TechnologySouth America
Cotton and nets in Peru
The sea feeds the cities before the fields do
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The Humboldt current makes the sea off Peru one of the richest fisheries in the world. Cotton nets from inland traded for fish from the coast created a mutual dependence that bound the valleys together — and laid the ground for Caral, the oldest known urban society in the Americas, in a region with almost no rainfall.
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On the dry coast of Peru people grew cotton — not chiefly for clothing but for fishing nets. With nets they could catch enough fish to feed whole villages. The sea became their field.
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Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org