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ARCHAEOLOGISTS SHED NEW project. In 2001, Creamer and Haas were LIGHT ON THE AMERICAS' part of the research team which announced EARLIEST KNOWN CIVILISATION that six immense platform mounds at the ecent archaeological excavations — site of Caral in the Andes' Supe Valley R= into focus a civilisation that represented the oldest known man-made arose more than 5,000 years ago in monuments in the Americas. three small valleys 100 miles north of The latest findings demonstrate that sites Lima, Peru, and lasted more than a_ suchas Caral were part of a much larger millennium. The excavations show the complex of residential centres in a region development of more than 20 separate that includes the Supe, Pativilca and major residential centres, characterised by Fortaleza river valleys—a region that monumental architecture, large circular stretches from the Andes to the western ceremonial structures, irrigated agriculture coastline of central Peru. and housing. The 13 inland centres studied range in Researchers publishing in the 23 area from 25 to more than 250 acres (10 to December 2004 edition of the scientific over 100 hectares). Each has between one journal Nature used radiocarbon dating to and seven rectangular terraced pyramids. determine the rise and fall of this first com- The largest of these mounds range from plex society of the Americas, dated from 105,000 to more than 196,000 cubic yards roughly 3000 to 1800 BC, and documented (80,000 to over 150,000 cubic metres) in the extent of its influence covering an area volume. Rooms were constructed on the of nearly 700 square miles (1,800 square tops and upper terraces of the structures. kilometres) throughout Peru's Norte Chico Another hallmark of the sites is the pres- region. Monumental architecture was evi- ence of sunken circular plazas, ranging dent at each site in the presence of large from 22 yards to 44 yards (20 to 40 metres) platform mounds, also described as rectan- _ in diameter and one to two yards deep. gular terraced pyramids, which reached as Together, the Norte Chico sites indicate high as 85 feet (26 metres). an advanced civilisation that arose without "This wasn't a single site where people the development of ceramics—a hallmark were doing something really unusual, but a _ of other complex societies worldwide. whole region, a whole culture, where people More excavation will be required to were organised to produce large pyramids estimate the population of the residential and sunken plazas—something the centres. Americas hadn't seen before," said (Source: Press release, Northern Illinois Professor Winifred Creamer, a Northern University Office of Public Affairs, 22 Illinois University anthropologist. December 2004, at http://www.niu.edu/pubaf - "The people who built the first of these _fairs/presskits/peru/. Also see report in structures had no model to go by, no prece- Twilight Zone, NEXUS 8/04.) dent to use in build- ing a monument. It's a bit like decid- ing to build a func- tioning spaceship in your backyard, and succeeding." Creamer is a co- author of the Nature article with her husband, NIU adjunct professor Jonathan Haas, MacArthur Curator of Anthropology at The Field Museum in Chicago, and with NIU graduate student Alvaro Ruiz, the Peruvian co- director of the "It's bad enough being 3,000 light years from home, but these things are really going to slow us down." ongoing contacts with UFOs and extrater- restrials. On the other hand, there are untold invisible international protocols that rohibit doing anything that may cause worldwide fear and panic. It is well accepted among UFO and extraterrestrial experts that all five nuclear owers have been in contact with beings from other stars for quite some time. Recently, India has seen an enormous num- ber of news reports on UFO contacts and secret UFO bases in the Himalaya near the Chinese bases. In Ladakh, for example, the ocals clearly point out the everyday phe- nomenon of large triangular spacecraft coming out from below the ground and Indian security forces protecting them. Military officials and politicians have confessed to the fact that India has been contacted and has been told the rules of the Universe. The current debate is about whether to keep this secret, as other countries are doing, or, in the tradition of a totally trans- parent society, to come out and tell the truth. India is so open and democratic that it is very difficult to keep a secret for long—and, unlike in other countries, this is the biggest concern of the government today. If the information comes out through unofficial channels first and then the authorities are pressed against the wall to confess, two bad things could happen. First, this could really cause panic in the country as well as the world. Second, the way Indian politics is run, the ruling party could be thrown out of power in no time if it were ever found out that the government withheld such information from the public. It seems as if India is being told by the world powers to abide by the hidden proto- cols and, in exchange, be recognised as a major emerging superpower. The debate the country is facing internally is whether to abide by the laws of the world and the Universe and be recognised as a superpower, or to be truthful to its citizens and the world. According to sources close to the gov- ernment, the UFO contact situation is known by quite a few politicians in the Opposition and of course by those who are in power. The military also has legitimate concerns about not letting the secrets out. (Source: India Daily, 6 January 2005, http://www. indiadaily.com/editorial/01- 06a-05.asp) "It's bad enough being 3,000 light years from home, but these things are really going to slow us down." NEXUS = 63 FEBRUARY — MARCH 2005 www.nexusmagazine.com