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00:03From the sands of one of the world's driest deserts, a long-lost civilization is coming
00:10back to life. More than 2,000 years ago, a peaceful culture grew and thrived here, in
00:17one of the most inhospitable regions on the planet.
00:24The people were called Nazca. They lived in Peru on an arid, harsh strip of land, and
00:30survived despite severe droughts, earthquakes, and murderous flash floods. The capital city
00:36of Cahuachi, built at the crescent of a fertile river valley, was the center of their universe
00:42and the home of their gods. What carried them into oblivion, what caused their capital to
00:48fall into ruins, has remained a mystery for centuries.
01:02Now, little by little, the painstaking work of archaeologists is bringing this ancient civilization
01:09back to life.
01:20Discoveries made here may also hold the key to the Nazca Lines, as yet inexplicable drawings
01:26in the middle of the desert. An immense network of huge, yet geometrically perfect designs, completely
01:33visible, only from the sky. Unique creations, whose meaning has continued to entice and escape
01:41the best of science.
01:54After 2,000 years of silence, what remains of this mysterious and forgotten people?
02:03Why is the place in the last village?
02:05What is the name of the community?
02:19Why are you crying?
02:21Why are you crying?
02:21Why are you crying?
02:26How can you cry?
02:30Why are you crying?
02:55In the south of Peru, a dusty track along the Nazca River.
03:00Between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean.
03:04Giuseppe Orifici, director of Italy's Pre-Columbian Archaeological Research Center, heads the Nazca
03:10project.
03:11For 17 years now, he's been tirelessly exploring the remains of Cahuaci.
03:22The site is huge, almost 10 square miles.
03:25It's a ghostly place, covered with sand and alluvial deposits.
03:31The Nazca mystery affects all those who come close.
03:38Rounded hills hide the sharp edges of the structures which made Cahuaci one of the most impressive
03:43cities in Pre-Columbian America.
03:46Of these buildings, the Great Pyramid is perhaps the most imposing of all.
03:55The Great Temple, whose staircase led down towards the river, was here.
04:03Between these buildings, corridors, terraces and squares, a whole city is gradually emerging
04:10under the archaeologists' careful hands.
04:21For Orifici, the task is equal to the size of the site.
04:26Colossal, but fascinating and uncertain.
04:35For centuries, the location has been pillaged by shameless treasure hunters who have shown
04:40no respect for the bodies in the many tombs found here.
04:43They've taken away much of the history and left the rest to bleach in the sun.
04:50Stripped of their riches and gift offerings and abandoned to the relentless sands, hundreds
04:55of silent witnesses point to the enormity of the archaeological task here and the need
05:00to act before more is lost.
05:06Sometimes, a startling discovery provokes the archaeologists beyond mere scientific considerations.
05:24This is what's left after the raiders have been material, rotes, more textiles.
05:31There are thousands.
05:34There are thousands.
05:39All these abandoned relics, it's material that's lost from an historical point of view.
05:45It could have helped to reconstruct these people's past, and everything has been destroyed.
05:51The raiders' activities are nowhere near stopping.
05:58Look at this object, for example.
06:01It's a sling, with a variety of colors, a ceremonial sling, very beautiful.
06:08The raiders were not interested.
06:10They prefer ceramics and the fine textiles that are very popular with international collectors.
06:18Every day, information is being lost here.
06:21Every day, pages of history are disappearing that can never be written again.
06:26Fortunately, the site is so big, so vast, that our work to collect whatever can be saved is
06:33not in vain.
06:34We just hope that we can continue our work and save pages and pages in Nazca's history.
06:46Historical detectives, the archaeologists never give up on a case, whatever difficulties
06:52they may encounter.
06:54Every year for the last 17 years, Orofici has returned to continue the race to save Nazca's
07:00heritage from thieves and the ravages of time.
07:21The site is too vast to be entirely recovered at once.
07:25But season after season, scraps of history are pieced together.
07:31This year, a new site has been opened a few feet from the great temple.
07:35Beneath the sandy crust, the old city reappears.
07:50As the team digs, they penetrate the different layers of Kahuachi's past.
07:55From the surface layers dating from the fourth century, down to the city's foundations a few
08:01feet below and eight centuries before.
08:05The city was built from sun-dried clay bricks.
08:09It was destroyed many times through flooding, earthquakes, or at the whims of the priests
08:14who governed here.
08:16Each time, Kahuachi was rebuilt on its own ruins.
08:20Each rebirth was celebrated with various offerings placed in the foundations of the new constructions.
08:30And so the Nazca world is gradually coming to light, an immense city.
08:35It was occupied only by priests and devoted to a cult of gods.
08:40Not a single trace of ordinary daily activity has ever been found here.
08:54Because the Nazcas could not write, the ceramics and textiles found here are even more valuable.
09:00Each shard of pottery is a link to the past, a window on the Nazca spirit.
09:07At the end of each day's work, the team takes the newly recovered artifacts to a laboratory
09:12and storage facility located a few miles from the site.
09:16After 17 years, the collection represents an impressive inventory of Nazca culture.
09:25Each piece is painstakingly catalogued and analyzed before being fitted into the gigantic puzzle
09:31the researchers are trying to resolve.
09:52Like an impressionist painting, a portrait of Nazca civilization takes shape.
09:57Details, however, are still veiled in mystery.
10:04The art on ceramics was exclusively for religious purposes and conformed to criteria imposed by
10:10the priests.
10:11Images represented gods.
10:13Patterns, however, were never perfect.
10:15In a world ruled by the gods, was perfection reserved only for them?
10:39Seafaring divinities reveal the story of a people born between the sea and the mountains,
10:44between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean.
11:00But many different gods reigned in the Nazca pantheon.
11:25They were gods who showered blessings on men through their noses or mouths.
11:30The symbolism is very clear.
11:33Serpentine forms and wavy tongues.
11:39What a desert people expects first from their gods is water.
11:46The Rio Grande and its tributaries were the Nazca's Nile.
11:51Apart from extremely rare rains which normally have catastrophic consequences, drought here
11:57is the rule.
11:59And irrigation a necessity.
12:02The irrigation system invented by the Nazca's remains as a testament to their technological
12:08acumen.
12:09Designed with easy access for cleaning purposes, it is part of an intricate system of waterworks.
12:15Canals and filtering galleries are used to funnel underground water sources from the Andes.
12:23Unmatched in pre-Columbian America, this network still irrigates the whole region.
12:42In thanks to their gods, the Nazca's built pyramids on the edge of the desert, now half hidden
12:49by the sand.
12:50These symbols of greatness beckon scientists and beg to be explored.
13:19At the base camp, Giuseppe Orifici holds a weekly meeting with his team.
13:24The weather is changing.
13:26The team will have to increase the pace.
13:29We are together here after one month's work, more or less.
13:33And we have to bear one very important thing in mind.
13:37After 17 years of excavations here at Kawachi, the 71 sites that have been opened up only represent
13:441% of the whole site.
13:46So even after 17 years, it's still difficult to speak about Kawachi.
13:56The climatic conditions and the effects of El Niño have made themselves felt a lot here,
14:01this year and last year, and we don't know how things will be next month.
14:07Consequently, hope you understand the efforts we have to make now to finish this year's work
14:12as quickly as possible and with the best possible results.
14:15That's all now.
14:17Thanks very much everyone and work well.
14:30Work continues to go well.
14:33The team has cleared an extensive area to allow a detailed topographical study.
14:37As new areas are discovered, a small portion of the old city reveals itself.
14:51Professor Orofici is abruptly summoned to the site just before noon.
14:55In sector Y16, a well has been opened, perhaps a tomb.
15:00To the archaeologist's surprise, it appears to be blocked by bundles of textiles.
15:07There's a lot of them.
15:12The tension mounts quickly as more are found.
15:15The well contains many more textiles than it was first thought, and they're apparently of surprising quality.
15:37One of the specialists is intrigued by the first sample, a piece decorated with tiny feathers.
15:45It appears to have been cut out.
15:48It's been blackened, but not burned.
15:54This is probably not a tomb.
15:57If there is one, it will be lower down.
16:02It is not a tomb.
16:12This one.
16:14It's so good.
16:15This one.
16:15Look at this one.
16:16It is fantastic.
16:19Oh, my God.
16:19This one.
16:20If you have a squirrel's mother, you get a little bit more in the middle of the afternoon,
16:27the wind kicks up.
16:28But the work must go well in the middle of the afternoon.
16:29on the textiles must be removed before raiders learn of the discovery and come to rob the site
16:35the team must act quickly
17:17i've never seen anything like it so far we've got 28 pieces of cloth and this is only the first
17:24part
17:25we are now getting to the second lot all these textiles belong to people of high social standing
17:32they are decorated with divinities and ornithomorphic designs that is to say painted birds
17:40a total of 63 bundles of cloth are recovered that night by the archaeologists
17:46it's the first time painted textiles have been found here there are many unanswered questions
17:51the textiles appear to be from different eras some are much much older than others
17:58why would material from different periods be buried together
18:07analysis of the finds will take months of hard work
18:14we have to try to save all the information contained in the textiles
18:19many pieces have been darkened by organic material inside and by the humidity they've been in contact
18:34only a very few such examples exist their scarcity is a question of age the oldest textiles are from the
18:43the beginning of nazca civilization organic traces show that they have been in contact with corpses
18:49and were used as shrouds or if each concludes that they have been recovered gathered into bundles and
18:56ritually reburied perhaps at a time of change in the religious or ceremonial practices
19:24these textiles will now be added to the laboratory museum
19:41even after so many centuries nazca art cotton thread joining llama and alpaca-based wool craftsmanship
19:49is sound the unusual variety of colors and embroidery shine out under the peruvian sun as if it were yesterday
19:59this cotton and wool coat decorated with a flying cat and a variety of nazca religious figures
20:05might have been part of the splendor of kawachi's ceremonies over 2 000 years ago
20:33even older
20:35this funeral cloth
20:36made up of seven strips and squares sewn together might have covered the tomb of a woman who died 350
20:43years before christ
20:52this funeral cloth
21:04sewn with cactus needles these three-dimensional hummingbirds decorated the border of a ceremonial coat
21:13the colors came from vegetable animal and insect pigments such as crushed caterpillar fixed in human urine
21:22this ceremonial costume is one of the jewels of the collection
21:27on the central strip is a collection of nazcan divinities
21:31around them the people are in procession
21:34over 500 miniature figures each one different even down to their facial expressions
21:40they carry flutes or maracas or fans one can almost feel the nazcas come to life with their painted faces
21:48and richly colored costumes singing and dancing before their gods
22:02the great city of kawachi lies deserted hiding beneath a blanket of clay and sand
22:101700 years ago after six centuries of uncontested domination the nazcas religious capital fell
22:17dramatically into oblivion almost as if it had been buried alive
22:23what happened at kawachi between 300 and 350 a.d there were two important events
22:31first there was a major flood which was particularly serious we have found evidence of this in all of
22:38our excavations then there was an earthquake an earthquake that would destroy all the temples
22:46we found dead bodies under the walls which collapsed the nazcats religion no longer functioned
22:52their gods and ceremonial centers no longer functioned it was then that they abandoned the city
22:58but before they left because everything was a ritual for them the whole culture was based on religion
23:05the nazcats completely buried the ruins on the piles of earth
23:14look at the remains on the highest part of the site and you'll see that they are covered with a
23:19layer
23:20of clay that was brought to the top of the embankment by men
23:24that's what makes this a sacred site everything absolutely everything to be found under our feet
23:30was deliberately covered by the nazcans themselves
23:381700 years ago the city of kawachi disappeared buried by the very people who built it the nazcas would
23:46only survive their capital by another two or three hundred years before they were assimilated by the huari
23:52and andean people with whom they'd always interacted before the inca the huari dominated all of peru
24:18the fall of kawachi led to the decline of its gods and the removal of the priests power as a
24:25feudal regime took shape the old gods disappeared
24:28and the faces of men began to appear on the ceramics in the nazca conscience man was freed and would
24:36now occupy a more central position
24:50the wind has dropped over the excavation site and work can begin again
24:55in an intermediate layer between two phases of kawachi's history the archaeologists have uncovered the
25:01mummy of the mummy of a young llama the animal has been sacrificed
25:17this may be a tomb that has escaped the robbers
25:40the human race
25:41next a collection of pottery comes to the surface revealing the presence of tombs
25:45this pottery was used as covers for the funeral wells where the dead were buried
25:50the
25:50of the
25:51the
25:51the
25:52of the
25:52the
25:52the
26:23With lower limbs folded under the chin, the dead were buried in a fetal position, perhaps as a reminder of
26:30the origins of life, or because it was a comfortable position to be in for a long journey.
26:47A second tomb reveals a mummy still covered with its shroud.
26:51The archaeologists try to free it, but 15 centuries of immobilized waiting make the maneuver somewhat risky.
27:04The team's anthropologists decide to make an initial analysis in situ.
27:14Dr. Brian Harrison of the University of Oregon.
27:17It's clearly the skeleton of a young woman.
27:20You can tell by the shape of the pelvis.
27:23She's an adult, but she's not very old, I think.
27:26I have not seen any arthritis on the joints.
27:31It's excellent preservation of organic material here.
27:34This is a fantastic sight.
27:36The hair is in perfect condition.
27:39We can get a lot of information about the population that lived here a thousand years ago.
27:46One way we can tell that she was in good health is by the condition of her teeth.
27:50There's no lines.
27:52The enamel is very strong.
27:54So she was a healthy young woman, probably 20 to 25 years old.
27:58So the people we know were fairly short, long black hair, probably muscular from working very hard.
28:06And we have evidence from the skeletal materials, particularly the teeth, that they were very healthy people.
28:12And also from those same skeletons, we see no evidence of trauma.
28:16There was no warfare here.
28:32After so long, such an encounter is a miracle.
28:36The body was buried without any particular preparation.
28:40Only natural mummification could have preserved the body in this way.
28:45The area's sand is rich in salts and nitrates and without humidity.
28:50These mummies are a mine of information for anthropologists.
29:05Professor Andrea Drusini from the University of Padua has been able to study 550 individuals so far.
29:16As with every population, we have come across various diseases.
29:21Anemia, traces of malnutrition, children's illnesses and other infectious diseases.
29:32According to statistics concerning this population,
29:36it can be said that their life expectancy was around 37-38 years.
29:41This is not significantly different than 19th century Europe,
29:45where the average lifespan was 42 years.
29:48And yet, there is almost 2,000 years difference between the two populations.
30:00The body's the body's the body's the body's the body's the body's the body.
30:01Soon after work resumes on the site of the tombs, a new body appears.
30:05Unlike the others, it is lying on the ground in a horizontal position.
30:20Dr. Drusini now assumes the role of coroner.
30:23The skeleton's hands are tied in front of the body.
30:27The skeleton's hands are tied in front of the body.
30:33Dr. Drusiniיך boole capelli's hands are tied in front of the bars.
30:37and the body remained in this position.
30:50It's very strange to me.
30:54In my opinion, there was a very strong hit
31:05that has practically fractured the base of the brain.
31:10But from the beginning of the fracture
31:12it seems to be inserted from the front and not from the back.
31:16It's like when it's attached to the head
31:18and the back of the neck.
31:20But it's not the case.
31:23No, no.
31:28Fratture so big.
31:29It's very dumb.
31:30For me, Giuseppe, it was a pain
31:33in the back of the front,
31:35in the front.
31:37I was hurt over there.
31:37It was completely fractured.
31:40It was a disease.
31:45It's not too bad about the neck.
31:47It was a meltdown.
31:48It's completely fractured.
31:50It's the face that I've opened completely.
32:10You're not young?
32:12No, you're young.
32:1435 years old.
32:1740 years old.
32:2230 years old.
32:3730 years old.
32:3830 years old.
32:44This is not the first time that coprolite,
32:47or fossilized human excrement has been found here in the mummy's mouths.
32:52The meaning of such a practice, however, has not been determined.
32:56In a case like this one, we don't know the meaning that placing excrement in an individual's mouth might have
33:03had.
33:05Perhaps it was a mark of disrespect or a punishment, we just don't know.
33:12In total, seven mummies are taken from their tombs that day,
33:16providing a much larger sample for the anthropologists to work on.
33:24The sample provides outsiders a view into another world, fascinating, yet very different from our own, and somewhat disturbing.
33:34Over 90% of the skulls studied by Professor Drusini were artificially deformed.
33:40This practice can be found in other civilizations,
33:42and was probably based on certain concepts of beauty.
33:47For about a year, the heads of newborn babies were bound with tightly wrapped llama skin bindings,
33:53which forced their supple skulls to grow upwards.
34:13A short distance away in the laboratory, there are skulls with holes in the forehead, a real challenge to our
34:19imaginations.
34:20These are men's skulls, but women's and children's were also found this way, suggesting this was not a ritual of
34:27war.
34:29A rope through the hole held in place by a stick inside the skull would have allowed the heads to
34:34be carried or suspended,
34:35perhaps an offering and a sacrifice, a trophy, or a symbol of power.
34:46Sometimes the mouth is sewn up with a wooden needle or a cactus spine.
35:00Sometimes the eyes are blocked, or the tongue cut out and sewn into a little leather bag,
35:06so the dead souls cannot return to bother the living.
35:15All the iconography illustrates the importance of these practices in a civilization that was no more and no less barbaric
35:23than any other at that time.
35:46Taking advantage of the calm weather, Professor Orefici flies over the desert with his friend, Eduardo Heran,
35:53an experienced pilot who has discovered more than 350 of the Nazca geoglyphs,
35:59perhaps the greatest enigma this people has left behind.
36:03These gigantic lines and colossal figures etched into the lunar landscape of the desert pampas range over nearly 200 square
36:11miles
36:12and are only completely visible from the air.
36:27In certain places, simple geometrical shapes overlap other more complex patterns.
36:32Quite simply, this is because the lines were drawn over a thousand year period
36:37and the artists just drew new designs over old tracks.
36:40In order to establish the chronology, specialists compare the patterns with the iconography of the ceramics and textiles.
36:49In fact, the whole pantheon of these icons was recreated on a gigantic scale on the desert floor.
36:57There is the condor.
36:59The monkey.
37:07The monkey.
37:08The hummingbird.
37:29The lines are remarkable for their size and their number, which is constantly being reevaluated.
37:36Eduardo is today showing his friend a set of lines he discovered a few months before.
37:45A few hours later, Orofici walks the new lines.
38:00After 2,000 years of solitude, the lines appear to be intact.
38:05Yet only the very top layer of soil has been removed.
38:08No one has maintained them.
38:10How can such a degree of conservation be explained?
38:15To begin with, there is no agriculture here.
38:19Man has not damaged the lines, which were outside farming areas and away from any daily activity.
38:26Another explanation comes from the very nature of the soil here, which is composed of clay and gypsum.
38:34Also, thanks to the nocturnal humidity, the stones sink a little more into the soil each night.
38:40In the daytime, the soil dries in the sun, and the stones are gradually fixed even more.
38:47There is always some wind here, but it can't move stones of this size.
38:52That's why we can still see these geoglyphs after 2,000 years.
39:01Their careful exploration of the lines goes on, following the enigmatic traces that seem to disappear into the horizon.
39:09At ground level, the overall shape is impossible to discern.
39:23When they were created, man did not yet fly.
39:27For whom did the Nazca draw these lines?
39:43In his laboratory museum, Giuseppe Orifici unveils a new model of the geoglyph site to the mayor of the town,
39:51and to the Peruvian historian, José Lancho Rojas.
39:55Inevitably, their conversation turns to the meaning and function of the lines.
40:07Inevitably, there is an American, the lagarto, the guarango, the hands.
40:11Inevitably, there are the others.
40:14This is very good.
40:17Most of the drawings they find are made of a single, unbroken line.
40:23Could this mean something?
40:25But first of all, how did the Nazcan artists go about making these gigantic drawings in one single line, and
40:34without perspective?
40:42I think the television crew would like to make a replica of the geoglyphs, full-scale on the ground, that
40:48is, not on the archaeological site, obviously.
40:52What do you think?
40:57I have an idea.
41:00Professor Lancho's idea is very simple.
41:03With a few assistance, and some basic tools, the historian proposes to draw out on the desert floor a full
41:10-scale version of a drawing made beforehand on paper.
41:25Professor LanchoHD
41:36After multiplying the dimensions to get the desired scale,
41:39the group uses ropes and an improvised compass to etch the pattern into the
41:44ground a few elementary notions of geometry suffice 2,000 years ago
41:50enlarging such a drawing would not have posed more of a problem to the NASCAN
41:55textile workers and monument and aqueduct builders than it does to
42:11Professor Lancho's team indeed for Professor Lancho the problem is not a
42:24question of how to draw the geoglyphs in the desert it is to understand the
42:29mystery of why their creators made them at all at certain important dates families
42:36would assemble on the Pampa to take part in various ceremonies organized on the
42:42geoglyphs as an offering to the gods in the heavens
42:57according to Professor Lancho who now mobilizes his troops the lines provided a
43:03kind of path that humans followed during major ceremonies as they walked the
43:09procession would bring the design to life before the gods
43:34the lines became living icons allowing the Nazca to celebrate on a vast scale the union of a people with
43:42their gods
43:43the gods
43:43the gods
44:38It is December, and after two months of excavation work, another season in the field comes to an end.
44:44Two months' work for a few more scraps of history, a few more pieces gleaned from the desert and correctly
44:52placed in the Cahuachi jigsaw.
44:54Exposed to the harsh winds and the burning sun, the uncovered ruins of this fragile city are beginning to crumble,
45:01and Peruvian law requires that Cahuachi be recovered.
45:21With heavy hearts, the archaeologists return the ancient city to its sandy bed.
45:26Year after year, they repeat a ritual which began 2,000 years ago, as Cahuachi is covered once more in
45:36dust.
45:56Let's go.
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