[Aztlan] Cahuachi Priests and Nazca Lines

[michael ruggeri]

Published: 09.24.2006


Priests may have designed Nazca lines, expert says


REUTERS
NAZCA, Peru — High priests at an ancient religious compound in  
southern Peru may have designed the mysterious Nazca lines, a set of  
huge geometric patterns, animal figures and long lines etched in the  
desert, the area's top archaeologist said.
Researchers say the Cahua-chi compound, built in 400 B.C., is just  
across the Nazca Valley from the lines, one of Peru's most popular  
tourist attractions and a U.N. World Heritage site.
"It is logical to think that the Nazca people's religious beliefs  
originated in this ceremonial site and got expressed on the wide-open  
plain," Italian archaeologist Giuseppe Orefici, who leads research at  
Cahuachi, said last week.
Geographical proximity is not the only evidence of links between the  
two ancient sites — the same religious icons appear at the lines and  
on ceramics and crafts excavated at the Cahuachi compound.
"Felines and whales are found in all Nazcan art, and this is what  
we've found in the geoglyphs," Orefici said, referring to ground  
drawings surrounding the Nazca lines and the Cahuachi compound.
The Nazca lines, best viewed from the air, were made by clearing away  
surface shale or piling it up onto other stones. Among its most  
emblematic figures is a giant monkey with a spiral tail.


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