Oldest City of the Americas in Peru

Last night as I was tending bar, I had a customer ask if I had heard of the latest discovery: the oldest city in the world in Peru. I asked him if it was older than Jericho, Jarmo, or ‘Ain Ghazal, but he didn’t know what I was talking about. Obviously he wasn’t schooled in archaeology, but I was flattered by his attempts to connect with my interests. I decided to browse and see what he was talking about. Sure enough, there was a discovery, but it wasn’t as old as the neolithic sites in the Near East.  Last month, German and Peruvian archaeologists discovered a very old Plaza in the ancient city of Casma. Carbon dating puts the ancient site around 5500 BP (Before Present, which is about 2,600-2,500 BC).   If this is true, this part of the city would make it one of the oldest cites in Peru and also in the New World (Caral is proabably slightly older, but is probably contemporary with these new findings).  The findings here and at Caral mean that there were complex societies in South America contemporary with the Old Kingdom of Egypt and the Sumerians in Mesopotamia. These settlements even have their own pyramids.  The Associated Press put out this article on the discovery.