Nazca lines

Lines and Geoglyphs of Nazca and Pampas de Jumana

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Criteria	Cultural: i, iii, iv
Reference	700
Inscription	1994 (18th Session)

The Nazca Lines are a series of geoglyphs located in the Nazca Desert, a high arid plateau that stretches more than 80 kilometres (50 mi) between the towns of Nazca and Palpa on the Pampas de Jumana in Peru. Although some local geoglyphs resemble Paracas motifs, these are largely believed to have been created by the Nazca culture between 200 BCE and 700 CE. There are hundreds of individual figures, ranging in complexity from simple lines to stylized hummingbirds, spiders, monkeys, fish, sharks or orcas, llamas, and lizards.

The lines are shallow designs in the ground where the reddish pebbles that cover the surrounding landscape have been removed, revealing the whitish earth underneath. Hundreds are simple lines or geometric shapes, and more than seventy are natural or human figures. The largest are over 200 metres (660 ft) across. Scholars differ in interpreting what the lines were for but 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"

The dry, windless, stable climate of the plateau has preserved the lines to this day, for the most part. Extremely rare changes in weather may temporarily alter the general designs.

Construction

One explanation for the method of construction employed by the Nazca people involves the use of simple tools and surveying equipment. Wooden stakes in the ground at the end of some lines (one of which was found and used to carbon-date all of the figures) support this theory. Researcher Joe Nickell of the University of Kentucky has reproduced the figures using the technology available to the Nazca people of the time and without aerial assistance. With careful planning and simple technologies, a small team of individuals could recreate even the largest figures within days.

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 creates lines which contrast sharply against the surrounding desert. There are several hundred simple curvilinear animal and human figures. The area encompassing the lines is nearly 500 square kilometres (190 sq mi), and the largest figures can be nearly 270 metres (890 ft). The lines persist due to the extremely dry, windless, and constant climate of the Nazca region. The Nazca desert is one of the driest on Earth and maintains a temperature around 25 °C (77 °F) all year round, and the lack of wind has helped keep the lines uncovered to the present day.

Nazca Lines seen from SPOT Satellite

Purpose

Satellite picture of an area containing lines. (Coordinates: 14°43′S 75°08′W)

One theory of the purpose of the lines is that the Nazca people's motivations were religious and that the images were constructed so that gods in the sky could see them. Kosok and Reiche advanced one of the earliest reasons given for the Nazca Lines: that they were intended to point to the places on the distant horizon where the sun and other celestial bodies rose or set. This hypothesis was evaluated by two different experts in archaeoastronomy, Gerald Hawkins and Anthony Aveni, and they both concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support an astronomical explanation.

In 1985, the archaeologist Johan Reinhard published archaeological, ethnographic, and historical data demonstrating that worship of mountains and other water sources played a dominant role in Nazca religion and economy from ancient to recent times. He presented the theory that the lines and figures can be explained as part of religious practices involving the worship of deities associated with the availability of water and thus the fertility of crops. The lines were interpreted as being primarily used as sacred paths leading to places where these deities could be worshiped, and the figures as symbolically representing animals and objects meant to invoke their aid. However, the precise meanings of many of the individual geoglyphs remain unsolved as of 2009.

Henri Stierlin, in his 1983 book, linked the Nazca Lines to the ancient textiles found wrapping mummies of the Paracas culture. The lines and trapezes may have been used as giant, primitive looms allowing for the fabrication of the extremely long strings and wide pieces of textile that are typical of the area. In this theory, the figurative patterns (smaller and less common) have only ritualistic purposes.

Some, such as Jim Woodmann, have proposed that the Nazca Lines presuppose some form of manned flight in order to see the figures properly and that a hot air balloon was the only possible available technology. Woodmann actually made a hot air balloon using materials and techniques that he believed would have been available to people at the time, in order to test this hypothesis. The balloon flew, after a fashion, but there is no evidence in support of Nazca-era hot air balloons, and Woodman's work has been rebutted.

Yet others, such as Swiss author and investigator Erich von Däniken, suggest the existence of structures and artifacts such as the Nazca lines represent higher technological knowledge that is presumed by von Däniken to have existed at the time these glyphs were manufactured. Von Däniken maintains that the Nazca lines in Peru are runways of an ancient airfield. Von Däniken's claims, however, are not substantiated by any archaeological evidence.

Environmental concerns

According to Viktoria Nikitzki of the Maria Reiche Centre, an organization dedicated to protecting the Nazca Lines, pollution and erosion caused by deforestation threaten the continued existence of the lines. She is quoted as saying

"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."

Mario Olaechea Aquije, the archaeological resident from Peru's National Institute of Culture in Nazca, Peru, and a team of specialists surveyed the area after the flooding and mudslides occurring in the area in mid-February 2007. He announced that "the mudslides and heavy rains did not appear to have caused any significant damage to the Nazca Lines", but that 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."

See also

• Marilyn Bridges
• Simone Waisbard
• List of archaeoastronomical sites sorted by country

References

• Aveni, Anthony F. (ed.) (1990). The Lines of Nazca. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society. ISBN 0-87169-183-3
• Aveni, Anthony F. (2000). Between the Lines: The Mystery of the Giant Ground Drawings of Ancient Nasca, Peru . Austin Texas: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-70496-8
• Haughton, Brian. (2007). Hidden History: Lost Civilizations, Secret Knowledge, and Ancient Mysteries. Career Press. ISBN 1564148971
• Lambers, Karsten (2006). The Geoglyphs of Palpa, Peru: Documentation, Analysis, and Interpretation. Lindensoft Verlag, Aichwald/Germany. ISBN 3-929290-32-4
• Reinhard, Johan (1996) (6th ed.) The Nazca Lines: A New Perspective on their Origin and Meaning. Lima: Los Pinos. ISBN 84-89291-17-9
• Stierlin, Henri (1983). La Clé du Mystère. Paris: Albin Michel. ISBN: 2226018646