A Brief History of Ancient Nazca
With the excitement surrounding the findings in Peru recently, there are some fascinating and mysterious characteristics regarding the location of the discovery. Nazca, Peru is located on an arid plateau in the Peruvian desert, near the Pacific coast. It is situated in a valley between the Ica and Nazca Grande rivers. Following the Paracas culture, the ancient Nazca civilization appeared in the area just over 2,000 years ago, lasting between BC 100 – AD 800.
A Nazcan Puquio
The Nazca were thought to be heavily influenced and possibly even arose from the Paracas before them. Their civilization originally consisted of a collective of chiefdoms and farming villages surrounding a communal area, known as Cahuachi, where they would make pilgrimages for rituals and ceremonies. They eventually grew into a bigger society with larger urban cities and advanced farming technology.
Known for their pottery and weaving, the Nazca decorated their goods with geometric patterns, plants and animals which are mirrored in the Nazca lines, the massive, curious geoglyphs that they are known for. Their advanced underground irrigation systems, called puquios, that utilized atmospheric pressure to pump water to their crops is a testament to their level of technology.
Unearthing Nazca: Special Report
The Journey to Cahuachi
At the center of Nazca was Cahuachi, which was originally thought to be a military base. That theory has been overturned, thanks to the research of Italian archeologist, Giuseppe Orefici, who has been studying the site for years. In addition to studying the mysteries of ancient Nazca, he has also spent his career studying the Rapa Nui on the enigmatic Easter Island. Orefici has concluded that Cahuachi was a ritual center and the capital where Nazcans would regularly make a pilgrimage for ceremonies.
The Cahuachi site extends over 370 acres with a nearly 100-foot-tall, stepped pyramid in the middle, making it the biggest ceremonial center of its era. Among it there are 40 other structures made of mud adobe. Within these structures are thousands of tombs that have only been discovered recently, but have since been looted by grave robbers.
In the graves of Cahuachi are an array of bodies with varying textiles, showing differing levels of societal status. Trophy heads were also found with holes drilled through the skulls, seemingly to be worn as necklaces. Some of the bodies of those buried there are well preserved due to mummification.
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The Nazca Lines
Outside of Cahuachi there are cryptic geoglyphs, known as the Nazca Lines, that can only be seen from hundreds of feet in the air. They weren’t discovered in the modern era until the 1920s when airlines flew over and noticed them. The Nazca created these lines by removing a layer of rock and dirt, most likely by tying rope between two posts, drawing guidelines for themselves. The remnants of these posts have been discovered, confirming this theory, however their method for creating such large drawings with precise measurements is still somewhat of a mystery.
The lines span over 200 square miles and consist of drawings of flora, fauna and geometric patterns. They have been preserved due to a windless, arid climate and were thought to be larger scale projections of designs that they would weave into their textiles. Among the 70 different zoomorphic lines there are depictions ranging from monkeys, to birds and jaguars. There is even a human-like figure which has been the subject of debate as to what exactly it depicts. Some see it as an astronaut which works with theories of the lines being a call to extraterrestrial visitors.
The realist perspective on the Nazca Lines sees them in a few different lights. One theory believes that they are ritual walking paths that the ancient Nazcans would follow on their pilgrimages to ceremonies like those held at Cahuachi. Another theory sees them as markers of irrigation paths or actual irrigation canals with their designs being a thank you to the gods for fertility. A simpler explanation sees them as part of an astrological calendar.
While radical theories, like the one espoused by Erich von Däniken which interprets the Nazca lines as a landing guide for extraterrestrials, might be farfetched to some, the realist theories are not proven either. The idea that the lines represented irrigation systems seems strange in their eccentricity, especially considering their elaborate system of underground aqueducts. Another obscure theory posits that the Nazcans had the technological acumen to create hot air balloons, allowing them to see the designs they created in their lines. Either way they remain shrouded in mystery with the recent discovery in Peru adding to them.
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The City of Eridu is the Oldest on Earth, It's Largely Unexplored
Over the past decade, there have been a number of archeological revelations pushing back the timeline of human evolution and our ancient ancestors’ various diasporas. Initially, these discoveries elicit some resistance as archeologists bemoan the daunting prospect of rewriting the history books, though once enough evidence is presented to established institutions, a new chronology becomes accepted.
But this really only pertains to the era of human development that predates civilization — the epochs of our past in which we were merely hunter-gatherers and nomads roaming the savannahs. Try challenging the consensus timeline of human civilization and it’s likely you’ll be met with derision and rigidity.
Conversely, someone of an alternative persuasion may profess stories of ancient civilizations, such as Atlantis or Lemuria, with speculative mythology recounting a lost, golden age in human history that was surely responsible for building the pyramids and other wonders of the world. They point to the writings of Solon and Plato as evidence for these ancestors’ existence, which is exciting but difficult to corroborate without physical proof.
Researcher Matt LaCroix seems to find himself somewhere in the middle of these two perspectives. While he says he’s fascinated by the Athenian clues detailing the destruction of Atlantis, he finds more compelling evidence in ancient Mesopotamia, or what academia already acknowledges as “the cradle of civilization.”
It’s here we find the ruins of the most ancient city on Earth that we have physical proof of — the city of Eridu. This archaic metropolis is well-documented in historical texts covering ancient Sumer and the Babylonian empire, but there’s also a mythological component to Eridu that may imply human civilization is far older than we believe — significant orders of magnitude older.
