The Peruvian Nazca plateau and its mysterious drawings for ufologists is almost an elementary proof of the existence of alien life. Researchers of the UFO phenomenon consider them to be alien landing strips or the result of "energy-informational activity".
it is assumed that the aliens, hanging over the plateau, drew drawings with a certain ray. There were so many people who wanted to explore the extraterrestrial nature of geoglyphs (geometric figures on Earth) and images of living beings that in the 1970s. the Peruvian government began to severely restrict access to scientific work on the plateau. The invasion of the horde of ufologists was avoided, but, as it turned out recently, it was not they who posed the real threat, but what the geoglyphs were created for thousands of years ago. Showers are eroding the Pan American Highway, and scientists fear that the drawings will someday be the same.
According to new scientific theories, their connection with water is beyond doubt. This is confirmed by the authors of the latest study - a group of specialists from Germany, Austria, the United States and Peru. Previously, it was assumed that the drawings are fragments of an irrigation system or indicators of the occurrence of aquifers, now scientists say that the images are associated with water, but this connection is not real, but mystical. “We have no doubt that geometric shapes and animal representations were used in religious ceremonies associated with the cult of water and fertility,” explains team leader Professor Markus Reindel from the German Archaeological Institute.
In order to solve the riddle of the Nazca desert drawings, Reindel had to assemble a team of specialists from different fields. Huge geoglyphs (the length of some lines exceed 12 km) cannot be studied by archaeological methods alone. “It wouldn’t have been possible to come to some place, dig a hole and solve a historical riddle in our case. The object of study is too large,”says the scientist. Therefore, the archaeological part of the study was supplemented by a detailed topographic survey, which showed that the lines were drawn with rather large deviations and there was no notorious accuracy of their execution. And the modeling of the ancient climate linked the appearance of the drawings with the onset of droughts between 200 BC. e. and 700 AD e. The collection of information began with the Palpa Desert, which is much less explored than the one located just 40 km south of Nazca. According to most archaeologists, it was in the Palpa desert that the first geoglyphs were created, then migrated to a neighboring plateau inhabited by representatives of the same ethnic group. As a result, despite the "secondary" nature, Nazca gained worldwide fame. To correct the historical injustice, scientists described Palp's geoglyphs, tying them to the area, and then using photographs and aerial photographs, they compiled a three-dimensional model of the plateau. It was then that it became clear: the ancient inhabitants of Peru oriented giant lines relative to each other in such a way that people who stood on them could see their fellow tribesmen, located on the neighboring geoglyph. All of them gathered together not just like that, but for business. And this deed was a prayer addressed to the gods for water.then migrated to a neighboring plateau inhabited by representatives of the same ethnic group. As a result, despite the "secondary" nature, Nazca gained worldwide fame. To correct the historical injustice, scientists described Palp's geoglyphs, tying them to the area, and then using photographs and aerial photographs, they compiled a three-dimensional model of the plateau. It was then that it became clear: the ancient inhabitants of Peru oriented giant lines relative to each other in such a way that people standing on them could see their fellow tribesmen, located on the neighboring geoglyph. All of them gathered together not just like that, but for business. And this deed was a prayer addressed to the gods for water.then migrated to a neighboring plateau inhabited by representatives of the same ethnic group. As a result, despite the "secondary" nature, Nazca gained worldwide fame. To correct the historical injustice, scientists described Palp's geoglyphs, tying them to the area, and then using photographs and aerial photographs, they compiled a three-dimensional model of the plateau. It was then that it became clear: the ancient inhabitants of Peru oriented giant lines relative to each other in such a way that people standing on them could see their fellow tribesmen, located on the neighboring geoglyph. All of them gathered together not just like that, but for business. And this deed was a prayer addressed to the gods for water. To correct the historical injustice, scientists described Palp's geoglyphs, tying them to the area, and then using photographs and aerial photographs, they compiled a three-dimensional model of the plateau. It was then that it became clear: the ancient inhabitants of Peru oriented giant lines relative to each other in such a way that people who stood on them could see their fellow tribesmen, located on the neighboring geoglyph. All of them gathered together not just like that, but for business. And this deed was a prayer addressed to the gods for water. To correct the historical injustice, scientists described Palp's geoglyphs, tying them to the area, and then using photographs and aerial photographs, they compiled a three-dimensional model of the plateau. It was then that it became clear: the ancient inhabitants of Peru oriented giant lines relative to each other in such a way that people who stood on them could see their fellow tribesmen, located on the neighboring geoglyph. All of them gathered together not just like that, but for business. And this deed was a prayer addressed to the gods for water.located on the neighboring geoglyph. All of them gathered together not just like that, but for business. And this deed was a prayer addressed to the gods for water.located on the neighboring geoglyph. All of them gathered together not just like that, but for business. And this deed was a prayer addressed to the gods for water.
“We proved that the figures and lines were not part of the astronomical calendar; we failed to find a meaningful coincidence with the direction of motion of celestial objects. Therefore, only one theory remains: geoglyphs were used for religious purposes,”says Professor Armin Gruen of the Swiss Institute of Geodesy and Photogrammetry. He put an end to the once popular astronomical theory of the origin of drawings in the Nazca desert. For the first time she was voiced by the "lady of the desert" - as the Peruvians called the immigrant from Germany, astronomer and mathematician Maria Reiche, who in 1946 began the first systematic study of geoglyphs.
As shown by radiocarbon dating, geoglyphs trace their origins to small cobblestones on which the ancient Peruvians carved drawings. Having practiced drawing geometric shapes on pebbles, the artists transferred their skills to the vast expanses of the desert, removing dark stones aside to reveal light sand, and digging ditches. The reasons for such a reverent attitude towards water helped to understand the findings of the geographer Bernard Eitel. “In 2002, I discovered a 50-centimeter layer of lake sediment in the desert,” he says. - In the heyday of the Nazca civilization, full-flowing rivers flowed here with grassy banks, on which cattle grazed. And then the drought came. People left the advancing desert into the mountains, where there was water. In the middle of the 7th century AD. e. the Nazca culture has essentially dried up. Now it is one of the driest places on the planet - there is less rainfall than in the Gobi Desert.
“Life in oases directly depended on the amount of water. It is not surprising that the inhabitants of these places developed a cult of water, perhaps even it turned into a supreme deity for them,”Marcus Reindel does not exclude. His colleagues first discovered that near the geoglyphs there were strange mounds of logs and stones, and on them - the shells of bivalve molluscs. These were altars with offerings to the gods - in the culture of the Nazca and other peoples of South America, the shell symbolized water, fertility and abundance. "Water is always sacred, and therefore it is logical to assume that both a religious cult and quite pragmatic requests for water are embodied in the drawings - you always want to drink", - agrees the scientific secretary of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences Ekaterina Devlet. She studies petroglyphs - ancient drawings on rocks. American anthropologist Johan Reinhard advises paying attention to one of the most famous images on the Nazca plateau - a spider and a monkey. They are considered symbols of fertility among many peoples.
Nikita Maximov