Peru’s Ministry of Culture has formally unveiled Peñico, a 3,500-year-old urban centre located roughly 200 kilometres north of Lima in the province of Huaura, after eight years of excavation and conservation. Archaeologists date the settlement to between 1800 and 1500 BC, placing it among early global civilisations that flourished in the Middle East and Asia during the same era. Built on a plateau about 600 metres above sea level, Peñico appears to have functioned as a strategic trading hub that connected communities on the Pacific coast with those in the Andes and the Amazon basin. Researchers have identified at least 18 structures, including temples, residential complexes and a monumental administrative building known as B2 whose walls bear reliefs of conch-shell trumpets, or pututus. Excavations have yielded unfired clay figurines, ceremonial tools, necklaces of shell and bone, and other artefacts that point to an active ritual life and regional commerce. The project is led by Ruth Shady, director of the Caral Archaeological Zone, who says the city likely rose after the decline of the nearby Caral civilisation—the oldest known in the Americas—and continued its cultural traditions. The site will open to visitors on 12 July, complete with an interpretation centre and the inaugural Peñico Raymi festival celebrating the heritage of the newly revealed city.