http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazca_Lines
Nazca Lines
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Coordinates: 
14°43′00″S 75°08′00″W / 14.7166667°S 75.1333333°W / -14.7166667; -75.1333333
The
Nazca Lines are a series of ancient
geoglyphs located in the
Nazca Desert in southern
Peru. They were designated a
UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. The high, arid plateau stretches more than 80 kilometres (50 mi) between the towns of
Nazca and
Palpa on the
Pampas de Jumana about 400 km south of
Lima. Although some local geoglyphs resemble
Paracas motifs, scholars believe the Nazca Lines were created by the
Nazca culture between 400 and 650 AD.
[1] The hundreds of individual figures range in complexity from simple lines to stylized
hummingbirds,
spiders,
monkeys,
fish,
sharks or
orcas,
llamas, and
lizards.
The lines are shallow designs made in the ground by removing the ubiquitous reddish pebbles and uncovering the whitish ground beneath. Hundreds are simple lines or geometric shapes; more than seventy are designs of animal, bird, fish or human figures. The largest figures are over 200 metres (660 ft) across. Scholars differ in interpreting the purpose of the designs, but they generally ascribe religious significance to them.
The geometric ones could indicate the flow of water or be connected to rituals to summon water. The spiders, birds, and plants could be fertility symbols. Other possible explanations include: irrigation schemes or giant astronomical calendars.[2]
Due to the dry, windless and stable
climate of the plateau and its isolation, for the most part the lines have been preserved. Extremely rare changes in weather may temporarily alter the general designs.
[edit] Discovery and construction
After people traveled over the area by plane in the 1930s and saw the Nazca Lines from the air, anthropologists started studying them. One of the issues that intrigued scholars was to try to understand how they were made.
Scholars have theorized the Nazca people could have used simple tools and surveying equipment to construct the lines. Studies have found wooden stakes in the ground at the end of some lines, which support this theory. One such stake was
carbon-dated and the basis for establishing the age of the design complex. Researcher
Joe Nickell of the
University of Kentucky has reproduced the figures by using tools and technology available to the Nazca people. The
National Geographic called his work "remarkable in its exactness" when compared to the actual lines.
[3] With careful planning and simple technologies, a small team of people could recreate even the largest figures within days, without any aerial assistance.
[4] Most of the lines form a trench about six inches deep.
The lines were made by removing the reddish-brown
iron oxide-coated pebbles that cover the surface of the Nazca desert. When the gravel is removed, the light-colored earth beneath shows in lines of sharply contrasting color and tone. The Nazca "drew" several hundred simple but huge curvilinear animal and human figures by this technique. In total, the
earthwork project is huge and complex: the area encompassing the lines is nearly 500 square kilometres (190 sq mi), and the largest figures can span nearly 270 metres (890 ft). The extremely dry, windless, and constant climate of the Nazca region has preserved the lines well. The Nazca desert is one of the driest on Earth and maintains a temperature around 25 °C (77 °F) all year round. The lack of wind has helped keep the lines uncovered and visible to the present day.
Nazca Lines seen from SPOT Satellite
[edit] Purpose
Archeologists,
ethnologists and
anthropologists have studied the ancient Nazca culture and the complex to try to determine the purpose of the lines and figures. One theory is that the Nazca people created them to be seen by their gods in the sky. Kosok and
Reiche advanced a purpose related to
astronomy and
cosmology: the lines were intended to act as a kind of
observatory, to point to the places on the distant horizon where the sun and other celestial bodies rose or set. Many prehistoric
indigenous cultures in the Americas and elsewhere constructed earthworks that combined such astronomical sighting with their religious cosmology, as did the later
Mississippian culture at
Cahokia in present-day United States. Another example is
Stonehenge in
England. But,
Gerald Hawkins and
Anthony Aveni, experts in
archaeoastronomy, concluded in 1990 that there was insufficient evidence to support such an astronomical explanation.
[5]
In 1985, the
archaeologist Johan Reinhard published archaeological,
ethnographic, and
historical data demonstrating that worship of mountains and other water sources predominated in Nazca religion and economy from ancient to recent times. He theorized that the lines and figures were part of religious practices involving the worship of deities associated with the availability of water, which directly related to the success and productivity of crops. He interpreted the lines as sacred paths leading to places where these deities could be worshiped. The figures were symbols representing animals and objects meant to invoke the gods' aid in supplying water. But, the precise meanings of many of the individual geoglyphs remain unsolved as of 2011.
Henri Stierlin, a
Swiss art historian specializing in
Egypt and the
Middle East, published a book in 1983 linking the Nazca Lines to the production of ancient
textiles which archeologists have found wrapping
mummies of the
Paracas culture.
[6] He contended that the people may have used the lines and trapezes as giant, primitive
looms to fabricate the extremely long strings and wide pieces of textile that are typical of the area. By his theory, the figurative patterns (smaller and less common) were meant only for
ritualistic purposes.
[edit] Alternative theories
Some individuals propose alternative theories. Jim Woodmann believes that the Nazca Lines could not have been made without some form of manned flight to see the figures properly. Based on his study of available technology, he suggests that a
hot air balloon was the only possible means of flight. To test this hypothesis, Woodmann made a hot-air balloon using materials and techniques which he understood were available to the Nazca people. The balloon flew, after a fashion. Most scholars have rejected Woodmann's thesis as
ad hoc,
[4] because of the lack of any evidence of such balloons.
[7]
Swiss author
Erich von Däniken suggests the Nazca lines and other complex constructions represent higher technological knowledge than he believes existed when the glyphs were created. Von Däniken maintains that the Nazca lines in Peru are
runways of an ancient airfield that was used by extraterrestrials mistaken by the natives to be their gods.
Maria Reiche's protege Phillis Pitluga, an astronomer at the
Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum, believes, based on computer aided studies of star alignments, that the giant spider figure is an
anamorphic diagram of the
constellation Orion. She further suggests that three of the straight lines leading to the figure were used to track the changing
declinations of the three stars of
Orion's Belt but does not take into account the other twelve lines. Aveni has commented on her work, saying
I really had trouble finding good evidence to back up what she contended. Pitluga never laid out the criteria for selecting the lines she chose to measure, nor did she pay much attention to the archaeological data Clarkson and Silverman had unearthed. Her case did little justice to other information about the coastal cultures, save applying, with subtle contortions, Urtons representations of constellations from the highlands. As historian Jacquetta Hawkes might ask: was she getting the pampa she desired?[8]
[edit] Environmental concerns
People trying to preserve the Nazca Lines are concerned about threats of
pollution and
erosion caused by
deforestation in the region.
The Lines themselves are superficial, they are only 10 to 30 cm deep and could be washed away... Nazca has only ever received a small amount of rain. But now there are great changes to the weather all over the world. The Lines cannot resist heavy rain without being damaged.
– Viktoria Nikitzki of the Maria Reiche Centre[9]
After flooding and mudslides in the area in mid-February 2007, Mario Olaechea Aquije, archaeological resident from Peru's
National Institute of Culture, and a team of specialists surveyed the area. He said, "[T]he mudslides and heavy rains did not appear to have caused any significant damage to the Nazca Lines," but the nearby Southern
Pan-American Highway did suffer damage, and "the damage done to the roads should serve as a reminder to just how fragile these figures are."
[10]
[edit] Images
