Nasca Ceramic Iconography: An Overview
http://people.umass.edu/proulx/online_pubs/Nasca_Ceramic
_Iconography_Overview.pdf
http://www.viewzone.com/nazcatheories.html
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=5848
This site contains a list of NUMEROUS theories on how
and why the Nazca lines were constructed.
http://www.world-mysteries.com/mpl_1_2.htm
http://socyberty.com/history/nazca-lines/
This site provides numerous pictures and a wide
variety of information.
http://www.crystalinks.com/nazca.html
First Hot air Balloon Theory for the line.
http://latinamericanhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/nazca_li
nes_the_worlds_first_hot_air_balloon
Discovery Channel Video footage
http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/solving-history-nazca-lines/
National Geographic Video footage and history
discussion.
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/nascalines-the-buried-secrets-4477/facts#tab-Videos/07734_00
Site offers a ‘very’ brief video of the Nazca lines.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelvideo/worldwonders/6717700/Wonders-of-the-World-Nazca-LinesPeru.html
http://www.archaeology.org/0005/abstracts/nasca.html
It takes a view from above to appreciate the giant designs the
ancient Nazca people carved into the Peruvian desert. This view
from the Ikonos satellite reveals a giant spiral, a spider, and
perfectly straight lines that stretch for kilometers across the
desert. The Nazca created these geoglyphs between 200 BCE
and AD 600 by clearing away the dark red top soil and stone,
leaving the pale underlying soil exposed. Since the plain where
the lines are carved receives little rain or wind, the lines are still
visible today
This image, taken on January 15, 2001, shows two glyphs and
several lines. Near the top of the image, a spiral is nestled at the
foot of the mountains. Below it is a spider, with its pincers facing
the left edge of the image.
Since the lines are difficult to see from the ground, the artists
may never have seen their work from this perspective. So why
did the Nazca go to the trouble of scribbling over the desert? No
one knows, but many theories have been proposed. The figures
could be depicting constellations or deities with straight lines
forming sacred roads between them. They could be marking the
location of an underground water source in the high desert
where water would have been precious, or they could be figures
from an agricultural calendar.
To read more, see Nazca Lines on the Discovery Channel web site. Image copyright Space Imaging
Although the true potter’s wheel was absent, these
platforms served as a rotational device upon which
to build a vessel. Pots were constructed using
combinations of coiling, drawing and direct
shaping, with some use of the paddle and anvil
technique (Carmichael 1998:219). It is important to
note that unlike the Moche, molds were never used
by the Nasca in making their ceramics.
Nazca Lines
and Pottery
of Peru
Few archaeological enigmas have excited so
much fanciful speculation as the lines and figures
etched into the desert near Nazca in southern
Peru. Few of the theories are scientifically tenable,
and many are pure fantasy.
The lines
are many
kilometers
long and
crisscross
sectors of
the pampas
in all directions. Many of the lines form
geometric figures: angles,
triangles, bunches, spirals,
rectangles, wavy lines,
concentric circles.
The Nazca’s were an American Indian culture,
living around 100BC-AD800. They resided in the
Nazca Desert, a coastal desert in southern Peru.
They made lots of artwork, and constantly used
animals in their art. They, like most cultures, had a
unique drawing style and used lots of color in their
pottery. They farmed 31 miles inland of the Nazca
River. Later, farmland became sacred land
because of the natural springs. They were quite
advanced, using irrigation systems and burying
their dead. They had many complex religious
practices such as masked ritual performances and
dances for their gods. Ellie
In general, Nazca culture is
considered to consist of
three stages; Early, Middle,
and Late stages, and also
the Classic Nazca
(approximately A.D. 250750). One of the most
famous and distinctive
features of the Nazca
culture is the polychrome
pottery which has attracted attention because of
its technological refinement and the exciting
symbolism of its motifs. This pottery culture
spreads in the area of the valleys of Chincha,
Pisco, Ica, Nazca and Acari.” In the Early stage,
these wares did not have much color, but Middle
and Late Nazca polychromes are buff or red and
are painted in three to eight colors. The most
popular choices of color were red, black, white,
brown, yellow, gray and violet with an outline in
black. Bowls and beakers were common forms,
but double-spout and head-and-spout jars are
also found. Birds, fish or fruits were commonly
drawn on the pottery, and Nazca's religious or
mythological features were also used in its
design. Looting is the greatest problem today.
Their ancient technique of weaving, that the Nazca
people developed, has given an insight into how the
lines may have been made, and what they might have
been used for more than 1,500 years ago.
On the pampa, south of
the Nazca Lines,
archaeologists have now
Stunningly preserved in the dry uncovered the lost city of
the line-builders,
soil of the Peruvian desert
are the mummified bodies of the Cahuachi. It was built
Nazca people themselves.
nearly two years ago and
was mysteriously abandoned 500 years later. New
discoveries at Cahuachi are at last beginning to give
us insight into the Nazca people and to unravel the
mystery of the Nasca Lines. Italian archaeologist
Giuseppe Orefici has been excavating the site for the
past few decades, Cahuachi, in Peru, was a major
bringing a team
ceremonial center of the Nazca culture
and overlooked some of the Nazca lines
down every year.
from 1 CE to about 500 CE.
The site contains
over 40 mounds
Adobe Pyramid at Cahuachi
topped with adobe
structures. Looting
is the greatest
problem facing
the site today.
Sites are a very
recent find.
The Nazca Lines
are located in the
Nazca Desert, a
high arid plateau
that stretches
between the
towns of Nazca
and Palpa on the
pampa (a large
flat area of southern
Peru).
The Nazca plain is
virtually unique for its
ability to preserve the
markings upon it, due
to the combination of
the climate (one of the
driest on Earth, with
only twenty minutes of
rainfall per year) and
the flat, stony ground
which minimizes the effect of the wind at ground
level. With no dust or sand to cover the plain, and
little rain or wind to erode it, lines drawn here tend
to stay drawn. These factors, combined with the
existence of a lighter-colored subsoil beneath the
desert crust, provide a vast
writing pad that is ideally
suited to the artist who
wants to leave his mark for
eternity. The concentration
and juxtaposition of the
lines and drawings required
intensive long-term labor as
is demonstrated by the
stylistic continuity of the
designs, which clearly
correspond to the different
stages of cultural change.