The Nazca Lines
3:34 PM
Did you know that the
Nazca lines were not created by alien visitors or from the air, but were made
by ancient Nazca people, in situ, over a long period
of time?
The forms of the
geoglyphs on the Pampa include biomorphic and geometric figures as well as
lineal geoglyphs. The biomorphic forms include as many as thirty different
figures, which include a flower, monkey, killer whales, spider, and
hummingbird. The geometric shapes include spirals, trapezoids, quadrangles, and
squares.
According to
Silverman and Proulx the Pampa geoglyphs were made using a subtractive
technique where the top rocky layer of dark, angular rocks were swept away by
hand, revealing the unoxidized, lighter-colored layer below. A rock border was
then placed along the swept lines. This contrast allows the geoglyphs to become
visible.
Several suggestions are made as
to how the figures could have been made without the use of aerial viewpoints.
For instance, warp and weft grids may have been sit up across the land to help
transfer the image, while straight lines may have been mapped using wood posts
and cotton string, as well as view holes, which further challenge the popular
alien visitor theory.
 |
| spondylus seashell |
Some scholars feel the geoglyphs
were walked or were “danced or tranced into existence, making them dynamic
rather than static.” Hall suggests the purpose of the lines may have changed
from images to be seen to images to be experienced. They were stages for
walking, dancing, and ceremonial processions. He concludes that the lines
appear to be related to water based on the 2000 discovery of a spondylus seashell, an important
religious symbol for water and fertility.
Other viewpoints suggest the
lines were directly related to mountain deities, water supply, rainfall, and
agriculture, especially as they do not line up with celestial bodies, but to
places of ritual relating to water and fertility for crops.
A group of us are staying behind
to fly over the Nazca lines. I doubt we will spot any long-lost alien space
ships, but the lines sure will be cool to see.
Lee
--> --> -->
Silverman, Helaine and Donald
Proulx. Chapter 7, The Geoglyphs of the Rio Grande de Nazca Drainage, in The
Nasca, pp. 163-192. Blackwell, Malden, Mass. 2002.
Hall, Stephen S. Spirits in the Sands:
the Ancient Nasca Lines of Peru shed their secrets. National Geographic.
March 2010:56-79.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/03/nasca/hall-text
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/nasca-lines-the-buried-secrets-4477/Videos#tab-Videos/07695_00
My friend speaks for me:
http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/69/9c/05/699c057406cd45724f9679d4b3aa5bbf.jpg
bob