordering the coast. Caral, a city-state you might say, or perhaps a small sanctuary along the Supe Rio (of which were perhaps some 3000-inhabidents at one time)) of which I first crossed by foot, and came back by horse)), in the Supe Valley, is most bravura, for I have been there and can bear this out.

This civilization coexisted with that of Mesopotamia of the Near East, or Crete of Europe; perhaps built their pyramids at the same time Egypt did. The city is not only sacred, but it was political, with all its six pyramids, tucked away in a mountain like corral (so it got its name), in that it is surrounded by beautiful mountains, known as the. It is about 165-miles north of Lima; it is also the city known as '…dwelling place of the gods….' You have three regions here: the Andean highlands, Andean jungle, and equatorial coastal area, of which now I have been to all three. It is close to the sea, the mountains look over it, and the jungle is not that far away. [Caral: in Quechua, is cabuya, or sisal, a dry fiber often used in weaving.] Pottery was not discovered until later to have been made at Caral, thus, no early dates for its baking process. One would have to date it perhaps between the Inca and Chavin cultures, or a better date might be the Chancay culture. It is known that the Chancay culture lived right on the site of the Caral Culture between 900 and 1300 AD.

The Poem:

She sat crossed legged: the Sacred Supe Rio to her right:

Small, sloping forehead: deep brown, secretive eyes;

Thin lips, slightly upward, triangular chin; thin hair. Sparse outer eyebrows (beautiful) with a straight torso.

She was naked, arms stretched, crossed behind.

(She died according to her times.)

She sat crossed legged: the year 1102 AD, among her

Lay, unbaked clay figurines; color cotton textiles;

Head adornments: were two circular headdresses Linked-and-twisted, made out of totora reed, rush fiber

And cotton thread; a wooden comb by her knees.

Pieces of pottery lay by her side, in the warm valley sand

To the left of her were the Caral ruins, the old city. (Four thousand years had now passed, her Ancestors long gone;

Gone, now dead, perhaps her blood was currently, intermixed

With the many cultures that once walked this land.)

She sat crossed legged and thought: how crafty she was

Compared to them, for she had made handles for her pottery,

And she was proud, so very proud, of being: Peruvian (with 11,000-years of proven history). She brushed away the

Mosquitoes, watched her friends plant corn, hot peppers Along the banks of the Rio, in the Sacred Valley of Supe.

She sat crossed legged until sunset: watching the reds and

Yellows and orange mist fade into the sun's brightness:

Thus, she wept and wept, for someone or thing had broken Her pottery, as she laid still from a blow to the back of the head,

Her face (her cranial traumatized); it was all she could see, As they bound her knees, the way they did back in 3000 BC!…

(She was part of the Caral legend. I for one, picked up those Pieces of clay, with handles, in the sands of the Supe Valley).

#1312 4/13/06