7.9240°S, 79.3070°W.
Huaca Prieta is a preceramic mound on the Chicama River delta in northern Peru, occupied continuously from roughly 14,500 years ago through the Late Preceramic period — among the earliest documented human occupations on the South American coast. The mound rises about 30 metres above the surrounding floodplain and is built of layered organic refuse, ash, hearths, stone tools, and stratified construction fills containing cotton textiles, basketry, and twined fiber bags. Junius Bird excavated the site for the American Museum of Natural History in 1946 and 1947, recovering some of the oldest cotton textiles known anywhere. Renewed work by Tom Dillehay between 2007 and 2017 pushed the basal occupation date back into the terminal Pleistocene. The mound includes early platform construction with stacked stones and asphalt-bound matting.
Avocado pits, chili pepper seeds, and squash rinds in the lower strata document one of the earliest documented plant-management economies in the Americas.