El Paraiso, simply translated means, The Paradise. It is situated in the Chillon River Valley, 2 kilometers from the Pacific Ocean, in central Peru. El Paraiso's brief occupation occurred toward the end of the Pre-Ceramic Period, around 4,000 years ago. It was the largest Pre-Ceramic site in the Andes, three times larger than any other site in its vicinity. The ruins of El Paraiso cover over 125 acres. El Paraiso is thought to have been able to support a population of between 1500-3000 people. This is quite large when you consider how long ago it was occupied. The location of El Paraiso was able to provide this population with its primary food source, fish. The people here also gathered roots and wild fruit, as well as hunting wild animals. Cotton was also grown for textiles. Basket weaving was also an important technology here.
There were eight buildings constructed at El Paraiso, covering some 125 acres. These buildings were built from rock, mined from the nearby hills. The rock was then transported to the building site, with the use of baskets, that were woven from straw. It is thought to have taken nearly 100,000 tons of rock to complete these buildings. Archaeologist, Frederic Engel excavated and reconstructed the largest of these buildings in 1965. From his work at the site, he concluded that the different buildings had different functions. The largest of which, was used in a public capacity, with others having a domestic use. The largest building that was built was a stepped pyramid. This building consisted of many different rooms, with each room serving a different purpose. One room contained evidence of incineration. This room is thought to have been used for ritual or ceremonial use. The other rooms are thought to have been private meeting rooms or possibly used for storage. The overall layout of the buildings formed a U-shape, with the stepped pyramid being the bottom of the U, and the two arms of the U forming the domestic use buildings. The inside of this U, would have been the plaza. Until now, only the stepped pyramid has been fully studied, and not much else is known about the other buildings at this site.
El Paraiso was constructed over a 200 year period and it supported a complex society. The people of El Paraiso had to be successful at many different things, in order to complete such a monumental task. To construct buildings such as these, they would have needed to gain control over their environment, by hunting, fishing, and gathering food, to even contemplate architecture such as this. Their successes were also seen in different sites in South America. There are at least 25 other documented sites in South America that share the distinctive El Paraiso U-shaped layout.
Paraiso Arqueologia del Peru http://www.naya.org.ar/peru/paraiso.htm
Cotton Preceramic through Initial Period Columbia University Department of Art History and Archaeology http://www.columbia.edu/cu/arthistory/andes1.htm
Jacobs, James Q. Reflections on Pre-History http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/4844/prehisty.html