Nazca lines

Foundations of new world cultural astronomy

(other chapters: Cuzco, Machu Picchu)

"Between the lines: reading the Nazca markings as rituals writ large" (p. 621)

2000 years ago, ritual observances;

the orientation of the lines suggests not a sky chart but a reflection of the concern of an agricultural people in a searing desert -- water;

signaled the direction of water flow; not astronomy related;

water is a central theme of lines, correlating the orientations of the lines with geographic rather than celestial benchmarks;

the hilly promontories, like the ridges on a drainboard, define the direction in which water flows as it cascades own the mountains and onto the pampa during the rare rainstorms;

Peruvian archaeologist Toribio Mejia Xesspe called the lines, reveals features characteristic of actual Andean roads, ceremonial roads 60 years ago

for aeons, strong, sand-bearing winds have scoured the face of the desert, leaving it paved with fist-size rocks brought down from the high Andes in ancient episodes flooding. recently it ws determinded that where the rocks are exposed to the sun, bacteria have deposited a patina of purplish iron and manganese oxides: desert varnish. but the underside of each rock and the soil below are light in color. strip off the surface rocks, and a bright mark is left on the desert for centuries. the dark rubble form the stipped earth can then become an outline for the figure; at Nazca each line or shape is edged by a rock berm as much as a yard high.