This article was written for The Kathmandu Post (click here for the ePaper link, page 1 in FEATURES) and first published 26/02/2011 on ekantipur.com.

See below the online version with implemented links:


By Beatrice Jeschek

A hummingbird ("colibri") drawn into the Peruvian sand.

For two thousand years, the Nasca Lines in Peru are practically untouched by wind and rain. Humans draw them, no doubt about it. The question remains, why?

Now, a Japanese research team has discovered 138 hills with a set of lines engraved, as well as two more geoglyphs in the plateau, which is UNESCO World Heritage since 1994, close to a temple.

It is in Peru, among the driest places in the world, for anybody interested to witness from high above the sky – immense lines and shapes as if drafted by playful giants.

New findings

Last summer, a team around Masato Sakai, professor at Yamagata University's faculty of literature and social sciences, has put themselves under the cultural wings of Peru’s Ministry. They above all wanted to finally uplift secrets buried just beneath the desert's surface.

It was already clear: When those dark rocks were removed two thousand years ago in order to show contrasting white desert sand, they displayed the figures and lines. Apparently, careful planning and simple tools like wooden stakes in the grounds and ceramics were enough to measure lines and figures (and used for both reconstructing and radiocarbon dating them later). No need for playful giants.

Now, according to the Peruvian newspaper El Comercio, they found two more of the geoglyphs in form of a head and an animal, as well as 138 hills with a set of lines engraved.

Nasca Lines satellite picture of an area containing lines, © NASA

Imagine flying over this desolate plain in the 1920s. Rubbing your eyes in disbelief, you may have wondered whether the gods had gone crazy (after all, society was on the edge of colour television) or if these several kilometres-long lines and sand sketches of a spider, a lizard, a condor or human face were actually meant for communication.

A key to history

Read precisely with the correct alphabetical key, these images may lead to a well-told narrative—one that could ultimately provide insight into Nasca history.

However, so far no one has found this key.

Since their re-discovery in the 1930s after the first commercial aircrafts offered flabbergasted passengers a bird's eye view of the designs, scientists have been trying to resolve the mystery.

Yet, the geoglyphs remain symbols to remind scientists and researchers of the sheer lack of proof that has been the unfortunate result of their studies. This is the case not only for these most famous geoglyphs in Peru but also those spread across the world—from the Atacama Giant in Chile to geometric shapes in Brazil, newly found thanks to Google Earth analysers.

Could it be that these lines were spun to serve as an enormous astronomical calendar in the sand? And could this calendar have been used for ancient rituals?

Maria Reiche and Paul Kosok measuring the Nasca Lines, 1940s

One hypothesis rolled over another. The tale of the whimsical sand drawings entered the series of mankind’s biggest mysteries in the 1940s when Maria Reiche, a German mathematician and archaeologist, met the first serious Nasca Lines researcher, the American history professor Paul Kosok.

Despite a strong will after succeeding Kosok following his death in 1959, a sequence of unsuccessful investigations led to Reiche being buried at the age of 95 after decades of intense research without any definite answers. Fate would have it that now visitors of her house-turned-museum in the nearby village of San Pedro look at her sketches of those in the sand she studied her entire academic life.

Practical and spiritual motivations

Practical and spiritual motivations behind the making of the geoglyphs and lines wash up every time a scientist has touched upon the subject.

“It must be higher art for the gods!” called the realists in the 1980s (initiated by archeologist Johan Reinhard) who believed in cultural fingerprints as the intellectual work of communication.

Until today, this hypothesis enlightens the minds of many researchers, often alongside the thought of a determined, practical meaning for those who follow the lines on earth. This combination of both views—seeing the Nasca Lines as a path for worshiping gods as well as for guiding humans to flows of subterranean water—may have the most credibility. Imagine a Nasca woman in search of a spiritual escort and earthly needs in the desert, such as underground water resources.

Monkey drawn into the Nasca Lines, Peru

The landing-strips-for-alien-spacecrafts claim remains in the dark corner of scientific dissection, only put into the spotlight to fulfill the simple human lust for sensation. Just at the beginning of this year, a video became a hit on Youtube for supposedly having captured the shapes of a UFO navigating the Nasca Lines. But the above hypotheses have not been able to win any ground—the more they have been researched, the less legitimate they have proven.

For instance, subsequent analyses by astronomers Gerald Hawkins and Anthony Aveni have shown that any connections between the Nasca Lines and certain stars to be statistically insignificant. Kosok’s and Reiche’s astronomical hypothesis was therefore meaningless.

What does it mean that now, a century after contemporary citizens by coincidence discovered ancient artifacts, just two more of these geoglyphs have been found?

Basically these have done nothing but add to the speculation—if they were not so close to the ceremonial Nasca temple in Cahuachi. This, as simple as it may sound, is a definitive hint that the lines, the geoglyphs and anything else captured by the ancient folks of the Nasca had something to do with their beliefs.

So, were they lines for praising the gods after all?

Though it may well be too early to be anything more than vague, the findings at least indicate that the geoglyphs were part of a ritual landscape, intended to guide the performance of ceremonies. The fact is, a century of research later, the "why" still has scientists trapped within a massive question mark the size of the Nasca area itself—450 square kilometres to be precise.

The combination of hypotheses has to add up to a sense-creating respectful replication of a culture that maximised its craft in what turned out to be nothing more than desert under the naked sky.

If the study led by Sakai comes up with actual proof for one belief or another, he will receive applause reaching as far as his home country, Japan—that is guaranteed.

And if he, or any other research team, cannot lift any more secrets? Then, the Nasca Lines may well be this little shake of mystery the world needs now and again.

Jump from one video to another on Youtube featuring the Nasca (sometimes also spelled Nazca) Lines: