PERU: THE ICA - PARACAS & NAZCA CULTURE

The narrow desert fringe that stretches for more than 1,400 miles along Peru's Pacific coast, has been called the driest desert on earth. Small oasis have formed where rivers, descending from the slopes of the Andes cross the desert. Here, people have lived for thousands of years. These valleys are very fertile land and, particularly in the south, the mild sunny climate sets an ideal environment for grape crops. Ica is the wine country of Peru. Excellent wine and Peru's very own famous "Pisco", a very strong beverage extracted from white grapes, are produced in the area.

The Regional Museum of Ica, one of the best regional museums in the country, even though it is small it holds a variety of archeological pieces such as pottery and textiles from the Nazca and Paracas cultures that developed in the area. Also exhibits colonial and other historic artifacts

The Paracas peninsula located 235 Km. south of Lima, is the most important coastal formation in Peru. An unspoiled natural paradise where the desert sands reveal treasures of ancient civilizations. The abundance of marine fauna -birds, fish and sea mammals- found in the Reserve attracts visitors and ecologist who are amazed by the profusion of sea life. Peculiar rocky formations and geological stratus have made the area the object of many studies of origin of the Planet. In the ocean floor, on a straight line from the Paracas peninsula another wonder has been found, the Peruvian marine fault, formed millions of years ago when the coastal mountain range fell into the ocean.

This fault is now the merging point for two currents, "el Nino" warm waters coming from the north and "Humbolt" cold waters coming from the south - which originates a unique climactic condition for proliferation of plankton and fito-plankton, main food source of innumerable fish species, resulting in the extraordinary chain of richness of marine life. The sea of Paracas is considered the lungs of the Pacific ocean because of the pureness and oxygenation originated in its waters. Another peculiarity of the area are the strong winds called "Paracas" reaching speeds of up to 36 km. (21 miles per hour). 

The Paracas National Reserve is the first marine conservation center of the country and one of the most important in the world. With beautiful beaches, ideal weather and impressive scenery it is a place that can be visited all year round. Added to its natural beauty, Paracas is a very important archaeological and historical site, home to one of the advanced cultures that flourished in Peru 1,000 BC, known worldwide by the exquisite textiles with combination of many colors and stylized designs, and by the practice of brain surgery and cranial trepanation.

The culture embraced the river valleys of Chincha, Pisco, Ica, Nazca and Acari on the south coast. The "sand painters" of the Nazca plain would have come from these oasis towns to artfully remove the rocks and stones that would create perfect pictures on nature’s blackboard. Superb textiles also exemplify Nazca creativity with brilliant multicolored designs woven in tapestry or brocade. Patterns or motifs, borrowed from their pottery, were painted on plain cloth. 

And birds in flight, or anthropomorphic figures resembling those of the ground markings, reappear in vibrant textiles of wool or cotton. "Trophy heads" were frequent art themes, and relate to South American head-hunting practices of the time. These rituals are presumed to have been associated with warfare, and to have had religious symbolism relating to fertility and reproduction. 

Even the theory that animals in the geoglyphs were symbols of mythological god-protectors, or were linked to water, had an agricultural basis. Life on the desert-oasis meant knowing how to adapt to an unyielding environment, and hard work in extracting springs of life from it. These ancient Peruvians mastered the challenge. Successful at irrigation, they improved their crops, extended cultivated areas, and built terraced pyramids. And during this era, they developed and perfected a new art form: Ground art... using the surface of the earth itself to create wonderful works, which, in this special environment, would be frozen in time. 

The markings written on that vast plateau, above the valley of the Rio Nazca, are enduring monuments to the creative ingenuity of the ancients who lived in this place at that time. Science has linked the work of the Nazca lines to that span in the pre-history of Peru called the "Early Intermediate Period": the era between 200 BC. and 600 AD., when the Nazca civilization flourished. Agriculture was at the center of Nazca life, and everything else seemed to flow from it. The Nazca lines themselves may have been built for that purpose, if their use was intended for rituals to insure crop fertility... or to align with the stars to predict weather. 

Music played an important role in Nazca civilization, and may have been a component of religious ritual. Their highly decorative instruments consisted of pottery drums, rattles, trumpet-shaped horns, and panpipes made of pottery or cane. Other artists of the time were the weavers and potters, who - in that era -perfected their crafts to fine arts! Nazca pottery is famous for its vivid colors, symbolic motifs, and exotic animal and people-shapes. Mineral-based pigments endowed their colors with a lasting quality.

NAZCA: THE LINES

The ancient populations of the Nazca culture breathed life into this parched wasteland with incredible, indelible artworks created across hundreds of square miles of the desert surface! Their desert canvas - called the Pampa Colorada (meaning Red Plain, for the reddish-brown stones that characterize its surface) - is a plateau 37 miles long and 15 miles wide. On it, they etched works of monumental proportion: a montage of geometric formations called "geoglyphs," and whimsical portrayals of animals, birds, and human forms.

There are lines everywhere! Thousands of crisscrossing, zigzagging, radiating, oscillating, and parallel lines. Lines ranging in widths from six inches to over six feet. Some extending as far as six miles. Some continuing, ever-straight and unbroken, over valleys and hills! Figures of fanciful birds -18 different kinds - create a veritable aviary in the mixed menagerie that prowls the pampa. And on steep hillsides, depiction of human figures keep their eternal vigil over the masterwork on the plain below. How awesome was the task of the ancient landscapist!

Neither carved nor painted, these images represent artistry of another medium: by clearing away the dark, rust colored surface stones (accomplished by sweeping, brushing, or removing by hand or foot), and exposing the light-colored sub-soil beneath - marvelous patterns were created in the contrasting soil. Trapezoids, triangles, rectangles and quadrangles of all dimension unfold before us: from a yard or two in width, to several hundred yards wide; and in lengths stretching from 10 or 15 yards, to over half a mile! 

To gain a sense of the enormity of scale -picture a football field: The giant curly-tailed monkey would fill it! The long, creeping lizard is twice the monkey’s length. And the spider, small by comparison, crawls about, in 150 feet of desert pavement. One of the largest creatures, a curious bird with a zig-zag neck, points a beak across 600 feet of desertscape! Other figures include a dog, plants, fish... and two piles of rocks in the shape of llamas! 

NAZCA: THE MYTHS

They look like the markings of a prehistoric Einstein, on the biggest "natural blackboard" in the world! Their origins have been probed by historians, geographers, archaeologists, astronomers, mathematicians, anthropologists, ethnographers and photographers ever since the markings first came to light over fifty years ago. How could markings etched upon the desert some 1500 -2000 years ago remain virtually intact -undisturbed by time and weather?

The geology of the area solves the riddle. Stones (not sand) comprise the desert surface. Rusted by humidity, their darkened color increases heat absorption. The resulting cushion of warm surface air acts as a buffer against the wind; while minerals in the soil help to solidify the stones. On the "desert pavement" thus created in this dry, rainless environment, erosion is practically nil - making for remarkable preservation of the markings. 

News of the enigmatic Nazca lines became public knowledge in the late 1930s, at about the same time that air travel had begun opening new horizons to people everywhere. The awesome aerial view that beckoned beyond this particular horizon captured the imagination of writers, scholars and tourists alike. Early passengers called then prehistoric landing fields, or compared them to Martian canals. In the 1960s, author Erich von Daniken hypothesized that, in remote times, ancient astronauts visited the earth; and that the giant figures on the Nazca plain were meant as signals for the space travelers, as they touched down on the 37-mile-long airfield!

When first discovered , the tracings were thought to be shallow irrigation ditches. Serious study of the phenomenon began in 1939, when anthropologist Paul Kosok speculated that the lines could be ancient astronomical sight lines. Mathematician-astronomer Maria Reiche embraced this notion in the early 1940s, and gathered data on the Pampa documenting the theory that the lines are linked to an ancient calendar and correlate the movements of stars with seasonal and weather changes. Such information would have served as a type of weather forecaster for desert farmers, predicting the times to plant and harvest (a practice still in use by Andean farmers today).

The ruins of nearby Cahuachi, a once important city overlooking the Pampa, provide a clue to the nature of the people who came here for these ritual practices. Described as a sort of "pre-Columbian Vatican" by archaeologist Helaine Silverman who has studied the former religious capital, Cahuachi was a place of worship, celebration and burial. Findings at ancient grave-sites suggest that people also came there to begin their journey to an afterlife, and to be buried with their finest treasures. Journeying to the Nazca lines for ceremonial purposes would have been a part of their culture.

The enigma of the Nazca lines has been called one of the most baffling in all archaeology. Its story is shrouded in myth and mystery. And the questions are endless. But clearly, the facts and fantasies surrounding the Nazca phenomenon are almost as fascinating to ponder as the spectacular desert drawings themselves. 

The idea that the incredible drawings were the work of beings from outer space appealed to many. Besides, extraterrestrials were the only ones who could view them from their space-ships, on high. The astronaut theory, of course, was never substantiated. But a ceramic oddity discovered from the Vicus culture closely resembling a space-suited figure exhibits a striking feature: The face of the figure is seen behind a "windowed" helmet... strangely like the astronaut gear we know today. (Myth or mystery?)

Thanks to studies, two of the secrets, the ones relating to "who" and "when" have been unlocked. So similar to the animal drawings were the stylized pottery figures found at nearby burial sites, it was clear the two were linked in time to the major period of Nazca civilization: 200 B.C. to 600 A.D. Some of the more primitive figures on mountain slopes are attributed to the earlier Paracas culture, dating as far back as 900 B.C.