Peru

We do not know for sure how far back we can trace the history of mankind in Peru as new findings are pushing back in the very far past the start of human inhabitation in these lands. Up until recently, we only thought that human civil life had started around 7000 years ago..... Chilca was inhabited about 4000 BC and the other two sites about 2000 BC. The inhabitants fished with nets or with bone hooks and collected seafood such as crabs and sea urchins. Various crops were cultivated, including cotton which appeared early (about 3000 BC) as well as chilli peppers, beans' squashes and, about 1400 BC, corn. The cotton was used to make clothing, mainly with the simple techniques of twining and later by weaving.

Art prior to Spanish colonization concentrated almost entirely upon the production of fine pottery, metalwork, stonecraft and textiles. The Spanish subsequently introduced their version of urban planning, with cities laid out in checkerboard fashion, and constructed mansions, churches and monasteries which slavishly mimicked Spanish renaissance or the rather phlegmatic Spanish early baroque. Over time, these European styles increasingly showed signs of a native Indian influence, leading to a style known as mestizo. (The best examples of mestizo architecture can be found in the churches around Puno and Arequipa.) Painting too mimicked European influences but as local artists grew more confident, a new and distinctive Cuzco style developed, in which artists turned their attention away from the visible world, and concentrated instead on fairytale and fable. The influence of these works on artist Paul Gauguin, who spent his childhood in Lima, is noticeable.

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