Lines In The Desert Plains Chapter 2 An Investigation of the Nazca Lines

Chapter 2

One of the challenges of telling the story of the ancient Nazca is the fact that they left very little behind them in the way of material culture. They had only had one city and a small village, and they left behind a vast body of ceramics and textiles. These objects carry detailed depictions of Nazca life. The Paracas culture had a great influence on the Nazca culture, was an important Andean society that existed between 800-175 B.C. They had an extensive knowledge of irrigation. Many of the Nazca customs were adopted from the Paracas so we should start there first if we want to learn more about the Nazca. The Paracas culture developed on the Paracas Peninsula of Peru in Pisco Province in the Region of Ica just north of Nazca territory.



Most of what we know about the Paracas culture comes from excavations of the large Paracas seaside necropolis. It was first discoved by the Peruvian archeologist Julio C. Tello in the 1920s. It consisted of many burial chambers with the average capacity of 40 mummies. Each chamber is believed to have been owned by a specific family or clan. Each mummy was bound in layers of the intricate and ornate finely woven textiles. The iconography of the Paracas necropolis combined human aspects with the characteristics of birds or cats, which are usually represented in flight at a high altitude

A Paracas Shark mantle



The Paracas were contemporaries with the Chavin culture in northern Peru. The Paracas made wool and cotton textiles in addition to ceramics.

A Paracas Diety Mask



The Paracas cultural center was on a hill called Cerro Colorado just outside the Paracas Peninsula located near the Valley of Pisco and the Ica River.

  The economy of the Paracas was dependent on intensive agriculture and fishing. Advances were made through construction of aqueducts in the desert, which gave them the ability to produce water and they used manure as fertilizer. Apparently up until around 200 B.C. the area in which they lived was more fertile than it is now. The pottery was polychrome and consisted of complex decorated colors, like red, yellow, black and white, all related to religious representation. Some of the pottery had handles and this was passed on to the Nazca. The textiles of Paracas were characterized by geometric designs, and were done in double cloth.

Paracas Necropolis Garments

The textile designs were influenced by the Chavin culture, with lizard beings and anthromorphic cats and beings, and looked similar to the ones found in Nazca. The Paracas Peninsula had the famous candelabra geoglyph facing north, many have speculated about its origins. It could have been a direction signal for the ancient astronauts to use as they flew over the area headed for the runways (ray centers) in Nazca territory.

Paracas Candelabra Geoglyph

The picture looks like a sand carving in the sand not a mountain side. So one would think this was temporary not real. Like someone did it as a hoax. But I was unable to find a more definitive picture of it.
But even though Paracas designs may have been similar to those of Nazca, the Paracas preferred to make their designs on mountain sides.



A Paracas Design Near Nazca territory



 

Lines On the Desert Plains: An investigation of the Nazca Lines

Chapter 1



On a rainless plain, called the pampas in Peru, the ancient inhabitants etched gigantic lines, geometric forms, and naturalistic drawings called geoglyphs on the surface of the desert by sweeping the iron oxide rocks aside on the desert floor to reveal the lighter sand beneath. The ancient inhabitants can clearly be linked to the Nazca culture, for they are nearly identical to the motifs present on the Nazca ceramics or pottery. The function of the bimorphs -the hummingbirds, spider, pelican, killer whales, lizards and monkey among others-seems to be religious; they graphically represent some of the supernatural forces of the Nazca religion.

A high altittude view of the Nazca Lines



It is not surprising that there is no mention of these geoglyphs in the Spanish colonial reports. This would not have been important to them. It was not until 1926 that the American archeologist Alfred Kroeber drew what may be the earliest plans of Nazca’s geoglyphs and noted how they were made by removing the surface rock.

Drawings of Nazca Geoglyphs

He described the “ray roads” radiating out from the island-like rocky knolls, what are called today “ray centers.” In 1927 Torbio Mejia Xessepe observed the long lines, trapezoids, and general zigzags on the hillsides of the valleys of the Rio Grande de Nazca drainage on the plain. He interpreted them as “seques” or “religious roads.” Due to the environment much of the Nazca beliefs centered around agriculture and fertility. The Nazca religion depicted powerful nature-gods, such as the mythical killer whale, the harvesters, the mythical spotted cat, the serpentine creature the most prevalent figures, the anthropomorphic mythical beings ( that of human form or human attributes as opposed to that of animals or divine beings). ` The total prehistoric sequence in Peru spans 15,000 years, starting about 13,000 B.C. when the first hunter-gather societies left their traces in the Ayocucho and Ancash areas. The Lauricocho culture began in the preceramic period ca. 8000 B.C

Lauricocha Remains

The Lauricocho culture had three periods:

Period I. 8000-6000 B.C.

Period II. 6000-4200 B.C.

Period III. 4200-2500 B.C

The Lauricocho culture was part of the prehistoric people that settled in the rock caves in Lauricocho, Pacaicasa, and Guitarrero.

Lauricocha Rock Caves

The oldest human complex society in Peru and the Americas, the Norte Chico civilization flourished along the Pacific coast between 3000-1500 B.C This civilization had a complex Pre-Columbian society that included 30 population centers, they also built pyramids, some of which are thought too be 5,000 years old, built into the Peruvian Descent.

Norte Chico Pyramids in northern Peru

Then came the Chavin culture (900-200 B.C.) to the north. They also influenced their southern neighbors including the Paracas culture.

 The Chavin diety Lanzon

The culture directly affecting the Nazca was the Paracas culture, which existed from about 800-175 B.C. and then merged with the Nazca. Both the Paracas and the Nazca cultures were located in the Ica Region of Peru. The language spoken was probably some early form of Quechua by the Nazca. The Nazca culture had long disappeared by the time of the Incas ca. 1200 A.D.(by at least 450 years).

Lines On the Desert Plains: An investigation of the Nazca Lines

Introduction

 The Nazca Desert Plains



If one wanted to find the most obvious place on Earth to find evidence of ancient astronauts to my way of thinking-it would be the Nazca Lines in Peru. So this is an investigation and examination of the area, to see what kind of sense can be made out of it. It has all the makings of being an Ancient astronaut space base with runways, a astrological religious center;

 and since it is on a dry desert plain that receives very little rain, there is reason to have irrigation projects. I have heard stories of the mineral richness of the area. Even a story about mountain peaks in the area that appeared to be shaved off for a flat level surface that may have been useful to the ancient astronauts.

This is the first impression I thought of when going over the information that I have.  Every aspect of evidence even the Nazca people themselves must be considered in this investigation. The Nazca lines were constructed probably over a long period of time. This latter theory  I think it is a good evaluation of and how the Nazca Lines could have been made, and since this desert is hot during the day and cold at night it is hard to determine what time of day the work was done. But the Nazca were acclimated to the weather there so it could have been built at any time they thought it was best for the work.

This document is a historical archeology type of work. Since I mainly use information from these sources, plus speculation by others and some of my own thoughts. Google Earth and Wikipedia have been two of my sources and other sources have been derived from them in making this story into a short archeological history,

The scholars and writers say very little has changed in that desert environment. The truth is -that everything moves, you may not see it moving but it is moving and that movement accumulates over time. So that desert is not pristine. About 2000 years worth of time is what we are talking about. The area where these people lived is right next to a fault line and has a history or tremors and earthquakes-and that is a lot of movement-even today ! There are lines all over the place in this area, and some of what they left behind has been destroyed by the movement that has occurred. You will learn more when you read this story.

Sincerely, Alaudun