Lost Civilizations of the Andes

David Pratt

Jan 2010, Aug 2011

Part 1 of 2

Contents

Part 11. The Incas [08/11]2. Pre-Inca cultures [08/11]3. Transoceanic contacts [08/11]4. The Nazca lines

Part 25. Inca stonemasonry [08/11]6. Inca sites7. Tiwanaku

1. The Incas

In 1532 Francisco Pizarro and a small band of Spanish mercenaries landed on the desert coast ofPeru and made their way into the Andean highlands. At that time the Inca empire known asTahuantinsuyu, or land of the four quarters stretched 5500 km, from southern Chile to modern-day Colombia, and had a population of over 10 million. The Spaniards enticed the Inca ruler,Atahualpa, to a supposedly peaceful meeting and took him captive, promising to release him if ahuge ransom was paid a room full of gold and two of silver. The ransom worth about $50 millionby todays standards was duly paid, but the conquistadors then strangled Atahualpa to death andmarched on Cuzco, the Inca capital.

Manco Cpac, Atahualpas half-brother, was appointed puppet ruler, but after a few years ofobedience, he rebelled. In 1536 the Inca army gathered outside the walls of Cuzco and in thefortress at Sacsayhuaman. A fierce battle with the Spaniards ensued. Thanks to their powerful war-horses, steel weapons and sheer audacity, less than 200 conquistadors managed to defeat 100,000Inca warriors, putting 1500 of them to the sword. Within a few years, and with gold-hungryreinforcements pouring in from Panama, all serious resistance to the Spaniards was destroyed. TheIncas last jungle refuge, at Vilcabamba, fell in 1572.

There were several reasons why the early stages of the conquest of the mighty Inca empire werelargely accomplished without major battles. First, the Incas were divided: the death of the 11th Incaruler, Huayna Capac, around 1527 was followed by a civil war in which Atahualpa deposed hisbrother Huascar. Second, after the arrival of the Spanish in Central America, infectious diseasessuch as smallpox swept through South America, reducing the population by two-thirds. Third, the8th Inca ruler had prophesied around 1432 that within five generations foreigners would come andconquer the Incas. Huayna Capac later said that he would be the last emperor, and instructed hissons and the rest of his court to obey and serve the invaders.1 The conquistadors were therefore

initially seen as viracochas, a reference to the Incas legendary white culture-bringer and creatorgod, Viracocha. However, due to their greed and brutality they were soon reclassified as devils.

According to the standard history of the Incas, as put forward, for example, by Garcilaso de la Vega,the son of a conquistador and an Inca princess, the Inca people arrived in the Cuzco area in the12th century AD, and had been ruled over by 13 Incas up to and including Atahualpa. But thisversion may refer only to last dynasty of rulers. According to Blas Valera, the son of a conquistadorand a female native, who drew on information from Peruvian priests and the descendants of theamautas (sages), there had been 101 rulers, which would take us back to around 1220 BC.Excavations in Marcavalle, 4 km south of Cuzco, show that the Cuzco valley had been inhabiteduninterruptedly by an agricultural and pastoral society since 1400 BC.2

At first the Incas collaborated peacefully with other ethnic groups in the Cuzco region. Around 1430the Chancas from the north invaded the area. After defeating them, the Incas began the age ofexpansion under Pachacuti. Quechua was made the official language, and sun worship the officialreligion.

Fig. 1.1 Inca expansion.3

The Inca pantheon was presided over by Viracocha, followed by Inti, the sun god, and Pachamama,the earth goddess. Viracocha is usually said to mean foam of the sea, but more literally it meansfat of the sea, fat being a symbol of life and strength. Another possible interpretation is tilted planeof the (celestial) sea a reference to the inclination of the ecliptic to the celestial equator.4According to the standard version of Inca mythology, the first ruler of the Kingdom of Cuzco was

called Manco Cpac. In one legend, he was the son of Viracocha, and in another, he was broughtup from the depths of Lake Titicaca by Inti. The Inca sovereign was held to be the child of the sun.

The Maya of Central America believed that they were living in the fourth world-age, which is widelythought to end in 2012. The Aztecs held that the current age was the fifth. The Incas likewisebelieved that their own culture was the fifth age, or fifth sun. In the first age, people were nomads,lived in caves and had to fight off wild animals. In the second, they lived in crude round houses infixed settlements. In the third age people multiplied, practised weaving, built houses like those oftoday, grew crops and lived in harmony. The fourth age, or age of warriors, began with internalconflicts; warriors left field and family, and human sacrifices were carried out. Each world-age issaid to end with a cataclysm: the first was ended by water, the second by the falling of the sky (apoleshift?), the third by fire, and the fourth by air.5

The Incas believed that in this world we are exiled from our homeland in the world above. InAndean accounts, the ordeal required to find our way back to the celestial realms was frequentlysymbolized as the crossing of a narrow bridge made of human hair spanning a raging river.6 TheBuddhists use a similar metaphor, speaking of the quest to reach the other shore, meaning theattainment of full adeptship, or as the Egyptian Pyramid Texts call it, the life of millions of years;further incarnation on earth is then unnecessary and the initiate can either enter nirvana and leavethe earth behind, or stay on earth out of compassion in order to foster the progress of the rest ofhumanity. Despite the echoes of the ancient wisdom in Inca beliefs, the Inca leaders abandoned theinstructions of Father Sun that they should rule a society based on justice and reason with pity,mercy and mildness, and introduced the degenerate practice of human sacrifice to placate thegods which stems from taking the symbolism of certain initiatory rites literally.7 For instance, theIncas performed child sacrifices during or after important events, such as the death of the ruler orduring a famine.8

Inca society was highly regimented. The common people were equal both socially and in worldlygoods. From birth to death, their lives including their tasks, social status, homes and marriages were planned and regulated according to the prevailing laws. The head of each family receive aportion of land according to the size of his family. The residents of each community were allowed tokeep one third of the fruits of their labour; the rest was given to the state, to pay for the government,army, wars, the royal family and the ceremonial religion. Law and order were rigidly enforced. Themost serious crime was blasphemy, directed at the sun, the priests or the Inca; the penalty wastorture and death. Murder and adultery were also punishable by torture or death. Those guilty oftheft or dishonesty were branded for life. Liars and scandalmongers were flogged for the firstoffence, beaten with a club for the second, and had their tongues nailed to a board for the third. Avirgin of the sun or any nun who violated her vows was buried alive, her village was destroyed andmany of its inhabitants killed.9

The conquistador Don Mancio Serra de Leguisamo, in a moment of remorse, wrote as followsabout the impact of the conquest on Inca morality:

They were so free from crimes and excesses, the men as well as the women, that theIndian who had 100,000 pesos of gold and silver in his house, left it open, merelyplacing a small stick across the door as a sign that the master was out, and no onecould enter or take anything that was inside. ... When they found we put locks and keyson our doors, they supposed it was for fear of them that they might not kill us, notbecause they believed that anyone would steal the property of another. So, when theyfound we had thieves among us and men who sought to make their daughters commitsin, they despised us. But now they have come to such a pass, in offence of God, owingto the bad example we have set them in all things, that the natives, from doing no evil,have changed into people who now do no good or very little.10

Accomplishments

The Inca civilization is credited with the magnificent monumental architecture that adorns its sacredsites; polygonal stone blocks are fitted so perfectly that not even a razor blade can be insertedbetween them, even though no mortar was used. The best-known temples and other structures arefound at Cuzco, Sacsayhuaman, Ollantaytambo, Pisac, and Machu Picchu. As we will see later,

there is no reason to attribute all examples of this construction method to the Incas.

Fig. 1.2 Detail of Inca wall in Cuzco.1

Mainstream archaeologists assume that the Incas built most of the agricultural terraces that coverthe hillsides of the Sacred Valley, through which runs the Urubamba river, regarded as the terrestrialcounterpart of the Milky Way. The terraces usually have retaining walls made of rough fieldstones,but at Inca royal estates such as Chinchero, Pisac, Yucay, and Ollantaytambo, they have higherwalls made of cut stones. The terraces consist of a lower layer of coarse rubble for drainagepurposes, and an upper layer of good topsoil, which sometimes had to be carried long distances upthe mountain from the valley below. Terraces were usually 2.4 to 4.3 m high and 1.8 to 4.6 m wide,though on steep slopes they were as narrow as 1 m. In parts of the Andes, hillsides containing 100terraces, one above the other, are not uncommon. As Hiram Bingham wrote: It fairly staggers theimagination to realize how many millions of hours of labour were required to construct theagricultural terraces.2

Fig. 1.3 Terraces at Pisac, Sacred Valley.

Fig. 1.4 Terraces at Moray. The tiered basin is 183 m wide and 79 m deep. The 12terraces are stabilized by stone walls, some as high as 7.5 m. The first six terraces arethought to have been made by the pre-Inca Wari people, who occupied the region fromaround 600 to 1100 AD. Some think Moray was a ritual complex. Others believe it was ahuge agricultural laboratory where different soils, plant varieties and temperatureregimes were tried out. The structure of the basin produces a range of different soiltemperatures.3

The Incas made use of an extensive road system, but it was not originated by them; they adaptedand extended the roads made by pre-Inca engineers. At its height, the road network was 5600 kmlong and included 23,000 km of interlinking roads, thereby exceeding the size of the Roman roadsystem (much of which predated the Romans). The roads were built on beds of masonry, and wereabout 7.3 m wide, but often narrower in the mountains. They were levelled and smoothed bypaving, and in some places by macadamizing with pulverized stone mixed with lime andbituminous cement. In places, roads were cut through mountains for kilometres, great ravines werefilled up with solid masonry, and rivers were crossed by means of a kind of suspension bridgeanchored by a twin stone tower at each end. The cables, made of tightly twisted plant fibre, were asthick as a mans body. The most famous such bridge spans the Apurimac River in the PeruvianAndes, with cables nearly 46 m long. Some pre-Inca roads were as much as 30 m wide andstretched hundreds of kilometres; the reason for their great width is unknown.4

Fig. 1.5 Inca roads.5

The Incas used quipus for recording-keeping knotted bundles of strings in which the number,type, and spacing of knots, the colour and type of string, and the general quipu structure carriedinformation. They were used for accounting and census purposes. It is thought that some quipuswere literary quipus: in these, the knots were combined with coloured rectangular signs or ovalsigns (bean signs) known as tocapus, which also appear on textiles and other objects. Tocapusshould be considered a developed ideographic system rather than writing in the strict sense. Manyquipus with elaborate symbols were burned by the Spaniards, while others were hidden or disposedof by the Incas themselves.6

Fig. 1.6 An old print of an Inca holding a quipu.

The common assertion that the Incas did not have a genuine form of writing is incorrect. The writingsystem was known as quilcas, and predates the use of quipus. Blas Valera reported that thelearned scribes wrote on the leaves of plantain trees and on stones. Several other chroniclers weretold that in ancient times the Inca ruler gathered the wise men from all the provinces and orderedthe history of each ruler and the lands conquered to be written down, along with the Inca myths andlegends. The texts were written on sheets, glued onto large boards and set in frames of pure gold.They were stored in the Coricancha, or Temple of the Sun, in Cuzco, and only the Inca ruler andcertain scholars were able to read them. The Spanish melted down the gold frames and destroyednearly all the canvases. Four were sent to the Spanish king but there is no trace of them today. IncaPachacutec VII later forbade the use of writing when an oracle said that this was necessary to endan epidemic.7

An ancient llama wool, possibly pre-Inca, far superior to most yarns known in the world today, hasbeen found in a group of mummified llamas sacrificed in the desert of southern Peru 1000 yearsago. The fibre was even finer than cashmere, and seems to have been the result of selectivelybreeding llamas.8 Some writers have suggested that the amazing variety of maize and potatoes inancient Peru must be the result of genetic experiments.9

References

1. William Sullivan, The Secret of the Incas: Myth, astronomy, and the war against time, NewYork: Three Rivers Press, 1996, pp. 251, 255-7.

2. Harold T. Wilkins, Mysteries of Ancient South America, Kempton, IL: Adventures UnlimitedPress, 2005 (1947), pp. 143-4; Enrico Mattievich, Journey to the Mythological Inferno:Americas discovery by the ancient Greeks, Denver, CO: Rogem Press, 2010, pp. 144-6.

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Inca-expansion.png.4. The Secret of the Incas, pp. 108-9; Viracocha, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viracocha.5. The Secret of the Incas, pp. 26-7.

6. Graham Hancock & Santha Faiia, Heavens Mirror: Quest for the lost civilization, London:Michael Joseph, 1998, pp. 282, 295.

7. H.P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, Pasadena, CA: Theosophical University Press (TUP), 1972(1877), 2:564-5.

8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sacrifice;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_sacrifice_in_pre-Columbian_cultures.

9. A. Hyatt Verrill, Old Civilizations of the New World, New York: New Home Library, 1942(1929), pp. 282-8.

10. Quoted in Mysteries of Ancient South America, p. 167.

Accomplishments

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Inka_mauern_cuzco.jpg.2. Hiram Bingham, Lost City of the Incas, London: Phoenix, 2003 (1952), pp. 39-40.3. Science Frontiers, no. 174, 2007, p. 1.4. W.R. Corliss (comp.), Ancient Infrastructure: Remarkable roads, mines, walls, mounds, stone

circles, Glen Arm, MD: Sourcebook Project, 1999, pp. 323-5; Peter James & Nick Thorpe,Ancient Inventions, New York: Ballantine Books, 1994, pp. 52-3.

5. www.colorado.edu/geography/class_homepages/geog_3251_sum08/02_inca_roads.jpg.6. Igor Witkowski, Axis of the World: The search for the oldest American civilization, Kempton,

IL: Adventures Unlimited Press, 2008, pp. 174-9, 184; W.R. Corliss (comp.), ArcheologicalAnomalies: Graphic artifacts I coins, calendars, geoforms, maps, quipus, Glen Arm, MD:Sourcebook Project, 2005, pp. 160-3.

7. Mysteries of Ancient South America, pp. 141-4; Axis of the World, pp. 173-4, 180-1; GraemeR. Kearsley, Mayan Genesis: South Asian myths, migrations and iconography inMesoamerica, London: Yelsraek Publishing, 2001, p. 537.

8. W.R. Corliss (comp.), Archeological Anomalies: Small artifacts bone, stone, metal artifacts,prints, high-technology, Glen Arm, MD: Sourcebook Project, 2003, p. 49.

9. Carlos Fernndez-Baca Tupayachi, El Otro Saqsaywamn: La historia no contada, Lima:DFBS, 2000, p. 179.

2. Pre-Inca cultures

The theory of the peopling of the Americas that became scientific orthodoxy in the mid-20th centuryclaimed that the Americas were empty of humans until about 14,000 years ago when Mongoloidmigrants from Northeast Asia trekked over the Bering land bridge; South America was supposedlyfirst populated around 9 or 10 thousand years ago. Another claim was that, with the exception of abrief visit by the Vikings in the 11th century, the first person to subsequently discover the Americaswas Christopher Columbus in 1492. More recently, the possibility of migrations up to several tens ofthousands of years earlier than 14,000 BP has been accepted by many scientists. However, asshown in The Ancient Americas, there is evidence that the Americas were settled by migrants fromdifferent parts of the world over the course of millions of years, and that even in the past 4000 yearsexplorers and traders from various continents visited the Americas before Columbus.

According to the theosophical tradition, the last major fragment of ancient Atlantis to sink wasPoseidonis (Platos Atlantis), a large island located in the mid-Atlantic opposite the Straits ofGibraltar, which was submerged about 11,500 ago.1 In the period leading up to its finalsubmergence, waves of migrants fled Poseidonis, and other smaller islands, as it showedincreasing signs of geological instability. Some of these migrants are associated with theappearance of successive Cro-Magnon cultures in Western Europe and North Africa, beginningabout 40,000 years ago. Caucasoid, Cro-Magnoid skeletons have also been discovered in theAmericas. Theosophical literature says that there was a strong Atlantean influence on theAmerindians, including the later Maya and Incas.2

The officially accepted date of the earliest civilization in South America is gradually being pushedback as new discoveries come to light. Some of the main pre-Inca cultures of the past few thousandyears are outlined below, with the main focus on Peru. The possibility that some of the artefacts andstructures attributed to them are the work of even older cultures cannot be ruled out.

The radiocarbon-dating of organic material (e.g. bone, flesh, wood) found at archaeological sitesplays a key role in dating cultures of the past few tens of thousands of years. The two mainpotential sources of error are the changing ratio of C14 (the relatively rare radioactive isotope ofcarbon) to C12 (the most abundant carbon isotope) in the atmosphere, and contamination of thesample being dated. The resulting errors can be as large as hundreds or even thousands of years.But even if the date is accurate, it only tells us the age of the sample, and may indicate that humanswere present in the area at that time. It does not necessarily tell us the earliest date humansoccupied the area or the original date of construction of any stone structures at the site.

Furthermore, there is a certain amount of selectivity in reporting results. One archaeologistadmitted: If a C-14 date supports our theories, we put it in the main text. If it does not entirelycontradict them, we put it in the footnote. And if it is completely out of date, we just drop it. Out ofdate refers not only to ages that are too old but also to ages that are too young. Overly recentdates are assumed to indicate later human activity at a site. But this could also apply to the oldestdates so far determined for a site.3 Consequently, dogmatic pronouncements about the chronologyof archaeological sites based on carbon-dating should be taken with a large pinch of salt.

The most ancient Peruvian skeletal remains so far found date back to 7000 BC. These settlers hadbroad faces, pointed heads, and stood 1.6 metres tall. Early cave paintings have been discoveredat Toquepala (Tacna, 7600 BC) and houses in Chilca (Lima, 5800 BC). Artefactual finds have led agrowing number of scientists to believe that Peru was first settled 20 or more thousand years ago.4

Fig. 2.1 Map of Peru.

The Ayacucho Basin in central Peru consists of archaeological sites dating from 25,000 BP to 1470AD, occupied by a series of some 23 cultures.5 The oldest artefacts are bone and stone tools usedby a preceramic hunter-gatherer culture.

The Chilca Valley lies on the coast of Peru, between the Andes mountains and the Pacific Ocean,and was an important trade route to the highlands. Hunter-gatherers inhabited this region fromabout 6000 to 2500 BC, the two main sites being Tres Ventanas and Kiqche. Primitive forms ofvegetables such as potatoes, yams and ullucos were cultivated, and camelids (e.g. llamas) weredomesticated.6

The Norte Chico (or Caral-Supe) civilization is associated with some 30 major population centres innorth-central coastal Peru. It is currently regarded as the oldest known civilization in the Americas,and flourished between about 3000 and 1800 BC. It was a preceramic culture, but is known for itsmonumental architecture, including large platform mounds built from quarried stone and rivercobbles, and circular sunken plazas. One of the main sites is Caral, a large urban settlement in theSupe Valley, some 120 km north of Lima, covering over 60 hectares. The main pyramid covers an

area equal to nearly four football fields and is 18 m tall. Caral is thought to be the model for theurban design adopted by Andean civilizations that rose and fell over the next four millennia. Thereare 19 other pyramid complexes scattered across the Supe Valley, which might have had a totalpopulation of 20,000. An excavated knotted textile piece found at Caral is thought to be a primitivequipu.7

Fig. 2.2 Pyramids at Caral.

The Aspero site in the Supe Valley covered 13.2 hectares and its 17 mounds included 6 truncatedpyramids. The largest is called Huaca de los Idolos: it measured 40 m by 30 m, and had rooms andcourts on its summit. The outer platform walls are made of large, angular basaltic rocks set in adobemortar with a smooth outer surface coated with plaster and occasionally painted. Associatedradiocarbon dates range from 2900 to 1970 BC.8

Fig. 2.3 Reconstruction of the Huaca de los Idolos at Aspero. (Courtesy of J.Q. Jacobs)

The oldest sunken courts date from the 4th millennium BC and their use continued for thousands ofyears, first in circular and later in rectangular form. Michael Moseley says that the enduringemphasis on sunken sacrosanct spaces reflects Andean origin myths about humanity emergingfrom caves, springs and holes in the ground. As well as being places for re-enacting humanemergence, the courts may have been used to venerate Pachamama, mother earth, by reverentlydescending into and out of her womb. Subterranean plazas sometimes stand next to platformmounds, evoking images of ritual processions descending into mother earth and then to father apu[mountain spirit].9

El Paraso is situated in the Chillon River Valley, 2 km from the Pacific Ocean, in central Peru. Itwas the largest preceramic site in the Andes, and was occupied from about 1800 to 1200 BC. Thesite consists of 13 or 14 mounds spaced over a 60 hectare area with a nuclear group of sevenmounds in an approximate U-shape with a central plaza. The buildings are made of about 100,000tons of rock. As at other sites, rubble and stone were carried in woven reed bags and piled upbehind retaining walls. The ruins were home to a population of about 1500 to 3000 people, whofished, gathered roots and wild fruit, hunted wild animals, grew cotton for textiles, and wovebaskets.10

Fig. 2.4 Reconstruction of a prototypical U-shaped monument complex (courtesy of J.Q.Jacobs). There are at least 25 other documented sites in South America that share thedistinctive El Paraso layout.11

The Casma Valley on the northwest coast of Peru has numerous archaeological sites. The mainone is Sechn Alto, which was occupied between about 1800 and 900 BC. James Jacobs writes:

With a U-shaped monument plan covering about 200 ha, it is one of the largestconstructions ever built in Prehispanic America. Five plazas extend 1.4 km from thecentral mound, three with central sunken courts, one of which is about 80 m in diameter.The main mound is 44 m high by 300 m by 250 m, making it the largest singleconstruction in the New World during the second millennium B.C. The mound was facedwith granite blocks, some weighing over 2 tons.12

Beginning about 900 BC virtually all the coastal centres were abandoned within a century or two,coinciding with several hundred years of severe drought.

Fig. 2.5 Reconstruction of the Sechn Alto monument complex. (Courtesy of J.Q. Jacobs)

Fig. 2.6 Above: The 4.15-m-high granite palisade wall at Sechn Alto, made up of 400sculptures.13 They appear to have been randomly assembled from another site. Below:The first of these two sculptures shows a man severed at the waist.14

In 2007 archaeologists discovered a 5500-year-old circular, sunken plaza at the Sechn Bajocomplex in Casma, making it one of the oldest recognized structures in the Americas. It was hiddenbeneath a later structure. The plaza has lower levels that could be even older.15

The Chavn culture occupied the northern Andean highlands of Peru, about halfway between thetropical forests and coastal plains.16 It flourished from 900 to 200 BC, but formative phase of Chavnculture in various regions of Peru date back to 1600 BC. For a long time it was considered to be thefirst Peruvian civilization. The Chavn people cultivated crops using an irrigation system, tamedllamas, developed the techniques of gold, silver and copper metallurgy, and produced beautiful goldartefacts. They also made exquisite textiles, ceramics, and musical instruments. Chavn art formsmake extensive use of a technique known as contour rivalry. The 7-foot-high Raimondi stela,made of polished granite, is one of the finest examples of this technique. The art is difficult tounderstand because it was intended to be read only by high priests. Some sculptured heads havemucus pouring from the nose, something that happens when certain hallucinogenic drugs are used.

Fig. 2.7 Chavin territory.17

Fig. 2.8 The Raimondi stela, Chavin de Huantar. It bears a remarkably sophisticatedcarving of a staff god, which is also visible if the statue is inverted. This stela could nothave been made with stone tools or copper chisels!18

The Chavn cultures main architectural achievement is considered to be the remarkable templeknown as the Castillo at Chavn de Huntar, a temple complex covering 15 hectares; the age of theoldest section of the temple is, however, unknown estimates range from 700 AD to 1300 BC. Builtof white granite and black limestone from distant quarries, its walls and galleries were filled withsculptures of ferocious deities with feline features. It has seven major subterranean rooms. Michael

Moseley writes:

Less than one-tenth the magnitude of the great platform at Sechn Alto, what the Castillolacks in size is compensated for by remarkable engineering, fine masonry, andmarvelous stone art. The engineering is fascinating because a quarter of the Castillointerior is hollow and occupied by a labyrinth of narrow galleries roofed by great slabs ofstone. Built at different levels, some galleries are connected by stairways and by anelaborate maze of small drains and vents that pass beneath the exterior plazas. ... [B]yflushing water through the drains and venting the sound into the chambers and then outagain the temple could, quite literally be made to roar! ... The stonework at Chavn de Huantar was unquestionably the product of a mastercraftsman, and the Castillo reflects professional engineering as well as substantialcorporate labour.19

Fig. 2.9 The Castillo, Chavn de Huntar.20

Fig. 2.10 Entrance to the Castillo.

The Moche civilization (also known as the Mochica or Early Chim culture) flourished on the coastof northern Peru from about 100 to 800 AD.21 The Moche are particularly noted for theirsophisticated ceramics and pottery, skilful metalwork, monumental constructions, and impressiveirrigation systems. They were a warlike people, and many ceramics show brutal scenes of humansacrifice and blood drinking. The Moche were also traders and had contact with the Ica-Nazcaculture to the south. The Moche cultures demise was probably precipitated in the 6th century by asuper El Nio that resulted in 30 years of intense rain and flooding followed by 30 years of drought.

At their capital, the Moche built two flat-topped pyramids, the Huaca del Sol (Pyramid of the Sun)and the Huaca de la Luna (Pyramid of the Moon). The Huaca del Sol consisted of over 130 millionadobe bricks and was the largest pre-Columbian adobe structure built in the Americas. It was partlydestroyed when the Spaniards mined its graves for gold. Today its platform measures 340 by 160 mand stands over 40 m high. The nearby Huaca de la Luna is a better-preserved but smaller temple.

Fig. 2.11 Huaca del Sol.

The Lord of Sipn tomb is a Moche site that was found intact and untouched by thieves in theLambayeque valley, 35 km east of Chiclayo, in 1987. The complex consists of three huge mudbrickpyramids with flat tops. The ruler of Sipn was buried there in 200 AD. His tomb has yielded anextraordinary cache of artefacts, including finely crafted gold and silver ornaments, large, gildedcopper figurines, and wonderfully decorated ceramic pottery. The gold-plated silver and copperjewellery could only have been made with the help of electrolysis.22

The Chim culture developed in the same coastal valleys of northern Peru where the Mocheexisted centuries before, and lasted from about 1000 AD to the late 1400s. The Chim stateunderwent considerable expansion in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, but was conquered bythe Incas around 1475. The Chim were skilful potters and metalworkers, and built elaborateirrigation systems. Their capital city, Chan Chan, covered over 20 square kilometres and had apopulation of around 70,000.23 The Chim worshipped the moon, regarding the sun as a destroyer,and mummified their dead.

The La Cumbre canal (or intervalley canal) is several metres wide and 113 km long, and is thoughtto have been built by the Chim around 1050-1300 AD to bring water from the Chicama river intothe Moche valley. It is part of a complex network of aqueducts and canals to transport water frommountain streams to irrigated fields. Running through difficult terrain, it represents an enormous

amount of labour, and displays a high level of hydraulic engineering expertise. Parts of the canalwere cut through rock and soil but many kilometres ran between embankments of rocky soil. Insome places it towered 21.4 m above the surrounding terrain. Maintaining the proper slope inmountainous country was no mean task. To achieve maximum hydraulic efficiency, the crosssection of the canal changes around curves, and where necessary the texture of the canal wallswas varied to decrease water speed. It is believed that the canal was never used in its entiretybecause tectonic forces repeatedly raised or lowered sections of it, and today several sections runuphill.24 However, the canal could be far older than currently believed.

The Chim built huge, sophisticated defensive structures from millions of adobe bricks. LaFortaleza, a fortress at Paramonga, 200 km north of Lima, was begun by the Chim and latermodified by the Incas.25 To protect the Chim empire, walls 1.5 to 2 m high were built beginningabout 500 BC. The Chims Great Wall of Peru, discovered during an aerial survey in 1931, wasmuch more ambitious, and extends as far as 80 km inland. Several circular and rectangular fortswere built along the wall. The wall is made of broken rocks and adobe cement, and now averagesabout 2.1 m in height; its original height averaged 3.7 to 4.6 m. In places it is still 6 to 9 m highwhere it crosses gullies. Other great walls attributed to the Chim have also been discovered. TheIncas built their own Great Wall further south, in Bolivia. Made of broken stones, it is probably about240 km long, and seems to be the longest in South America, though it is only a few feet high. It isbuilt at altitudes of 2440-3660 m in extremely rugged terrain.26

The Paracas culture inhabited the south-central coast of Peru between about 600 and 175 BC. Ithad an extensive knowledge of irrigation and water management, and showed superb skills intextile weaving. Two necropolises dated to about 300 BC have yielded several hundred mummies,some of which have hair that is wavy, light brown, even reddish more typical of a European thanan indigenous American. They were also substantially larger than the average Andean.27 Some ofthe oldest traces of writing come from the Paracas necropolis culture, and take the form of beansigns on funerary textiles. Similar signs were discovered on the later Nazca cultures textiles.28

The Paracas Trident or Candelabra is a huge cactus-shaped figure carved into a hillside at PiscoBay on the Peruvian coast. It measures about 240 m long by 120 m wide, with trenches a metredeep, and can be seen from as far as 24 km out to sea. It is aligned almost exactly north-south. It isvariously regarded as a navigational aid or as a ritual object, representing a cactus or tree of life,where high priests worshipped the setting sun. Paracas-culture pottery dated to about 200 BC hasbeen found there. Graham Hancock notes that 2000 years ago, viewed from a kilometre out to sea,the constellation known as the Crux (Southern Cross) would have been suspended in the skydirectly above the cliff diagram at the March equinox.29

Fig. 2.12 The Candelabra.

The Nazca (or Nasca) culture inhabited the coastal valleys of southern Peru from the 1st to 8thcenturies AD. They constructed mudbrick pyramids up to 30 m high, and made beautifulpolychrome pottery. They are widely believed to have made most of the Nazca lines vastgeometric and animal figures etched into the desert floor (see section 4). The main ceremonialcentre was Cahuachi, a site covering 1.5 sq km and containing over 40 mounds (modified naturalhills) topped with adobe structures.

Fig. 2.13 Adobe pyramid at Cahuachi.30

Fig. 2.14 Cahuachi reconstruction.31

The Nazca people are believed to have built the impressive system of tunnels, wells and trenches known collectively as puquios to obtain water from subterranean water sources.32 But the truth isthat no one can say for certain who originated them. Most of the excavated tunnels are less thanone metre square, but some are about two metres high. The walls of the tunnels are lined with rivercobbles without the use of mortar, and at the uppermost end the water filters between the stonesinto the gallery. The roof of the galleries is made of dressed granite slabs or wooden logs. Thetunnels lie about 3 to 6 m underground, and it is not known for how many kilometres they run. Twoof them pass beneath the bed of the Nazca river. The tunnels are connected with the surface byfunnel-shaped holes (ojos), which also served as wells. The local population believed that the water

in the puquios flowed from a great lake beneath Cerro Blanco a 2500-m-high mountain not farfrom Nazca, topped by an enormous sand dune. There are 36 puquios still functioning in the Nazcadrainage today.

Fig. 2.15

Fig. 2.16

Pachacamac, 40 km southeast of Lima, comprises a vast complex of monumental buildings,including 18 mud-brick stepped pyramids with ramps and plazas. The area was settled by the Limaculture around 200 BC, and the main ruins are allegedly no more than 1500 years old. Named afterthe creator god Pachacamac, the nearly 600-hectare site drew pilgrims who came to worship andbury their dead. Later it was occupied by the Wari culture, and became one of the most sacredplaces of the Inca empire.33 During excavations in the 1940s, the stratum beneath the mud-brickconstructions which is considered to predate the Incas revealed stone walls and trapezoidal

portals of the type usually attributed to the Incas.34

Fig. 2.17 Pachacamac Temple of the Sun and an English sign. The temple is attributed to the Incas but there is believed to be an older temple beneath it.

The Wari (or Huari) culture flourished in the Andes in the south-central coastal area of modern-dayPeru, from about 500 to 900 AD.35 Its empire expanded to include much of the territory of the earlierMoche and Chim cultures. The civilization was contemporary with that of the Tiwanaku culture tothe south. The Wari are believed to have developed terraced field technology and a major roadnetwork, which the Incas inherited several centuries later. However, Andean tradition also gives thename Wari to a race of prehistoric master-builders, described as white, bearded giants who, afterbeing created at Lake Titicaca, set forth to civilize the Andes.36

Fig. 2.18 Territory of the Wari and Tiwanaku cultures.

Tiwanaku (Tiahuanaco) lies near the southeastern shore of Lake Titicaca in western Bolivia. Itflourished as the ritual and administrative capital of a major state power for approximately 500years. The official view is that it began as a small agriculturally-based village around 1500 BC, andbecame the capital of a powerful empire between 300 and 1000 AD, after which it was hit by aprotracted drought. The culture practised a sophisticated form of agriculture and is credited with anumber of monumental structures. The last traces of the Tiwanaku civilization were incorporatedinto the Inca empire around 1450. Nonmainstream views of Tiwanaku are considered in section 7.

The Chachapoyas, also called the Warriors of the Clouds, lived in the cloud forests in the northernregions of the Andes in present-day Peru. The people were taller and had a much fairer skin thanother Native Americans. People began settling in this area by 200 AD, and the Chachapoyasculture is thought to have developed a few hundred years later. In the 15th century, the Inca empireexpanded to incorporate the Chachapoyas region.

Kuelap is situated on a 3000-m-high ridge overlooking the Utcubamba valley. The site is officiallyattributed to the Chachapoyas culture, which occupied it from about 600 AD. Measuring about 600m long by 110 m wide, the ruined citadel usually called a fortress is surrounded by enormouswalls towering up to 20 m high, constructed from gigantic limestone slabs arranged in geometricpatterns, some sections being faced with rectangular (ashlar) granite slabs over 40 layers high.Within the walls are hundreds of round stone houses decorated with a distinctive zigzag or diamondpattern, small carved animal heads, condor designs, and intricate serpent figures.37

Fig. 2.19 Outer walls of Kuelap.

Fig. 2.20 Restored round house.

Fig. 2.21 Zigzag pattern.

The walls at Kuelap bear a curious resemblance to walls found at the Great Zimbabwe (lit. stonebuildings) in the province of Masvingo, Zimbabwe (the country is named after the ruins). The sitecovers 722 hectares, and the mainstream belief is that construction was started in the 11th centuryby Bantu-speaking ancestors of the Shona people, and continued for over 300 years. Alternativetheories are that the original structures were built by Phoenicians or Celts/Sabaeans thousands ofyears ago. Some researchers have noted Semitic, South Arabian, Persian, Indian, Indonesian andPolynesian influences on Zimbabwean cultures.38

Fig. 2.22 Granite, 11-m-high outer walls of the Great Enclosure at the Great Zimbabwe. Note the same zigzag pattern as at Kuelap.39

The Marcahuasi (or Markawasi) plateau, 4000 metres above sea level, is located in Perus Juninprovince, 80 km northeast of Lima. Hundreds of enormous rocks on the plateau take on an eerieresemblance to animals and human faces when viewed from certain angles and under certainlighting conditions.40 Men and women of various races and nationalities can be identified, along witha wide array of animals such as horses, camels, elephants, lions, frogs, seals, turtles, sphinxes, ahippopotamus, sea lions or seals, a crocodile, and lizards. Many believe that these forms arenothing but naturally eroded rocks, while others contend that humans had a hand in carving them.Though known to the local population, Marcahuasi achieved prominence after being discovered byPeruvian archaeologist Daniel Ruzo in 1952. He claimed that the Masma culture had lived theresome 10,000 years ago, before Noahs flood!

Fig. 2.23 Two human faces in the Marcahuasi stone forest.41

References

1. See Theosophy and the seven continents and Sunken continents versus continental drift,http://davidpratt.info.

2. See The Ancient Americas, section 8.3. Sean Hancock, An interpretation and critique of the radiocarbon database for Tiahuanaco,

2001, www.grahamhancock.com/forum/HancockS2-p1.htm.4. Peru: general information, www.stanford.edu/group/peruanos/informa/general.htm.5. Ayacucho, www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/latinamerica/south/sites/ayacucho.html.6. Chilca Valley, www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/archaeology/sites/south_america/chilca.html.7. Norte Chico civilization, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norte_Chico_civilization; Caral,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caral.8. James Q. Jacobs, Early monumental architecture on the Peruvian coast: evidence of socio-

political organization and the variation in its interpretation, 2000,www.jqjacobs.net/andes/coast.html.

9. Michael E. Moseley, The Incas and their Ancestors: The archaeology of Peru, London:Thames & Hudson, 2001, p. 119.

10. Early monumental architecture on the Peruvian coast; El Paraiso,www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/archaeology/sites/south_america/elparaiso.html.

11. www.jqjacobs.net/andes/coast.html.12. Early monumental architecture on the Peruvian coast.13. http://wiki.sumaqperu.com/es/images/3/30/Sechin_huaraz_1.14. www.nazcamystery.com/casma_sechin.htm.15. Sechin Bajo, the oldest archeological site of the New World,

www.granpaititi.com/AN/cite_sec.php.16. Chavn culture, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chavn_culture; James Q. Jacobs, Understanding

Chavn and the origins of Andean civilization, 2000, www.jqjacobs.net/andes/chavin.html;Chavin de Huantar,

www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/archaeology/sites/south_america/chavin_de_huantar.html; Chavinde Huantar, www.unique-southamerica-travel-experience.com/chavin-de-huantar.html; EnricoMattievich, Journey to the Mythological Inferno: Americas discovery by the ancient Greeks,Denver, CO: Rogem Press, 2010, pp. 68, 70.

17. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chav%C3%ADn_culture.18. www.latinamericanstudies.org/chavin/raimondi.gif.19. The Incas and their Ancestors, pp. 163, 168.20. www.arqueologiadelperu.com.ar/chavin2.htm.21. Moche, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moche.22. Carlos Fernndez-Baca Tupayachi, El Otro Saqsaywamn: La historia no contada, Lima:

DFBS, 2000, pp. 178-9.23. Chimu, www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/latinamerica/south/cultures/chimu.html.24. W.R. Corliss (comp.), Ancient Infrastructure: Remarkable roads, mines, walls, mounds, stone

circles, Glen Arm, MD: Sourcebook Project, 1999, pp. 11-13; Rafael Larco Hoyle, LosMochicas, Lima: Metrocolor, 2001, pp. 299-303,http://losmochicas.perucultural.org.pe/pdf/tl_298_301.pdf.

25. W.R. Corliss (comp.), Ancient Structures: Remarkable pyramids, forts, towers, stonechambers, cities, complexes, Glen Arm, MD: Sourcebook Project, 2001, pp. 109-10.

26. Ancient Infrastructure, pp. 367-9; David Hatcher Childress, Lost Cities and Ancient Mysteriesof South America, Kempton, IL: Adventures Unlimited, 1986, pp. 340-1.

27. Robert M. Schoch, with Robert Aquinas McNally, Voyages of the Pyramid Builders: The trueorigins of the pyramids from lost Egypt to ancient America, New York: Tarcher/Putnam, 2003,p. 114; W.R. Corliss (comp.), Archeological Anomalies: Small artifacts bone, stone, metalartifacts, prints, high-technology, Glen Arm, MD: Sourcebook Project, 2003, p. 40.

28. Igor Witkowski, Axis of the World: The search for the oldest American civilization, Kempton,IL: Adventures Unlimited Press, 2008, p. 181.

29. W.R. Corliss (comp.), Archeological Anomalies: Graphic artifacts I coins, calendars,geoforms, maps, quipus, Glen Arm, MD: Sourcebook Project, 2005, pp. 44-5; Dilwyn Jenkins,The Rough Guide to Peru, New York: Rough Guides, 5th ed., 2003, p. 204; Graham Hancock& Santha Faiia, Heavens Mirror: Quest for the lost civilization, London: Michael Joseph, 1998,pp. 257-8.

30. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahuachi.31. http://lastdaysoftheincas.com/wordpress/?attachment_id=237.32. Donald A. Proulx, Nasca puquios and aqueducts,

http://people.umass.edu/proulx/online_pubs/Zurich_Puquios_revised_small.pdf; Erich VonDniken, Arrival of the Gods: Revealing the alien landing sites of Nazca, Shaftesbury, Dorset:Element, 2000, pp. 66, 77-87.

33. The Peruvian lost city of Pachacamac, www.nazcamystery.com/pachacamac.htm.34. Journey to the Mythological Inferno, p. 172.35. Wari culture, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wari_culture.36. William Sullivan, The Secret of the Incas: Myth, astronomy, and the war against time, New

York: Three Rivers Press, 1996, p. 219.37. The Rough Guide to Peru, p. 408; Kuelap, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuelap; Kuelap,

www.arqueologiadelperu.com.ar/kuelap.htm.38. Great Zimbabwe National Monument,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Zimbabwe_National_Monument; David Hatcher Childress,Lost Cities and Ancient Mysteries of Africa & Arabia, Kempton, IL: Adventures Unlimited,1990, pp. 343-9; Graeme R. Kearsley, Asian Origins of African Culture: Asian migrationsthrough Africa to the Americas, London: Yelsraek Publishing, 2010, pp. 255-372, 744-51.

39. http://images.cdn.fotopedia.com/flickr-1691408199-image.jpg.40. Robert M. Schoch, The mystery of Markawasi, 2005,

http://circulartimes.org/Mystery%20of%20Markawasi.htm; Ancient Infrastructure, pp. 115-16;Lost Cities and Ancient Mysteries of South America, pp. 338-9; Marcahuasi: the mostimportant of all sacred mountains?, 2009, www.peru-vacation-packages.com/2009/06/marcahuasi-most-important-of-all-sacred.html.

41. Markahuasi stone forest, www.pbase.com/locozodiac/locozodiac_120.

3. Transoceanic contacts

As shown in The Ancient Americas, there is strong evidence that voyages to North, Central andSouth America have been taking place from many parts of the world for countless thousands ofyears. Orthodox historians and archaeologists, however, continue to deny the evidence fortransoceanic trade and cultural diffusion. They tend to vigorously defend their own specialized fieldsagainst interference from outsiders, and generally feel no incentive, or lack the knowledge, torecognize common cultural traits. Where similarities are acknowledged, they are automaticallyattributed to independent invention.

Mainstream archaeologists even have difficulty accepting that there were contacts between Centraland South America! The Olmecs of Mesoamerica, who thrived from 1200 to 400 BC, seem to havebeen influenced by many different cultures, including Nubia and China.1 They also appear to havehad contact with the Chavn culture of northern Peru. The Olmecs believed that the jaguar conferssuperiority on warriors; its image is very common and often takes the form of a jaguar-man. Ajaguar cult and the jaguar-man also appear in the Chavn culture. Chavn de Huntar was not only acultural and ceremonial centre, but also a key commercial centre, where several trade routes met.The Olmecs may have introduced maize to Peru during the early Chavn period, in exchange forcoca leaves.2

There is considerable evidence that coastal civilizations of northern Peru traded with the Maya ofCentral America. The Incas had a sophisticated knowledge of astronomy and, like many othercultures, conveyed information about the precession of the equinoxes in their mythology. WilliamSullivan argues that there are too many precise correspondences between Mayan and Andeanastronomical ideas to be explained away by coincidence.3 By 1800 BC trade was taking place withEcuador as Spondylus shells from that country have been found in graves at ancient Peruvian sitessuch as La Galgada. Before the conquest, Pizarros expeditionary force recorded that they metlarge, loaded, trading seagoing rafts off Ecuador, far from the sight of land.4

Noting that long-distance sea traders from the Middle East, China, Japan, and India, were operatingfrom at least the 5th millennium BC, Graeme Kearsley points to extensive textural, iconographicand artefactual evidence showing that cultural transfer took place from the Middle East and Asiaacross the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to the Americas. Pre-Columbian South America underwentabrupt cultural and technological advances that were apparently not the result of internaldevelopments. He argues that it is no accident that all of the most important advances took placeon the Pacific coast of South America.5

He argues that for hunter-gatherers to turn into monument builders in one step is unparalleled, andsuggests that the first remarkable Peruvian monuments (e.g. El Paraso, Sechin Alto) wereinitiated by mariners familiar with the traditions of West Asia and later India. Excavations haverevealed that rooms at El Paraso were filled after a certain period and that new structures werethen built on the elevated platform a practice also found in the Middle East.6

The sudden introduction of the heddle loom and associated weaving techniques in South Americain the first half of the 1st millennium BC has no developmental sequences leading up to it. Othertextile arts such as painted textiles and batik (a wax-resist dyeing technique) appear in the sameunaccountable way. The batik technique is most famously associated with Indonesia, where itappeared in the same timeframe as in Peru. Kearsley concludes that this points to contact betweenIndia and South America, via Indonesia, to the coastal region of Peru and the Andean highlands ofSouth America. He also suggests that the sudden appearance of ceramics at coastal sites such asSechin Alto around 1800 BC and the sudden rise of widespread canal building and irrigationschemes were connected with outside influences.7

The cruelties and torture inflicted on prisoners by the Assyrians are emulated by the Moche fromthe 1st millennium BC to the 1st millennium AD. Kearsley writes:

The pegging-out of prisoners, illustrated in flaying scenes, are reflected in many Mocheceramic illustrations along with prisoners racked or tied to frames among otherrecognisable tortures and executions that were such a feature of the Pre-Columbiancultures in the Americas. Trophy heads and the accumulation of these severed heads inAssyria reflect the Aztec tzompalli, or skull racks that appear to be so similar to those inAncient Mexico and beyond in South America that it would indeed appear that this partof the Peruvian Coast was heavily influenced from the Ancient Near East if not directly

from Assyria itself.8

Fig. 3.1 From the 3rd millennium BC onwards, early Andean ceremonial sites, with theircurved walls, are similar in design to towns in the ancient Middle East. Left: Layout ofWarka, Sumeria (Iraq). Right: La Galgada, Peru.9

Fig. 3.2 Pottery shards from the Valdivian culture of Ecuador (left) show striking stylisticsimilarities with pottery produced by the Jomon culture of Japan (right), c. 3600 BC.10

Pre-Columbian South American metallurgy was remarkably sophisticated, and some of thedevelopments may reflect Asian influences. The Chavn culture, for example, was characterized bysudden metallurgical advances such as gold technology, soldering, sweat welding, silver-goldalloys, and embossing (repouss).

The high quality of Chavin ornamentation and craftsmanship is so sophisticated and soprofuse and complex in design that it has been proposed that it is the product of

specialist full-time artisans. This would in fact follow the examples found in both AncientAssyria in the same time band of the first half of the first millennium B.C. and of Indialater in that millennium.11

Pre-Columbian civilizations, including the Chavn and Moche cultures, produced extremely beautifulgilded objects. Even older fragments of gilded copper foil, dating back to perhaps 1400 BC, havebeen found at Mina Perdida, south of Lima, Peru; both the copper and gold had been beaten intothin sheets and then united by an unidentified adhesive, probably aided by the application of heat.The oldest artefacts of cold-hammered native gold so far found are beads discovered atJiskairumoko in the Lake Titicaca basin, dated to around 2000 BC.12

Fig. 3.3 Copper foil fragment with adhering piece of gold foil found at Mina Perdida.

Pre-Columbian metal workers were familiar with platinum, and were able to amalgamate platinumand mercury to make platinum-plated jewellery. The Incas knew how to make bronze; some bronzeartefacts recovered from Machu Picchu even contained 18% bismuth in addition to tin. Many SouthAmerican gold objects were found to be made from alloys containing considerable copper and weretherefore much less precious than originally imagined. Modern metallurgists have speculated thatSouth American gilders might have used mercury to bond gold to copper. Gold, too, may have beenused as a sort of solder. A copper arrowhead found in Ecuador was found to have been solderedwith silver or a silver-copper alloy. A prehistoric copper rattle found at Supe on the Peruvian coastconsisted of two bell-shaped halves expertly welded together in a virtually seamless joint.13

Gold ornaments of microscopic dimensions have been found in pre-Columbian Ecuador. Some tinyparticles of gold, when viewed through a magnifying glass, are found to be beautifully wroughtbeads. Many are elaborately engraved or chased, others are built up of several almost invisiblepieces welded or soldered together, and all are pierced. Its hard to see how such minute objects,many times smaller than the head of a pin, could have been produced without the help of a lens.Crude lenses can be made from crystal. The existence of superbly carved crystal skulls shows thatpre-Columbian cultures in South America and Mesoamerica knew how to carve rock crystal butwe do not know what techniques they used to do this so expertly.14

Enrico Mattievich argues that various Greek and Roman myths reflect a knowledge of SouthAmerica and its ancient cultures.15 In addition to their other layers of meaning, myths and legendsabout heroes such as Heracles and Odysseus travelling to the underworld (Hades or Tartarus),located beyond the western ocean or below the earth, contain geographical details that could bederived from journeys to the Andean highlands along the Amazon, and also the Maran andUcayali rivers from whose confluence it springs. These rivers correspond to the Styx (or Stige) orAcheron of Greek mythology. Among many other parallels, the head of the Greek Gorgon(Medusa), who was often depicted with fangs, claws, and hair of snakes, bears a strongresemblance to the head portrayed on either side of the Lanzn, a 4.5-m-tall statue found in acruciform chamber in the main temple at Chavn de Huntar. Other images at Chavn de Huntarresemble Cerberus, the hound that guarded Hades.16

Fig. 3.4 Left: The Lanzn, Chavn de Huntar. Right: The head on the opposite side of the statue.

Fig. 3.5 Gorgon from Syracuse (Sicily), 6th century BC. The facial features and the hair(with its six spirals) are very similar to those on the Lanzn.

Trepanation is a highly skilled surgical operation that involves making holes in the skull formedical or ritual reasons. Prehistoric trepanned skulls have been found in the Americas, Europe,North Africa, the Canary Islands, Australia and the western Pacific. Its widespread practice may bethe result of diffusion rather than independent invention. The most primitive procedure involvedscraping away the bone with sharp flakes of obsidian or flint. Another technique was to drill a circleof small holes in the skull, taking care not to puncture the membranes enclosing the brain; theridges between the holes were then cut out and the circular piece of bone removed. In Peru a morehazardous procedure was sometimes used; rectangular pieces of skull were removed by makingfour straight incisions with metal saws. The same procedure was also used in the Middle East. Incasurgeons were successful 80% of the time, whereas trepanation in the early 20th centurysucceeded only 20% of the time. Trepanation in South America is currently thought to have begunabout 400 BC. The oldest trepanned skull so far found comes from Spain and has been dated to10,000 BP totally at odds with the traditional image of brutish cavemen.17

Fig. 3.6 A trepanned skull from Inca Peru.18

Kearsley argues that the caste system imposed from the earliest times in Peru was imported fromthe ancient Near and Middle East, Iran, and India in particular.19 Several researchers havehighlighted the close similarities between the social structures among the Incas and those found inancient India, Indonesia and Melanesia. H.P. Blavatsky writes as follows about the parallelsbetween the Incas and the Indian Brahmans.

The Incas, judged by their exclusive privileges, power, and infallibility, are the antipodalcounterpart of the Brahmanical caste of India. Like the latter, the Incas claimed directdescent from Deity, which, as in the case of the Suryavansha dynasty of India, was theSun. According to the sole but general tradition, there was a time when the whole of thepopulation of the now New World was broken up into independent, warring, andbarbarian tribes. At last, the Highest deity the Sun took pity upon them, and, inorder to rescue the people from ignorance, sent down upon earth, to teach them, his twochildren Manco Capac and his sister and wife, Mama Oella Huaca the counterparts,again, of the Egyptian Osiris, and his sister and wife, Isis, as well as of the several Hindugods and demi-gods and their wives. ... It is from this celestial pair that the Incas claimedtheir descent; and yet, they were utterly ignorant of the people who built the stupendousand now ruined cities which cover the whole area of their empire ... As the directdescendants of the Sun, they were exclusively the high priests of the state religion, andat the same time emperors and the highest statesmen in the land; in virtue of which,they, again like the Brahmans, arrogated to themselves a divine superiority over theordinary mortals, thus founding like the twice-born [Brahmans] an exclusive andaristocratic caste the Inca race. Considered as the son of the Sun, every reigning Incawas the high priest, the oracle, chief captain in war, and absolute sovereign ... To hiscommand the blindest obedience was exacted; his person was sacred; and he was theobject of divine honours. The highest officers of the land could not appear shod in hispresence; this mark of respect pointing again to an Oriental origin; while the custom ofboring the ears of the youths of royal blood and inserting in them golden rings whichwere increased in size as they advanced in rank, until the distention of the cartilagebecame a positive deformity, suggests a strange resemblance between the sculpturedportraits of many of them that we find in the more modern ruins, and the images ofBuddha and of some Hindu deities, not to mention our contemporary dandies of Siam,Burma, and Southern India. In that, once more like in India, in the palmy days of theBrahmin power, no one had the right to either receive an education or study religionexcept the young men of the privileged Inca caste. And, when the reigning Inca died, oras it was termed, was called home to the mansion of his father, a very large number ofhis attendants and his wives were made to die with him, during the ceremony of hisobsequies, just as we find in the old annals of Rajasthan, and down to the but justabolished custom of Suttee. ... What we want to learn is, how came these nations, so

antipodal to each other as India, Egypt, and America, to offer such extraordinary pointsof resemblance, not only in their general religious, political, and social views, butsometimes in the minutest details.20

Commenting on long-eared statues of the Buddha, Blavatsky writes: The unnaturally large earssymbolize the omniscience of wisdom, and were meant as a reminder of the power of Him whoknows and hears all, and whose benevolent love and attention for all creatures nothing canescape.21 The actual physical elongation of the ears as a mark of social rank and power in manydifferent cultures may have arisen after the original purely symbolic meaning had faded.

The ruling caste of the Inca peoples, the Ayar Incas, parallels the Aryan-Brahman caste of ancientIndia. Ayar appears to be a variant of Aryan, which is derived from arya, a Sanskrit wordmeaning worthy, holy, noble. The name of the Hindu fire god, Agni, is related to ignis, the originalancient root for fire, and is similar to Inti, the Ayar Inca term for the sun. Agnikayana refers to theancient Vedic fire altar rituals, designed to ensure that the sun remained in the sky. Among theIncas, a possibly related word intihuatana means hitching place of the sun, and refers to a shapedstone, a rock phallic pillar, found at sacred places such as Machu Picchu, Pisac and Qenko.22According to Cuzco legend, the Inca ruler would ritually tie the sun to the post on the day of thewinter solstice to bring it back in the opposite direction.

Fig. 3.7 The Hindu god Shiva was often depicted with a lunar crescent on his topknot (left). Lunar crescents are also seen on Inca hats (right).23

From the centre of Inca Cuzco, 41 lines, or ceques, radiated outward: some were true pathways forceremonial purposes (including human sacrifices in times of drought); some were boundary linesdefining where specific kinship groups lived; and others were sight lines with astronomical andcalendric functions. Situated along them are about 328 huacas (wakas) or shrines, includingsprings, fountains, bridges, houses, hills, caves, and legendary tombs and battlefields. The hub ornavel of the ceque system was a stone structure, possibly a gold-covered platform and/or pillar(long since destroyed), called the ushnu, located in the main city square. It is interesting to note thatthe topknot of the Buddha, representing the crown chakra and its irradiance, was called theushnisha. Cuzcos ceques were divided into four unequal pie-shaped slices a practice also foundin Melanesia. Other features found in both Melanesia and Peru include trepanation, cranialdeformation, panpipes and bark trumpets, star clubs and other weapons, along with many parallelsin myths and legends.24

It is not known how the practice of cranial deformation the artificial deformation of infants heads

originated or spread. It was also practised by the Olmecs, the Maya, the Aztecs, the FlatheadIndians, the ancient Egyptians, the Easter Islanders, the Cro-Magnon Aurignacian culture, theBasques, the Indians of the Antilles, and the ancient Chinese. The practice was used to denote elitestatus, to emphasize ethnic differences, or for religious, magical, or aesthetic purposes.

Fig. 3.8 Inca skull with cranial deformation.25

The Inca ruler Tupac Yupanqui (1471-1493) claimed to have sailed with a fleet across the Pacific tothe East Indies on a round trip the sort of voyage the Ming Chinese were making in the 15thcentury. At the time of the conquest in 1532, the Spaniards reported that Inca Atahualpa wore silktunics, which may point to a Chinese connection. The Spaniards found vast orchards of lemons andpomegranates growing in Peru fruits that are native to Asia. The sweet potato, which is native toSouth America, is called kumar in the Quechua language of Peru and Ecuador, and kumara in theMaori language of Mangareva, Paumotu, Easter Island, and Rarotonga. It seems that either SouthAmericans brought it to Polynesia or Polynesians made a two-way trip to South America.26

The totora-reed boats used on Lake Titicaca by the Aymara Indians are virtually identical to theboats with high curving prows and sterns made of bundles of papyrus reeds used on the Nile frompredynastic times. Boats of that design are still used in the Euphrates delta of Iraq, on Lake Chad inthe southern Sahara, and in the coastal waters around the Mediterranean island of Sardinia. Theywere used in Mexico, including the eastern shore of the Sea of Cortez, until the mid-20th century.Tusk-shaped totora-reed boats were likewise used by the Easter Islanders.27

The lighter-skinned people associated with the Chachapoyas and Paracas cultures were mentionedin section 2. There are in fact numerous legends and eye-witness reports of white Indians in SouthAmerica. They have been sighted in the past all over central and western South America, especiallyin remote areas; in the west they tended to be shy and elusive, while in the northeast theyresponded to intruders with blow-pipes and bows.28 Chronicler Cieza de Len records that longbefore the rise of the Incas, the Colloans attacked and exterminated a white, bearded race on anisland in Lake Titicaca.29 Portrayals of white and bearded figures of various kinds (MongoloidAmerindians have essentially no facial hair) with European-like features are quite common in Peruand Mexico. The Spanish conquistadors were amazed that members of the Inca ruling elite oftenhad whiter skin than the Spaniards.30

Fig. 3.9 Peruvian Inca mummy (14th-15th century) with natural blonde hair,characteristic of the fair, red and light-brown hair found among many South Americancultures in Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Northern Chile. The fine hair, skin colour andheight are typically Caucasian.31

Viracocha (sometimes called Con-Tiki Viracocha), the feathered serpent-god and culture-bearer ofthe Incas and in some cases his men was often described as white skinned and bearded, andsometimes as wearing long white robes and sandals, and carrying a staff. He is said to have comeeither from the east, or to have appeared from nowhere on an island in Lake Titicaca.32 He wasregarded as a kind, peace-loving god, who came to the Andes to restore civilization after the flood.In Mesoamerica, culture-bringers resembling and corresponding to Viracocha include Kukulkan,Votan, and Quetzalcoatl. Some researchers contend that such figures are rooted in real persons,and that their description may point to visitors from the Mediterranean.33 Harold Wilkins thoughtthese culture-heroes, like many of the white Indian races, were of Atlantean origin.34

References

1. The Ancient Americas, section 5, http://davidpratt.info.2. Robert M. Schoch, with Robert Aquinas McNally, Voyages of the Pyramid Builders: The true

origins of the pyramids from lost Egypt to ancient America, New York: Tarcher/Putnam, 2003,pp. 158-9; Andrew Collins, Gateway to Atlantis: The search for the source of a lost civilisation,London: Headline, 2000, pp. 158-62.

3. William Sullivan, The Secret of the Incas: Myth, astronomy, and the war against time, NewYork: Three Rivers Press, 1996, pp. 144, 277.

4. Graeme R. Kearsley, Inca Origins: Asian influences in early South America in myth, migrationand history, London: Yelsraek Publishing, 2003, pp. 176, 810.

5. Ibid., pp. 321, 808-9.6. Ibid., pp. 171, 173, 176-7.7. Ibid., pp. 191, 224-5.8. Ibid., p. 810.9. Ibid., p. 161; La Galgada, www.arqueologiadelperu.com.ar/lagalgada.htm.

10. Edward Moreno, Chris You Were Late! Part 2,www.discovernikkei.org/en/journal/2010/2/5/3277.

11. Inca Origins, p. 231.12. Mark Rose, Early Andean metalworking, Archaeology, v. 52, no. 1, 1999,

www.archaeology.org/9901/newsbriefs/andean.html; M. Aldenderfer, N.M. Craig, R.J.Speakman, & R. Popelka-Filcoff, Four-thousand-year-old gold artifacts from the Lake Titicacabasin, southern Peru, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, v. 105, no. 13, 2008, pp. 5002-5,www.pnas.org/content/105/13/5002.full.

13. W.R. Corliss (comp.), Archeological Anomalies: Small artifacts bone, stone, metal artifacts,prints, high-technology, Glen Arm, MD: Sourcebook Project, 2003, pp. 247-54.

14. Ibid., pp. 258-60; David Hatcher Childress, Technology of the Gods: The incredible sciencesof the ancients, Kempton, IL: Adventures Unlimited, 2000, pp. 27-30.

15. Enrico Mattievich, Journey to the Mythological Inferno: Americas discovery by the ancientGreeks, Denver, CO: Rogem Press, 2010.

16. Ibid., pp. 62-70.17. Archeological Anomalies: Small artifacts, pp. 31-4; Peter James & Nick Thorpe, Ancient

Inventions, New York: Ballantine Books, 1994, pp. 24-33; Voyages of the Pyramid Builders, p.116; Richard Rudgley, Lost Civilisations of the Stone Age, London: Century, 1988, pp. 126-37.

18. http://lastdaysoftheincas.com/wordpress/?p=128.19. Inca Origins, p. 190.20. H.P. Blavatsky Collected Writings, Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House (TPH), 1950-

91, 2:306-8.21. H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, TUP, 1977 (1888), 2:339.22. Inca Origins, pp. 105, 350-1, 517, 605-7.23. www.exoticindiaart.com/product/EY48; Inca Origins, p. 178.24. W.R. Corliss (comp.), Archeological Anomalies: Graphic artifacts I coins, calendars,

geoforms, maps, quipus, Glen Arm, MD: Sourcebook Project, 2005, pp. 33-9; Inca Origins, pp.342-5.

25. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Potosi_D%C3%A9cembre_2007_-_La_M oneda_2.jpg.26. The Ancient Americas, section 4.27. Voyages of the Pyramid Builders, pp. 115-16, 178-9.28. Harold T. Wilkins, Secret Cities of Old South America, Kempton, IL: Adventures Unlimited

Press, 1998 (1952), pp. 87-94, 104-5, 112, 150, 166, 228, 232, 237-46, 253-5; Harold T.Wilkins, Mysteries of Ancient South America, Kempton, IL: Adventures Unlimited Press, 2005(1947), pp. 47-53, 58-60, 64-7, 94-5, 116-17, 120-1; Col. P.H. Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett,London: Century, 1988 (1953), pp. 67, 83, 115, 245-6, 270.

29. Secret Cities of Old South America, pp. 88, 150.30. Igor Witkowski, Axis of the World: The search for the oldest American civilization, Kempton,

IL: Adventures Unlimited Press, 2008, p. 165.31. Inca Origins, p. 401.32. Mysteries of Ancient South America, pp. 110-11.33. Voyages of the Pyramid Builders, pp. 117-23.34. Secret Cities of Old South America, pp. 93-8.

4. The Nazca lines

The Nazca plain, some 400 km south of Lima, is covered with dozens of drawings of creatures andplants, several thousand straight lines, and hundreds of geometrical figures such as trapezoids andzigzags.1 The Nazca lines can only be fully appreciated from the air; they were rediscovered by apilot in 1927. On the Pampa de San Jos the geoglyphs cover a total area of over 500 sq km;tourist flights concentrate on a small number of creature drawings in this area. But geoglyphs alsoadorn surrounding valleys and mountaintops. There is an incredible profusion of lines and glyphs, ofvarying sizes and quality, some superimposed on older ones, as if they were made by differentgroups of people over a long period of time, without any overall plan.

Fig. 4.1 The spider (46 m long). Because of the extended leg that ends with what mightbe a sex organ, some researchers believe it represents a Ricinulei spider, found only inremote parts of the Amazon jungle; they measure 5 to 10 mm in length, and the malereproductive organ is normally only visible with the aid of a microscope.

Fig. 4.2 Above: Photo and diagram of the roughly-made 9-fingered monkey (80 m bodyand 30 m tail), with its prehensile tail curling in the wrong direction. Part of a geometricdesign is superimposed on the monkey. Below: One of the monkeys hands as seenfrom the ground.2

Fig. 4.3 Straight lines.

Most of the lines were made by removing the surface layer of darker, iron-oxide coated pebbles (upto a depth of 30 cm), exposing the lighter, yellowish earth beneath. (Since the 1950s motorbikesand cars have left their ugly tyre marks all over the ground in the form of yellowish-white lines.) Insome cases, stones were piled up along the edges of the lines. In others, stones were removedfrom the edges so that the figures stood out in high relief. The lines persist due to the extremely dry,windless, and constant climate of the Nazca region. Other giant geoglyphs can be found on cliffsand slopes elsewhere in the coastal region of Peru, and also in Chile, Bolivia, the United States,Egypt, and Malta, but those at Nazca are the most impressive. It is the only place where multiplelines many kilometres long are found.

Fig. 4.4 A cleared path.

In addition to the stylized drawings of birds and animals, many of which are not native to the area,there are representations of flowers and plants. Nearly all the biomorphic figures are located onabout 5% of the northwest corner of the pampa and are tiny by comparison with the straight lines.They all consist of a single, continuous line that never crosses itself, except for three killer whales(consisting of one line on both the outside and inside) and two solid infilled llamas (representingdark cloud patterns in the Milky Way). In addition, there are a number of strange figures, such as abeing with two enormous hands, one of which has only four fingers. There are also drawings ofman-made objects. The few human figures, up to 40 m high, are situated on hillsides and tend to becrudely made.

Fig. 4.5 Condor (134 m long).

Fig. 4.6 The alcatraz / phoenix / flamingo, with its zigzag neck and long beak, is over 610 m long.

Fig. 4.7 Figure interpreted as needle-and-thread or a fishing rod, about half a mile long.

Fig. 4.8 Hands with nine fingers. The fingers are about 9 m long.

Fig. 4.9 The crudely made astronaut or owl man (32 m long).3

Fig. 4.10 The giant of Cerro Unitas or robot, 121 m high, on a hillside in the Atacamadesert, Chile.4 It is sometimes said to be a leader with a stylized feather headdress andfeline mask. Rays, projections, halos etc. around a head are sometimes interpreted as asign that the figure is an extraterrestrial. A more spiritual interpretation is of coursepossible.

Fig. 4.11 This giant picture, 65 m long, situated in the south of the Nazca plateau, wasdiscovered in 2006. It appears to be an animal with horns, somewhat resembling alobster. Vehicles have destroyed part of the glyph.5

There are over 2000 narrow, dead-straight lines, up to 23 km long, running in all directions, andoften crisscrossing one another. Many lines pass over crevices and hill summits, and some run

across the animal figures. There are about 62 ray centres natural hills, artificial earth mounds, orrock cairns where some of the straight lines converge. There are also wider tracks or runways,from 30 to 110 m wide and up to 1.4 km long. The runways are often superimposed on zigzags andother geometrical forms, though in some cases a zigzag pattern runs over a runway. There are alsorunways that run over other runways.

Fig. 4.12 Nazca lines (not to be confused with wavy erosion patterns) seen from the SPOTsatellite.6

Fig. 4.13 Satellite picture of an area containing lines.7

Fig. 4.14 Two 50-m-wide runways and 21 narrower lines converge.8 (Courtesy of Erich vonDniken)

Fig. 4.15 A 62-metre-wide trail ascends a small hill then spreads out from the summit inseveral narrower lines. The middle of these five narrower lines carries on for 10 kmthrough the plain.9 (Courtesy of Erich von Dniken)

Geometric figures include trapezoids, triangles, spirals, and zigzags. There are about 300trapezoidal areas and triangular spaces. Trapezoidal figures measure about 40 by 400 metres onaverage, with the largest measuring 92 by 869 m.

Fig. 4.16 Trapezoid.

Fig. 4.17 Trapezoids and trails on the Pampa de Jumana.10 (Courtesy of Erich von Dniken)

Fig. 4.18 A trapezoid superimposed on a figure.11

Fig. 4.19 Lines and trapezoid.

Fig. 4.20 The mandala consists of three interconnected glyphs, carved with greatprecision on a remote plateau in the Palpa mountains (14 38.65' S, 75 10.27' W), notfar from Nazca. The central circle, about 55 m in diameter, is enclosed by a square ofthe same width and by a second, slightly larger square, tilted diagonally with respect tothe first. Within the circle are several smaller circles, and in the middle are twosuperimposed rectangles, each divided into eight squares (click here for a sketch). Thevarious circles are marked by small holes, sticks, or stones. A geological cleft runsthrough the middle of pattern. On either side of the main circle is a smaller set ofconcentric circles (only one set can be seen in the photo). Straight lines join variousparts of the geometrical patterns.12

Construction

It is generally believed that siting stakes and measuring rods and cords were sufficient to make thelines and figures on the Nazca plain. Remains of stakes have been found in the desert surface, andalong some lines at roughly one-mile intervals. Maria Reiche (the famous Nazca researcher whodied in 1998) thought that the Nazca artists first drew a sketch in an area about 2 m square; somesketches are still visible near some of the larger figures. They then faced the task of transposing thesmall-scale drawing onto a giant area. One suggestion is that hot-air balloons constructed fromanimal skins or textiles were employed as sighting platforms, but there is no hard evidence for this.1Surveying techniques involving accurate measurement of angles could have been used, but this isrejected by orthodox archaeologists because they presume the lines were made by the Nazcaculture, which is not known to have had such a capability.

Making the larger, more accurate figures, the broad, kilometres-long runways and trapezoids, andthe straight lines that traverse hilltops and crevices would have posed the greatest challenge. It isestimated that about 10,000 cubic metres of stones had to be carried away by the makers of theglyphs. The amount was probably far greater, since several mountain summits in the region had tobe levelled as well.2

In 1977 an archaeologist and 30 young Indians, using three wooden stakes and strings, managedin less than three days to scratch a narrow, 150-m-long straight line in the pampa surface. In 1981

volunteers from Earthwatch made a line with a spiral at the end. They tried to make the first curve ofthe spiral by simply laying out strings by eye. The result was a small, imperfect circle roughly 3 m indiameter.3 In 1982, a team of six successfully recreated the 440-foot-long condor (fig. 4.5) in a fieldin Kentucky, USA. They drew a centre line on a small drawing of the figure, and measured theperpendicular distances from the line to different points on the figure. They then created a centreline on the ground and plotted key points on the figure by scaling up the measurements on thedrawing. They took nine hours to plot and stake 165 points and connect them with over a mile oftwine, using white lime to draw the lines.4

Fig. 4.21 This roughly 60-m-wide, 700-m-long runway, superimposed on zigzags,extends over several mountain summits, which first had to be levelled.5 (Courtesy ofErich von Dniken)

Date

The Nazca lines are usually said to have been made by the Nazca culture between about 200 and700 AD. Some researchers believe the earliest may date from 500 BC. According to local tradition,the lines were made by the viracochas. Because some geometric designs are superimposed onthe animal drawings, it is sometimes claimed that all the geometric designs were made after theanimal drawings, but there is no compelling evidence to support this.

There are Nazca ceramics showing similar designs to those on the desert surface, includingspiders, lizards, hummingbirds and whales. However, the similarities are generally rather tenuousand far from exact. Even if we assume that the similarities were intentional, it would notautomatically prove that the Nazcans made those particular glyphs, let alone all of them. It couldalso indicate that they had merely viewed them (if not from the air then from nearby hilltops), orworked out their shape from the lines on the ground, or that they had preserved traditions of figuresthat had been made at an earlier time.

Fig. 4.22 Top: Killer whale depicted on a Nazca ceramic.1 Bottom: A killer whale glyph and afish/whale glyph.

Fig. 4.23 Nazca bowl with drawings of spiders.2

Fig. 4.24 The man with a hat (left), 20 m high, is located at the bottom of a slope. Itbears a reasonable resemblance to a Paracas iconographic figure (right).3 Does thiscrude glyph on a hillside illustrate the limited glyph-making skills of the Nazca orpreceding Paracas culture?

Pottery remains left at the lines prove only that the Nazcan people had visited them, over a periodof hundreds of years. One wooden stake found in the middle of a pile of stones has been carbon-dated to about 525 AD. This does not prove that most of the lines were constructed in the sameperiod. Once desert stones have been moved, lichen, moulds and cyanobacteria develop belowthem, and this organic material can be carbon-dated. Tests on nine stones collected from the edgeof a Nazca line or runway yielded ages of between 190 BC and 600 AD. However, it is impossible tobe sure that these stones had really been removed by the original line makers and had never beentouched since.

In short, it cannot be ruled out some of the geoglyphs at Nazca are far older than currently believed,and have been restored and added to by successive cultures over thousands of years.

Purpose

It is widely thought that many of the Nazca lines and figures were used for ritual and ceremonialpurposes, and were designed to be seen by gods in the sky. One theory is that they wereconnected with the worship of mountain deities associated with water and fertility. Sufficient rainfallin the mountains was, after all, critical to the Nazcan economy and agriculture. According to thistheory, the lines were primarily used as sacred paths leading to places where these deities could beworshipped, and the figures represent animals and objects meant to invoke their assistance. Theray centres where several line converge are rather small and are not suitable for large gatherings,but that does not apply to the larger triangles and rectangles. The figures, too, could have beenwalked since they consist of a single line that never crosses. Certain sections of the geoglyphnetwork are still used by local people for religious purposes. And in Bolivia there are similarradiating systems of pathways that are still used for ceremonial walking.

A recent study of several large trapezoidal structures at Nazca detected numerous magneticanomalies within them, thought to be caused by changes in soil density at various depths. Theresearchers believe that the soil was compacted by people walking back and forth during prayerrituals, and that the anomalies represent older lines, not visible from the air.1

Pottery that appears to have been deliberately smashed has been found on the Nazca plain,possibly as an offering. Seashells which were important offerings for rain are often found in themounds near the lines and at the ends of lines. There are no major temples anywhere near thelines and figures, but there are piles of stones that may be shrines. Studies have shown thatgeoglyphs such as triangles and trapezoids are sometimes associated with both surface andsubterranean water flow.2

Johan Reinhard argues that most figures can be interpreted in terms of a fertility cult. For instancehummingbirds are associated with fertility and are regarded as messengers of mountain gods onthe north coast of Peru. The appearance of many spiders and lizards is believed to be a sign ofrain, and the tarantula is a symbol of fertility in southern Peru. The spider, dog and monkey aredepicted at Nazca with their sexual parts extended. Foxes and dogs are associated with mountaindeities. Killer whales and fish are associated with water and sea food. Some figures have beeninterpreted as plants, such as flowers, algae and trees. As for the hands with nine fingers, in Incatimes it was widely believed that deformed people were children of lightning and thunder. Reinhardstresses that the geoglyphs could have served multiple ends.3 Other suggestions are that somefigures could have been clan totems or magical charms for shamans, and some lines could havehad astronomical functions.

Fig. 4.25 Hummingbird (93 m long).

Fig. 4.26 Dog.

Maria Reiche was a prominent proponent of the theory that at least some of the Nazca lines wereintended to point to the places on the horizon where the sun and other celestial bodies rose or set,and that some figures represented constellations. She proposed, for example, that the spiderrepresents Orion, and the monkey Ursa Mayor. Astronomer Phyllis Pitluga believes that the spiderwas designed as an image of Orion as it set along the western horizon about 2000 years ago.Studies by Gerald Hawkins in 1973 and Anthony Aveni in 1982 identified only a few specificalignments to the positions of the sun, moon and certain stars. For instance, the beak of thehummingbird is intersected by a line that targets the point of sunrise at the December solstice.4

Fig. 4.27 The double pointed arrow in the diagram of the bird indicates a possible astronomical alignment.5

Fig. 4.28 A jumbled mess.

The most striking feature of the Nazca lines is their seemingly chaotic profusion. John Neal has putforward a novel suggestion:

The whole desert of Nazca may be a testing ground and college of surveying. Theconditions are ideal, and the apprentice surveyor would first have to interpret what wasalready there to its exact dimensions, then produce an accurate scale representation,perhaps on the square fathom plot beside the figure, and as a final test of his abilities,produce his own figure upon the desert floor, aligned to a calendrical date which hewould have to calculate. ... One can imagine the compounded difficulties that would beencountered by a young surveyor, perhaps thrown in at the deep end by having tosurvey a degree of longitude in the mountains and jungles of Peru and Ecuador ... Possibly, students would not have to make a special journey to Nazca in order to takea course in surveying, it may have been on an educational route. A doctorate in theancient world may have entailed a complete circumnavigation of the globe by land andby sea, whereby the student would learn and apply the techniques of navigation,astronomy and surveying at all conceivable latitudes. ... Something along these linesmay explain the sheer number of lines where the land has only ever supported arelatively low level of population; the bulk of the people would be there temporarily, asstudents, strictly for reasons of geography.6

References

1. W.R. Corliss (comp.), Archeological Anomalies: Graphic artifacts I coins, calendars,geoforms, maps, quipus, Glen Arm, MD: Sourcebook Project, 2005, pp. 23-32; Erich VonDniken, Arrival of the Gods: Revealing the alien landing sites of Nazca, Shaftesbury, Dorset:Element, 2000, www.daniken.com.

2. www.nazcamystery.com/nazca_symbol_ape.htm.3. Ibid.4. http://img81.imageshack.us/i/tara6jy3.jpg.5. Heraldo Fuenets, Walking the line, www.viewzone.com/nazcatheories.html.6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazca_Lines.7. Ibid.8. Arrival of the Gods, p. 11, www.legendarytimes.com.

9. Ibid., p. 14.10. Ibid., p. 10.11. A. Dukszto & J.M. Helfer, The Essential Guide: Secrets and Mysteries, the Nasca Lines, Lima:

Ediciones del Hipocampoc S.A.C., 2001, p. 6.12. Walking the line; Arrival of the Gods, pp. 128-34; Nazca lines theories, www.world-

mysteries.com/mpl_1_2.htm.

Construction

1. Katherine Reece, Grounding the Nasca balloon, www.hallofmaat.com/modules.php?name=Articles&file=article&sid=96; W.R. Corliss (comp.), Archeological Anomalies: Smallartifacts bone, stone, metal artifacts, prints, high-technology, Glen Arm, MD: SourcebookProject, 2003, p. 287.

2. Arrival of the Gods, pp. 102-3.3. Ibid.4. Joe Nickell, The Nazca Lines revisited: creation of a full-sized duplicate, The Skeptical

Inquirer, 1983, www.onagocag.com/nazca.html.5. Ibid., p. 43, www.legendarytimes.com.

D