Occupation at Chavín de Huántar has been carbon dated to at least 3000 BCE,
with ceremonial center activity occurring primarily toward the end of the
second millennium, and through the middle of the first millennium BCE. While
the fairly large population was based on an agricultural economy, the city's
location at the headwaters of the Marañón River, between the coast and the
jungle, made it an ideal location for the dissemination and collection of both
ideas and material goods. This archeological site is a large ceremonial center
that has revealed a great deal about the Chavín culture. Chavín de Huántar
