Ruth Martha Shady Solís (born December 29, 1946) is a

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

vian

anthropologist An anthropologist is a scientist engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropologists study aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values ...

and

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

. She is the founder and director of the archaeological project at

Caral The Sacred City of Caral-Supe, or simply Caral, is an archaeological site in Peru where the remains of the main city of the Caral civilization are found. It is located in the Supe valley of Peru, near the current town of Caral, 182 kilometers n ...

Career

Throughout her career, she has directed many different projects of archeological investigation on the coast, the highlands and the rain forests of Peru, placing emphasis on the study of the development of the complex socio-political organizations. She was director of the Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Antropología del Perú ( National Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology of Peru), and director of the Museum of Archeology and Anthropology of

National University of San Marcos The National University of San Marcos (, UNMSM) is a public university, public research university located in Lima, the capital of Peru. In the Americas, it is the first officially established (Privilege (legal ethics), privilege by Charles V, ...

. She has worked at the Caral site from 1994 onwards and is credited with the discovery of Norte Chico, the first known civilization of the Americas, and one of the oldest in the world. Shady has named the civilization after Caral, while the term Norte Chico has been adopted in English. In 2001, Shady and others published radiocarbon dates from the site of Caral in the Supe Valley of Peru, indicating that monumental corporate architecture, urban settlement, and irrigation agriculture began in the Americas by 4090 years before the present (2627 calibrated years B.C.) to 3640 years before the present (1977 calibrated years B.C.). Caral is located inland from the Pacific coast and contains a central zone of monumental, residential, and nonresidential architecture covering an area of . Caral is one of 18 large preceramic sites in the Supe Valley. Shady holds the offices of President of ICOMOS-PERU, principal professor and co-ordinator of the master of archeology graduate program faculty of social sciences of the University of San Marcos and director of the special archeological project Caral-Supe/INC.

Awards

Shady was on the list of the BBC's 100 Women announced on 23 November 2020.

References

External links

*
Ruth Shady e Instituto de Salud del Niño obtienen Premios Campodónico 2007
June 15, 2007 (in Spanish) * Ruth Shady - An open letter to Jonathan Haas and Winifred Creamer: http://caralperu.typepad.com/caral_civilization_peru/2005/01/open_letter_fro.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Shady, Ruth 1946 births Living people Peruvian archaeologists Peruvian anthropologists Peruvian women anthropologists Peruvian people of British descent National University of San Marcos alumni Peruvian women archaeologists People from Callao Scholars of Andean civilizations