Birds and people, simple patterns and complex geometric shapes, drawn with amazing accuracy on the desolate and flat surface of the South American Nazca plateau, fascinate more than one generation of scientists - and, of course, lovers of everything mysterious. Who left these images? What for? These questions remain largely unanswered.
It is believed that the authors of the geoglyphs were local tribes who lived in the territory of modern Peru between 200 BC. and 600 AD, and the extremely dry local climate ensured their preservation to our time. Most likely, the drawings, the largest of which exceeds 200 m in size, had a religious purpose. According to new data, which Japanese researchers told about recently at the annual meeting of the American Society of Archeology, geoglyphs were created by at least two groups of tribes.
Scientists have analyzed the characteristics, location and methods of creating about a hundred Nazca geoglyphs found in recent years and have identified four key manners, or styles. Some geoglyphs were created by removing stones from the inner parts of the image, others from its borders, etc.
Geoglyphs of different styles are combined into four groups, located along the path leading to the ancient temple complex of Kahuachi, built before the Inca era. Researchers believe that geoglyphs were signs of the way and prepared pilgrims who came to the temple from the most distant regions.
Two "style" groups of geoglyphs (A and B) are located near the Ingenio valley, which allows Japanese scientists to consider them the inhabitants of this valley as their authors. The third group (which includes geoglyphs, often mistaken for images of "extraterrestrial beings") is located near the Nazca Valley - and was apparently created by its inhabitants. Finally, the fourth group of geoglyphs combines the features of the others and is located between two valleys. Perhaps they were the fruit of the combined efforts of tribes from both valleys.
Sergey Vasiliev