Illegal occupiers invaded the ruins of the oldest city in the Americas and made death threats against Ruth Shady, the celebrated Peruvian archaeologist who discovered the 5,000-year-old civilization.
The threats came through calls and messages to several workers at the archaeological site at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in Peru. They followed up on reports from police and prosecutors about the invasions of the ancient ruins of Caral.
“They called the local lawyer and said that if he continued to protect me, they would kill him, along with me, and bury us five meters below the ground,” said Shady, 73.
“So they killed our dog as a warning. They poisoned you, as if to say, look what will happen to you, ”she said.
It is not the first time that Shady has been threatened or attacked. In 2003, she was shot in the chest during an attack on the 626-hectare (1,546-acre) archaeological complex, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2009.
After nine raids on the holy city during the pandemic period, Shady and his team repeatedly asked authorities to intervene.
“There is a feeling that there is no authority dedicated to the protection and defense of our assets. It is a big concern, ”she said.
Caral Traffic
In July, invaders using a heavy excavator tore down adobe walls and tore through the ground, destroying old ceramics, tombs containing mummies, tissues and household debris, before police and local staff managed to stop them.
As a result of Shady’s pleas, a police car patrols the archaeological site day and night, but nothing was done to punish or expel the invaders.
The squatters are believed to belong to a single extended family and claim that the land was given to them in the 1970s during Peru’s controversial land reform, which was promoted by a left-wing military dictatorship.
Shady denies the statement: “They don’t have a single land title. The owner of the land is the Peruvian state ”.
The planned eviction of one of the invaders was prevented in December, when a local prosecutor and officer did not give the order to proceed, despite having the support of police, Shady said.
Land prices in the area have increased from about $ 5,000 per hectare to up to $ 50,000 per hectare, as outsiders rush to buy land around the prestigious archaeological site that is surrounded by a 56 square mile buffer zone .
Shady, who was named on the BBC’s list of 100 women last year, visited Caral for the first time in 1978. But it was only in 1994 that she discovered the old city and began to properly excavate the site, which is situated on a dry terrace of the desert overlooking the Supe River Valley almost 200 km (124 miles) north of Lima.
What she discovered was the “oldest center of civilization in the Americas”, which Unesco describes as “exceptionally well preserved”, with a complex architectural design with “monumental stones and earth platform supports and sunken circular patios”. The organic material found at the site has been dated to carbon since 2627 BC
Shady and his team continue to investigate and excavate a dozen old settlements, half of the 24 located in the Supe valley that are part of the Caral-Supe civilization. His discoveries revealed musical instruments like flutes made from animal and bird bones and evidence of growing multicolored cotton used in fabrics.
“We cannot allow archaeological sites to continue to be invaded and destroyed because it is an unwritten story and we have recovered that story through our investigation,” said Shady. “If we can’t do that, it’s like burning a book that nobody is going to read.”
“I hope that we can continue to investigate and recover our history because it contains a very interesting message,” she added. “It was a very, very peaceful society. We didn’t even find a walled settlement. “
“There is a message there that we humans must live in harmony between ourselves and nature,” concluded Shady. “We are experiencing this pandemic, partly due to the mistreatment of nature.”