One of the largest Late Preceramic settlements on the Peruvian coast, El Paraíso (also called Chuquitanta) was a monumental civic-ceremonial complex in the Chillón Valley that testifies to large-scale social organization and construction capacity long before the emergence of ceramics or formal states.
El Paraiso was gradually and rapidly abandoned at the end of the Late Preceramic period around 1800–1500 BCE, with no evidence of catastrophic destruction or reoccupation, likely tied to broader societal reorganisation at the onset of the Initial Period.
Authoritative survey of Andean prehistory from the Preceramic through the Inca period; essential context for understanding El Paraíso's place in coastal Peruvian cultural development.
Sets El Paraíso in the broader trajectory from Preceramic coastal societies through the Chavín horizon; explains continuities in ritual architecture.
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