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00:00This week, join me as I explore one of the great enigmas of archaeology, the Nazca Lines.
00:08These mysterious figures of the Peruvian desert have been called the eighth wonder of the world.
00:13Who made them, and why?
00:17The Nazca Lines still baffle archaeologists.
00:20To understand them, I'll be exploring the mysteries of ancient desert engravings from Peru to the southwestern United States.
00:28There'll be some wild adventures in the air, on the sea, and even beneath the desert.
00:35Once again, we're digging for the truth, and we're going to extremes to do it.
00:40This really hits home.
00:53These are the deserts of southern Peru.
00:56They are some of the driest and most desolate places on the earth.
01:00Hi, I'm Josh Bernstein, and I've come here to solve one of archaeology's greatest mysteries, the Nazca Lines of Peru.
01:10For centuries, when people crossed these plains, they noticed lines in the sand.
01:15But they had no idea what they were seeing.
01:18Then, in the 1920s, came the first airplane flights.
01:22When pilots looked down from the skies, they were amazed.
01:29For the first time, they could see the lines were part of a massive complex of geometric figures called geoglyphs,
01:36covering the whole desert.
01:40Who made them, and why, the mystery of the Nazca Lines was born.
01:48The Nazca Plain is the Death Valley of South America, baking hot and almost totally without rainfall.
01:56Sandwiched between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes Mountains, it was home to an enigmatic culture.
02:02The ancient Nazca people, who lived here between the 4th and 9th centuries, left no great cities.
02:09They lived along the fertile river valleys, crossing the desert.
02:12On the plains between the river valleys, they built their monumental designs.
02:19The Nazca Lines have become one of the world's most famous archaeological mysteries.
02:25I've come here to explore that mystery.
02:29This is the modern-day town of Nazca, home to about 30,000 people.
02:34As you can see, it's changed a lot over the last 2,000 years.
02:37But one thing that hasn't changed is that people still come here to see the lines, which are just a
02:42few miles outside of town.
02:46The town of Nazca is an interesting mix of open markets, agricultural businesses, and internet cafes.
02:52It's a fun town.
02:54But to begin my exploration, I decided to skip the stores and get a good look at the lines myself.
03:00The best way to see the lines, really the only way, is from the air.
03:04And there's no shortage of conventional aircraft available for tours.
03:08But I'm looking for something a little bit more unconventional and exciting.
03:15Eduardo?
03:18Eduardo Jaren probably knows the Nazca Lines better than anybody else alive.
03:22He's been flying over them for 26 years.
03:26Is it safe?
03:27Oh, yes, it's safe.
03:28Yeah?
03:29Yeah.
03:30I don't know.
03:30I think I weigh more than this.
03:32Oh, yes.
03:34It's probably the best way to see the lines.
03:36Oh, yes.
03:36For the lines, it's the best platform.
03:38It's a ULM.
03:39It's ultra-light.
03:40Okay, my life's in your hands.
03:42Yeah?
03:42Yeah.
03:43Eduardo has discovered and mapped 324 lines and figures himself.
03:48He's passionate about them.
03:50He tells me he spent 12,000 hours in the air above the lines.
03:5512,000 hours above the Nazca Lines?
03:57Yes, in 26 years.
03:59That's crazy.
04:00Yeah, complete.
04:02I say let's go see him.
04:03Go, friend.
04:04All right.
04:04Okay, muchachos, vamos.
04:06This is really nice.
04:07I know you discovered the Nazca Lines, friend.
04:09I know.
04:11Eduardo tells me he's had a few crashes in his ultralight, one of which nearly killed him.
04:17That's not exactly what I wanted to hear, but I'm not going to let it put me off.
04:21You ever have a wing just fall off spontaneously?
04:24If he's game, so am I.
04:28It feels like a very flimsy aircraft, which I guess it is.
04:35But we successfully take off and begin our ascent.
04:43As we gain altitude and I can finally see the Pampa or Nazca desert,
04:47I relax and stare in wonder at what's appearing on the ground below.
05:04Some people believe the lines were built for extraterrestrials.
05:10Seeing them now, I understand why.
05:14Many of them do look like runways.
05:17And why would an ancient people make figures which can only be seen from the air?
05:31Hundreds of lines crisscross the desert, some 10 miles long.
05:38A massive bird is the size of a football field.
05:45There's a monkey, a little harder to make out.
05:55The spider is about 200 yards across.
06:00What looks like a whale swims across the desert, a plume of water erupting from its blowhole.
06:08On the side of a hill, I see a huge figure which looks human.
06:14Others are harder to identify.
06:22One in particular catches my eye.
06:28It looks like a flower.
06:30Eduardo tells me he has never seen it before.
06:40This is incredible.
06:42On my first flight over the lines, I've actually discovered a new Nazca figure.
06:49There are thousands of figures.
06:52In fact, Eduardo has found 324 himself.
06:57Even so, it's an amazing stroke of luck to find one on my first flight.
07:02And to have it captured on film.
07:05I found one.
07:06And I've moved many times.
07:07Yeah?
07:08On this side, yes.
07:10It's the first time we've seen the flower.
07:12The flower.
07:14325 figures now, friends.
07:16Yeah.
07:16It's good.
07:18My first time over the Nazca lines, but I found one.
07:21I found one because I said to Eduardo, I was like, what's that?
07:23He's like, no way!
07:25You found one!
07:27That was great.
07:28Yeah.
07:29New figure for me.
07:30Unbelievable.
07:31Unbelievable.
07:31You remember, I said, hey, what happened?
07:33You know?
07:34And you said, hey, look there.
07:35I've never seen this figure.
07:37And today is the first time, and you have the first photo too.
07:40And I need this photo, please.
07:43So this is a real discovery.
07:44We're not just kidding.
07:45It's not complete, complete.
07:46I have 324 yesterday, but today we're at 25.
07:49It's incredible.
07:50No, thank you.
07:51Really.
07:52That was great.
07:52You're welcome.
07:54Even without my discovery of a geoglyph, the lines would have captured my imagination.
07:59What do they mean?
08:01Why are there so many of them?
08:03Time to set off across the desert and search for some answers.
08:09There is one name that always comes up in relation to the Nazca lines.
08:13Maria Reiki.
08:15This amazing German woman dedicated most of her long life to understanding the lines.
08:22For 60 years, until her death in 1998, she studied the Nazca planes,
08:28walking over almost every part of them, often sleeping out at night, obsessed by the mystery of the lines.
08:36She was sure she had the answer.
08:46To find out about her theory, I'm going in search of Maria Reiki's foremost disciple, Anna Maria Cagorno.
08:54Anna Maria worked with the famous German archaeologist in the last years of her life.
09:00Anna Maria?
09:01I'm hoping she can shed some light on Maria Reiki's much debated theory.
09:05It's great.
09:06I just flew over the Nazca lines and I was waiting to get down here on the ground.
09:10Are these lines?
09:11Yeah.
09:11Come and see.
09:12The first thing I notice is how hard it is to see the lines from the ground.
09:16They look so much bigger in the sky.
09:21Wait, this is a Nazca line?
09:23Well, this is the edge of it.
09:24They looked like they were so much bigger.
09:27Yeah, but this is only the edge of it.
09:30So you're saying this is an edge?
09:31These are edges.
09:32These ones.
09:34Ah, so wait a minute, Anna Maria.
09:37These are the Nazca lines?
09:38Yes.
09:39Oh, okay.
09:39I got it.
09:40Okay.
09:40So now I'm looking at this thinking this is a Nazca line.
09:42Let's scoot a little bit this way.
09:43Right.
09:44But if you come to the middle.
09:45This is the Nazca line.
09:47Okay.
09:47That's huge.
09:48This I could see from the sky.
09:50Right.
09:50You can see straight, straight ahead.
09:52Yeah.
09:53You know, how it crossed.
09:54This is a big path.
09:54Right.
09:55Okay.
09:55So how are these made?
09:57Well, the only thing they had to do is just to push the pebbles and the stones to the side.
10:02To make the designs of patterns, you know, just moving the pebbles and the stones.
10:06I always thought that they brought the rocks here and that they had to build these shapes,
10:09but they didn't.
10:10They sort of cleared the lines.
10:11It's a very simple but very logical way how to do it, no?
10:14So this whole field was covered with these dark rocks?
10:18Absolutely.
10:18Because there was this huge flood millions of years ago.
10:23So the yellowish clay is underneath and it was covered totally with volcanic stones containing
10:30iron and the little pebbles that came through big floods, no?
10:34So these are volcanic?
10:36Yeah.
10:37And then they used to lay on the surface over this lighter stuff.
10:41Right.
10:41And then 2,000 years ago, they pushed them into these patterns.
10:47The ancient Nazca must have had an advanced knowledge of survey techniques.
10:56With primitive transits and marker ropes, they could lay out complex designs across the desert.
11:02Then they just had to move the top layer of stone to reveal the pattern.
11:08It's a clever and simple way to transform the landscape.
11:15Archaeologists have calculated that a small group of people could have made one of the large
11:19figures in fewer than 48 hours.
11:24The other thing that amazes me is how the lines have lasted for so long.
11:29It turns out that there are two good reasons for that.
11:32The sand here has a high level of gypsum in it, which gets dampened every night by dew,
11:39gluing the stones to the ground.
11:42Also, the stones absorb so much heat in the day, they create a cushion of warm air above them,
11:49protecting them from the wind.
11:51As a result, any mark made on the desert stays for centuries.
11:56Car tracks made in the 1920s are still there today.
12:02So I understand how they made the lines.
12:04Now I want to know why they made them.
12:07Anna Maria tells me this is a good place to discuss Maria Reichy's theory.
12:11Ah-ha-ha-ha.
12:13Yeah.
12:14That's great.
12:16Now I can see the trapezoid.
12:17So what does this mean?
12:19Well, the purpose of all the lines, figures,
12:25were related to positions of the moon, the sun, the stars, solstice lines also.
12:31So on the 21st of December, which is your summer solstice,
12:35my winter solstice, this line points to the place on the horizon where the sun rises.
12:41Right.
12:42So, for example, the lines points out the horizons,
12:46and also the figures are the constellations.
12:51It's a fascinating idea.
12:53Maria Reichy believed the ancient Nazca built the lines to be a huge star chart,
12:58a map of the skies.
13:01The figures were constellations.
13:06The lines, pointing to the rising and setting of stars,
13:10allowed them to mark the seasons.
13:14If it's true, it would make the people of Nazca some of the greatest astronomers of the ancient world.
13:21But it turns out the astronomy theory leaves a lot unexplained.
13:26What Anna Maria said is really interesting.
13:29There's just one problem, and that astronomical alignment can only account for 30% of the Nazca lines.
13:35And if you draw any line on the desert, it's going to stand about a 30% chance of
13:40pointing at something on the horizon.
13:43The constellation idea is just as random.
13:47If you look at the night sky, you can make out just about any shape or figure you want.
13:55It's going to be a little bit different.
13:56All in all, the astronomy theory by itself does not seem to get us very far.
14:04I'm on the trail of one of archaeology's greatest mysteries,
14:08the famous Nazca lines of Peru.
14:11I've already discovered a new Nazca figure myself, to the amazement of veteran pilot Eduardo Horan.
14:18No way! You found one! Thank you.
14:20That was great.
14:22I've also found out about the oldest theory of the lines,
14:25that they were a great astronomical observatory.
14:30But it turns out that theory is largely discredited.
14:33There's got to be another explanation.
14:37To get any further, I need to get closer to the Nazca people, who disappeared over a thousand years ago.
14:44I've seen the lines they drew and the amazing environment they lived in,
14:48but I haven't got a sense of the people themselves.
14:52I'm told the place to do that is at the desert cemetery called Chaochilla.
14:57Deborah McLaughlin, who's come with me, is a Nazca specialist.
15:01What are these?
15:02This is one of the 13 tubes that you find here, and this has quite a few mammoths in there.
15:07So these are Nazca bones?
15:08Yes, from the late Nazca period.
15:11And the cemetery, in fact, was used for a much longer period of time.
15:14It really was used up to the Wadi period, which is the culture that came after the Nazcas.
15:19So between the seventh and ninth centuries?
15:20Yes.
15:21So this is pre-Inca?
15:23Pre-Inca, yes.
15:24Late Nazca?
15:25Correct, yes.
15:28To protect them, some of the skeletons have been gathered together in pits by archaeologists.
15:38Ancient Peruvians usually buried their dead in a sitting position.
15:42For years after they died, they would receive the offerings of the living.
15:48As centuries passed, they might be forgotten.
15:52But the desert is so dry, the mummies survived in almost their original state.
15:57They seem to be not, most of them are not artificial mummification, but they are rather a natural process.
16:02They only got the guts out of them.
16:03And then because of the dry conditions and the heat, they mummified naturally.
16:08Beyond the burial pits is one of the strangest sights I've ever seen.
16:14The desert is littered with fragments of human skeletons.
16:17There are bones all around.
16:18So these bones, these are human bones.
16:20And they're just lying here.
16:24Wow, that's a bit spooky, huh?
16:26Yep.
16:27This whole place is just...
16:28There are quite a few large bones around and skulls you see all around there.
16:32The whole area you see all around there are pieces of skulls, large bones.
16:37There are even some remains of cotton.
16:41And that here, just there.
16:43Yeah, here.
16:43Oh my god.
16:45Some of the skulls.
16:46These are, okay, I'm going to just leave that there then.
16:47So this is cloth that the mummies that we just saw are interred in.
16:51There's a person underneath here.
16:53Yeah.
16:54There's probably people all over this place.
16:55Yes, it's a very large home cemetery.
16:57And it's just through the erosion of time that we're seeing the bones on the surface.
17:02Yep.
17:03Wow.
17:04Cool, that's freaky.
17:07I wanted to come close to the Nazca, but I never imagined I would get this close.
17:12This is a very surreal and, you know, just a visceral reminder of these people.
17:22This isn't just about lines and the artwork.
17:25These were people who lived here and these are their bones to prove it.
17:28And for me, this really hits home.
17:32The Nazca burial ground is amazing.
17:36It also really impresses on me just how arid this desert is.
17:41That's why it struck me as strange that the lines included so many ocean animals.
17:47A whale, a fish, a frigate bird.
17:53I wonder if the sea might hold some clues to the mystery of the lines.
18:02When I get to the ocean, I discover one of the most dramatic coastlines I've ever seen.
18:25The seas of this remote coast are some of the richest in the world.
18:33I've heard that local fishermen still use techniques similar to those of the ancient Nazca.
18:41Deborah, I found you.
18:43Deborah is waiting for me at the beach.
18:45This is great. What are these guys doing?
18:47This traditional way of fishing, which, as I was telling you, I mean, they do it in a very,
18:53very similar way to what people did in ancient times.
18:57They have these floaters there.
18:59Oh, the inner tube.
19:00Exactly. They're made with an inner tube.
19:02Before, in ancient times, people used inflated sea lion skins.
19:07Really?
19:07Yes. So it's very similar to those you see the inner tubes.
19:10But they were skins at the time.
19:12But basically, they used nets, they were the same amount of people, used the same areas.
19:17So the materials have changed, but the technique hasn't.
19:20Exactly.
19:20But one reason why I'm here and why I was interested to see the seafaring activity
19:24is because I flew over the geoglyphs.
19:27Yeah.
19:27And I saw a lot of marine life pictures.
19:30Yes, definitely.
19:30Like whales.
19:31Yep.
19:31And I didn't get it.
19:33Why would the people who dwell in the desert have these images of sea life?
19:38Well, obviously, because they were, I mean, they were living in both places.
19:41They were complementing agricultural activities with fishing activities, no?
19:46So they split their time between the land and the sea.
19:48Exactly.
19:49Yes, yeah.
19:52Imagine this scene with an inflated sea lion skin, plant fiber nets,
19:56gourd floaters, and rock weights.
20:00And there would have been not one crew of fishermen on this beach, but many.
20:07Now's my chance to find out about Nazca fishing techniques firsthand.
20:13Anyway, you know what, here, can I hold this?
20:15What are you doing?
20:16I'm going to go join them.
20:17Oh, really?
20:18Yeah, just one on my step.
20:19I'll see you at the other end.
20:27The water is cold, and the surf is really strong.
20:31To do this on a daily basis, those Nazca fishermen must have been tough and determined.
20:44We push the tube with the net piled on top of it around in an arc.
20:53When we've completed the arc and brought the far end of the net ashore, we haul in both ends of
20:59the net.
21:07Well, at first, the water was ice cold.
21:11But then after you're swimming so hard against the current,
21:15it's exhausting, so I don't feel the cold anymore.
21:19I think they were kind of confused because they didn't really know why I was running in the water with
21:24them.
21:25And I don't know if there was supposed to be a game plan, like who goes where.
21:29I think they just forgot everything and went, oh, my God, this guy's in the water with us.
21:33Why is he wearing his clothes?
21:36So now we just got to pull it in and see if we caught anything.
21:42As we pull in the net, I wonder if it was from experiences like this that the Nazca drew their
21:49figures on the desert.
21:54This coastline is still populated by the sea creatures of the lines.
22:06Could it be they simply drew the animals they saw around them?
22:11But in that case, why a monkey?
22:14The nearest monkeys are on the other side of the Andes Mountains, in the Amazon jungle.
22:21There are no easy answers here, but there is another theory involving water.
22:29Not the sea, but water to irrigate their fields.
22:34In this desert, it's got to be the most precious commodity.
22:42Who made the famous Nazca lines of Peru?
22:46And why?
22:47The deeper I dig, the more puzzling the mystery becomes.
22:52I've already investigated the first theory of the lines,
22:55that they were an astronomical chart.
22:58It turns out to be a partial explanation at best.
23:03Only 30% of the lines have been shown to mark solstice points or have any astronomical correlation.
23:09So I've been following a hunch that the lines might have a much more practical explanation.
23:15Something to do with water.
23:19The Nazca lived in one of the driest places in the world.
23:23Their greatest concern must have been water.
23:27When I asked Nazca specialist Anna Maria Cagorno about this,
23:31she tells me that there's a theory which relates the lines directly to water.
23:35It turns out that beneath the desert are a number of aquifers, or underground water flows.
23:43The water theory says that the lines point not to the stars, but to these subterranean water sources.
23:49It turns out that there's a lot of aquifers in the world.
23:51Anna Maria says she's got something to show me.
23:55Aqueducts.
23:56She tells me that Nazca built aqueducts, which tapped into those aquifers.
24:01This is something I've got to explore.
24:04So they made these. These are 2,000 years old.
24:06It's unbelievable they still use them.
24:11What are these guys doing now?
24:12Now they're cleaning.
24:13They're taking all the seaweeds out of it, so that the water can flow.
24:19Where does this water come from?
24:21It comes from the water table.
24:23So this is groundwater.
24:24Yeah, groundwater.
24:26And without this water, they couldn't live here.
24:28Absolutely.
24:29The first thing was to observe the water and control the water system.
24:33I want to see exactly how the Nazca tapped this aqueduct system into the aquifer.
24:39So, looks like I'm now going to flush myself down the Nazca line.
24:53Let's see where it goes.
24:56Inside, it's cramped, smelly, and wet.
25:00Which is what you'd expect of a 2,000-year-old aqueduct.
25:04What you wouldn't expect is how beautifully preserved it is.
25:08This is incredible.
25:10Can you imagine that this was made 2,000 years ago?
25:14Look at this.
25:15It's like this perfect little channel running underneath the desert above.
25:19That is incredible.
25:22And then I find out why it's so well-preserved.
25:27Way inside the aqueduct, I meet a man cutting the mosses and grass, which have grown here since the last
25:33cleaning.
25:34He's getting the aqueduct ready for the rains, which will fill it in a few weeks' time.
25:39It's an incredible thought that these aqueducts have been maintained like this for almost two millennia.
25:48Every 50 yards or so, there's a spiral entrance to the system, which makes it easy for people to get
25:54to the water.
25:56From the air, these entrances look amazing, like huge screw holes in the desert.
26:03This remarkable water system still irrigates large areas of the desert today.
26:12Water is a precious commodity in this parched landscape.
26:16The few rivers generate oases of green vegetation, but for much of the year are dry.
26:24The aquifers, filled with water from the mountains, never dry up.
26:30According to the water theory, the lines marked these underground water sources.
26:36Aqueducts were one way the Nazca could tap into them.
26:4440 yards up the aqueduct, and it's starting to get narrower.
26:48I wonder what I'm going to find at the end.
26:51How does it connect to the aquifer?
26:54Does water just seep in, or is it somehow channeled into this tunnel?
26:59Well, let me see if I can give you a sense of what this feels like.
27:04Aside from the cramped position, it's cool, and it smells like mud.
27:13Not stagnant mud, maybe because they're cleaning them now, but definitely there's a loamy smell.
27:20Something, something's been here for a while.
27:24I push on, but the going gets harder.
27:27Okay, it's getting narrower.
27:30Before long, I can tell there's no way I'm going to make it all the way up to the aquifer.
27:36This is, it's a lot smaller than I was expecting.
27:42This is the tight part, this is the tight part, so close!
27:47As the aqueduct gets smaller and smaller, I have no choice but to go up at the next exit.
27:55Not far, not much farther.
28:01I guess the ancient Nazca were smaller than I am.
28:04And I gotta say, I am amazed.
28:07I had no idea that aqueducts existed in South America, and certainly not 2000 years ago.
28:13The technology, just the ability for these people to engineer such an incredible channel of water
28:19and protect it, I have tremendous new respect for the Nazca.
28:23I'm definitely impressed, and I definitely need a shower.
28:31So could the Nazca lines be pointing to subterranean sources of water?
28:35I discovered that geologists have plotted the lines against the underground geological faults
28:41and aquifers of Nazca.
28:43It's true that a lot of the lines point to sources of water, either in the mountains or under the
28:48ground.
28:49But, like the star theory, there's a problem.
28:53Only 30% of the lines correlate to water.
28:56And as we all know, the 30% correlation is close to meaningless.
29:01I'm no closer to a convincing theory about the meaning of the lines.
29:06It's time to widen my investigation.
29:08The problem with Nazca is that all the theories are pure conjecture.
29:13We know how they made them, but we don't know why.
29:16But there are other great geoglyphs in the Americas, about which we know a lot more.
29:26I've been exploring the deserts and coasts of southern Peru,
29:30searching for clues to the meaning of the mysterious Nazca lines.
29:34The two great theories about these massive desert geoglyphs,
29:38that they're an astronomical chart or a map of underground aquifers,
29:43have both turned out to be unconvincing.
29:45The lines are still a mystery.
29:48So, I've decided to widen the investigation and explore other geoglyphs,
29:53which might shed some light on the Nazca lines.
29:58So, I'm heading to southern California,
30:00where ancient North Americans living along the Colorado River also made geoglyphs.
30:05They've been given the Italian name intaglios, engravings.
30:10I'm hoping that the geoglyphs here in the lower Mojave Desert
30:13can give me some insights into the meaning of the Nazca lines.
30:16And once again, the best way to see these things is from the air.
30:25Joe?
30:25Yeah, Joe Chevlet.
30:26Hey, Josh.
30:27Nice to meet you.
30:28Great to meet you.
30:29I understand you want to go see the intaglios.
30:30I do.
30:31Well, I know where they're at.
30:44The flight takes us from the irrigated flatlands around the small town of Blythe
30:49towards a low range of mountains in the distance.
30:53The intaglios are in the foothills on the far side.
30:58As we fly over the mountains, I'm struck by how similar the parched,
31:02barren landscape of the Mojave is to the Nazca Plains.
31:11Finally, I see the intaglios beneath us.
31:16They're much smaller than the Nazca lines and sometimes hard to make out.
31:23The first one I see seems to be a human figure, gesturing.
31:32The first one I see is a human figure, which is an animal, though which one, it's hard to say.
31:41They're really intriguing.
31:42I knew about the Nazca Lines.
31:45I had no idea that we had geoglyphs here in North America.
31:48But again, why?
31:50Why did people go to such lengths to put these forms in the middle of a very dry, hostile environment?
31:55What do they mean?
31:58I can't wait to get down on the ground and investigate them further.
32:03What really distinguishes the intaglios from the Nazca Lines
32:06is that the direct descendants of the people who made them still live in these lands.
32:11How do you do?
32:12So the first person I want to talk to is Laurie Kachora,
32:15an archaeologist and an elder of the Quetzan people.
32:19Laurie, as a member of the Quetzan nation, what can you and your people tell me about the intaglios?
32:24They use them for religious practice.
32:28There are two different types.
32:30There is one that's the good being and then there's one that's the bad.
32:36So when you look at it, we're talking about the negative and positive world,
32:41the negative and positive way of our life.
32:43So cosmic forces are being dealt with around these geoglyphs?
32:47But practically speaking then, would people actually use these as part of their ceremonies?
32:51Oh, yes.
32:53People use them in many different ways.
32:56They're seeking for knowledge, wisdom, whatever one is searching for.
33:03What Laurie tells me about the intaglios is a real revelation.
33:08Their meaning has nothing to do with astronomy or water and everything to do with religion.
33:15They are figures from the great creation myths of his people.
33:19He says that they were also the sites for vision quests and important ceremonies.
33:26Could this have been the purpose behind the Nazca lines too?
33:30It might explain why the people of Nazca spent so much time and energy creating them.
33:37Perhaps, like the intaglios, the figures were the gods of Nazca creation.
33:45Could it be that Nazca were turning the desert into a sacred landscape,
33:50a great ritual arena where they could perform their ceremonies?
33:55The person who might be able to tell me more is one of the world's leading authorities on geoglyphs,
34:01David Whitley.
34:02David, what can the geoglyphs here at Blight tell me about the geoglyphs at Nazca?
34:07Well, what's important about these is that we have historical and contemporary Native American
34:13accounts for why these were made and how they were used ceremonially. That may not be exactly the
34:20same as the reasons why the Nazca lines were created and how they were used, but it begins to give
34:26us an
34:27idea of how traditional people, why they made and how they used these sorts of features. And that's a good
34:33place to start an archaeological investigation.
34:37The intaglios are fragile. Like the Nazca lines, they're as easy to erase as they were to make.
34:44Fencing them in may not be beautiful, but it makes very good sense.
34:48It looks like they make these the same way. They push away the volcanic crust to reveal the lighter sand
34:53below.
34:53This desert pavement, yes, just scraped away.
34:57So what does this mean?
34:58Well, this happens to be Mastamho, the creator deity. And this is the location of a mythic event,
35:04a place where he did something important in the creation story. Here, the rivers of the
35:10Colorado River waters were rising, and he stopped the area from flooding by raising and lowering his
35:18arms four times. That caused the water to recede, and it saved the people.
35:22And they've captured that story here on the ground.
35:25Correct.
35:26And there are others? I think there's one more down there.
35:29Yes, there are others that are related to this particular mythic event.
35:34How is it then that they would use a glyph like this for a ceremony?
35:38What they would do on a ritual pilgrimage would be to come to this location and, for example,
35:44use a spot like that and have a ritual dance, a ceremony at a location here where an important
35:52event occurred.
35:53So this little patch of sand here was cleared away.
35:58And then they would perform a ritual here.
36:01A dance potentially here.
36:03That relates to the geoglyph there.
36:04It would commemorate this particular mythic event.
36:08Lori and David have opened up a whole new dimension to my understanding of these great
36:13desert geoglyphs.
36:14Here on the Mojave, they were clearly ceremonial sites.
36:19Now I need to find out if the Nazca lines were too.
36:28My search for the meaning of the Nazca lines has taken me from Peru to Southern California.
36:35Why did ancient Americans draw giant lines and figures in the desert?
36:41Theories that they were astronomical charts or maps of underground water have turned out to be pure
36:46conjecture.
36:48But in California, I discovered a very different theory about America's mysterious geoglyphs.
36:54They were the sites for great ceremonies, sacred places where the gods of creation were celebrated.
37:02Could this be the purpose of the Nazca lines too?
37:05I realized I know almost nothing about Nazca rituals.
37:10Time to head back to Peru and follow this new line of inquiry.
37:15When I get to Lima, the first place I visit is the archaeology museum.
37:21Elsa Tomasto is a curator of the greatest Nazca collection in the world.
37:26Wow.
37:27These are the spiders.
37:27Yes.
37:28It's just like the geoglyph.
37:30What I'm looking for is evidence of Nazca rituals.
37:33It's not long before Elsa shows me some.
37:36It really takes me by surprise.
37:38Everyone, yes.
37:39These are ceremonial arms.
37:42What are these figures?
37:43You can see trophy heads.
37:45Trophy heads?
37:46Yes, yes.
37:47You can see here and here.
37:48You can see the hand with the head and the neck is cut.
37:53Yeah, that's a trophy.
37:55Yeah.
37:56The mystery of the Nazca deepens.
37:59Who were they?
38:02I've been asking questions about them as astronomers, engineers, and farmers.
38:07Suddenly, I discovered they were headhunters too.
38:17I knew that the Inca, who dominated this area 500 years after the Nazca, decapitated their enemies
38:23and took their heads as trophies, even using them as drinking vessels.
38:29Now, I discovered the Nazca did something similar.
38:33In another room of the museum, Elsa shows me the gruesome evidence.
38:37So, this is a trophy mummy.
38:39Yes.
38:40What was the use of them?
38:43Probably ceremonial.
38:44They call it trophy heads, but we are not sure that it was a war around it.
38:51Wow.
38:54Yeah.
38:55Can I hold it?
38:56Yes.
38:56Yeah.
38:56Very, very carefully, please.
39:00Wow.
39:00It's just, you know, I've seen mummies, but I've never just seen the head.
39:06Yeah.
39:06It's kind of weird.
39:07Without a body, you just, all you have is a head.
39:09It feels as weird as it looks.
39:12It's really weird.
39:13This one has an unusual skull.
39:16Isn't that strange?
39:17Yes.
39:17It's sort of squished.
39:18Yes.
39:19Why?
39:19It's a deformation.
39:21They use it.
39:22When they were babies, they use the deformator.
39:26They would?
39:26Yeah.
39:27Okay, so they would deform themselves voluntarily.
39:29Yes.
39:29You can see here another thing.
39:31They took the skin out.
39:35Yeah.
39:35And clean the muscles and take out all the soft tissue to be sure that it will dry.
39:43And then take again the skin and put it again.
39:47Yeah.
39:48And then they used to hang it.
39:51It would hang it by its own hair.
39:53Yeah.
39:54Uh-huh.
39:54Sometimes it's hair.
39:55Sometimes it's cotton.
39:57It's not all the same thing.
39:58And so this ritual served what purpose?
40:03I don't know.
40:04Perhaps to get something from the gods.
40:07From gods.
40:08These were offerings.
40:10Elsa tells me that most of the trophy heads are Nazca people.
40:14So perhaps they're evidence not of conquest and warfare,
40:18but ceremonial violence, some sort of human sacrifice.
40:24Is this what happened on the lines?
40:27As I walk past the thousands of skulls of long-dead Nazca,
40:31I wonder about the scenes they've witnessed.
40:35I need to get back to Nazca and ask some more questions.
40:41I've heard news of an excavation which is unearthing more signs of ceremonial life.
40:47Kawachi is a site on the edge of the Pampa,
40:49just a mile or two from where the lines are drawn.
40:53All the way.
40:54Ruben Garcia is the archaeologist who's regional supervisor for the Nazca area.
40:59Well, Kawachi is the ceremonial center,
41:03the main ceremonial center of the Nazca nation.
41:06That is, it was a pilgrimage center where people from all the Nazca nation came,
41:11gave offerings and special feasts, sacrifices.
41:15So Kawachi was like the Mecca or Jerusalem of the Nazca culture?
41:18Yeah, it was.
41:21Located by a water source on the edge of the desert,
41:24Kawachi was huge.
41:26It was the greatest Nazca pilgrimage center.
41:30Forty pyramids still lie unexcavated beneath the sand.
41:34It's also the place to which many of the lines out in the desert lead.
41:40Evidence from Kawachi and from comparisons with the ways living Andean peoples perform their rituals
41:45have convinced most archaeologists about the ritual significance of the lines and figures.
41:53Many are related to fertility.
41:57Ruben has organized a demonstration for me of one of the most common Nazca symbols.
42:05Spirals are related to the conch shell which is used traditionally to call the mountain gods
42:14and the clouds for rain.
42:18Finally, the pieces of the puzzle are falling into place.
42:26Most archaeologists now believe the lines were sacred pathways on which the Nazca performed their great ceremonies.
42:36The figures represented creator spirits, the gods controlling the forces of nature.
42:43The Nazca turned their desert into a vast altar to the gods of creation.
42:50And everybody thinks now that most of the lines were made to be worked upon.
42:58Things, personal ceremonies, rituals and dancing and maybe singing and playing musical instruments
43:05as a way of calling the gods.
43:08The Nazca made their geoglyphs so big because they wanted the gods to look down on them and see they
43:14were remembered.
43:16When the Nazca danced on the lines and figures, they were making an offering to those mythic beings
43:22on which every aspect of their lives depended.
43:27Did those offerings include human sacrifice?
43:32Ruben tells me there's no evidence of violent rituals on the lines.
43:36But he knows there's still a lot about the Nazca to be discovered.
43:43Who knows what theories about the mysterious lines of Nazca will emerge in the future?
43:51Is that a disease?
44:11The Prairie is a resident, the First Nation of the NaughtyÙƒ.
44:11He knows where we are 1-1 days old.
44:11Is that a world of Naughtyke is 100 years old.
44:12The lastest place where the United States of the政治 had been made to know
44:18his history is a place of the Amber.
44:22You
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