Hunter Sampson
Mr. Lee
Archaeology/ Anthropology Honors
December 21, 2014 The Nazca Lines What are the Nazca Lines? In order to see the massive carvings in the ground you would have to go up to an altitude of about 1,000 feet. All together they cover an area of 190 square miles, and the largest of all of the glyphs stretches out for 6 miles. They are pictures of animals/ insects, flowers, and strange designs, but what do they really mean? Did they have a religious purpose to the people who built them? Or were they created so people today can stand back and marvel at them? The Nazca Lines, carved 2,000 years ago into the 37 mile long Pampa Colorada plateau in the southern coastal desert near Nazca, Peru are arguably the greatest achievement of the Nazca people. In order to find out more about the Nazca lines, first we must know a little bit about the Nazca. Flourishing between 200- 600 BP in the desert at the foothills of the Andes Mountains, the Nazca people were amazing engineers and farmers. Living in the desert is hard, and dry. In order to supply themselves with water, the Nazca built and underground irrigation system with plenty of aqueducts and canals. They were also excellent at making and decorating pottery, usually painting fish, birds, and mythological creatures/figures on their pottery. The question “Do they have a religious purpose to the people who built them?” still has not been answered. There are a few theories out there that do make sense as to why the lines exist. One of those theories being that; the Nazca used them as part of their religious ceremonies. A line from an article states “The lines may have been associated with rituals to guarantee a rich crop” (ABC-Clio article). Now this is very possible. The Nazca, just like any other ancient civilization did have rituals. Also the fact that they live in such a terrible farming region, could lead one to believe that the lines were part of a ritual that ensured that their crops would grow. But they might not only be for agricultural rituals, they could also be for sacrificial rituals as well. Nazca like many ancient civilizations were polytheistic and worshiped many gods. Of course they had gods for farming and agriculture. As explained by this excerpt from an article about the Nazca lines “Likely related to the arid and extreme nature of their environment, Nazca religious beliefs were centered around agriculture and fertility. Much of Nazca art depicts powerful nature gods such as the mythical killer whale, the harvesters, the mythical spotted cat. Essentially they worshipped gods represented by animals which they thought controlled things like water and crops.” (ancientaliensdebunked.com) The theory of the Nazca lines being part of a religious practice makes sense. When you think about the times when airplanes and helicopters didn’t exist, nobody knew what the lines looked like except for the gods because they are high up in the sky. The Nazca also had many rituals. Including agricultural rituals, astronomical rituals, and special celebratory rituals. In their day the Nazca also performed many rituals involving human sacrifice to please the gods. In this quote from an article about research done on the Nazca lines, it talks about people actually using the lines, “The model suggests that activity on the lines--people walking or conducting ceremonies, for instance--would have been visible from neighboring hillsides and plateaus. Spectators standing on nearby glyphs would have been able to observe or perhaps participate in valley-wide ceremonies.” (Curry, Andrews). The Nazca people actually walked on the lines. But they must have done more than just walked on them. It would not be surprising if the Nazca actually performed rituals and human sacrifice on the lines themselves. Maybe each one of the Nazca lines represented a god, and the Nazca performed rituals and sacrifices right there on the god’s line. Since there is no way of proving that the Nazca gods actually existed, they might have thought that the lines are temples or shrines to the gods. Just like the Pyramids of Giza are shrines and burial tombs of the pharaohs. By performing rituals right on the lines, the Nazca probably felt like that was as close as they could get to the gods themselves. Is there any religious purpose to the Nazca lines? There may have been a religious purpose to the lines, but they may have also had another purpose too. Since there is no written proof as to the actual use of them, we may never know what their actual use was. There is some pretty strong evidence that the lines were walked on, and we know that the Nazca believed in many gods and practiced many rituals, including human sacrifice. So the lines themselves might have actually been the site for practicing their rituals. But there is no actual or written proof as to the purpose of the Nazca Lines, so we may never know what they are there for. It’s a mystery that may never be solved.

Works Cited 1) Curry, Andrew. "Rituals Of The Nasca Lines." Archaeology 62.3 (2009): 34-39. Academic Search Premier. Web. 21 Dec. 2014. 2) "Nazca culture." World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras. ABC-CLIO, 2014. Web. 21 Dec. 2014. 3) "Nazca Lines." World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras. ABC-CLIO, 2014. Web. 21 Dec. 2014. 4) "Nazca Lines | Ancient Aliens Debunked." Ancient Aliens Debunked RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Dec. 2014.