The Nazca Lines
The Nazca Lines are huge figures and lines scratched into the desert of southern Peru by pre-Inca people, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Archaeologists tie them to ritual and pilgrimage; Wikipedia says Joe Nickell refuted Erich von Däniken's ancient-astronaut claim by reproducing figures.
UNESCO lists the Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Palpa as a World Heritage site. They lie on Peru's dry coastal plain, about 400 km to the south of Lima, and together with the Jumana pampas span roughly 450 square kilometres. UNESCO says they were scratched into the ground between 500 BC and AD 500. Smithsonian Magazine (2019) gives a longer span, from the 4th century BC to the 10th century AD, and a larger area of about 200 square miles. The figures show living creatures, imaginary beings and stylised plants, and there are geometric shapes several kilometres long. UNESCO says they are thought to have served a ritual astronomical purpose.
A 2024 study in PNAS by Sakai and colleagues, which used AI to nearly double the number of known figurative geoglyphs, summarises the main view: the linear geoglyphs belonged to the sacred landscape of the Nasca. Many lines fan out from or meet at a centre. Some follow pilgrims' paths leading to or from Cahuachi, some mark the lands of specific social groups, and some are linked to underground water. The Guardian (2024) quotes an archaeologist who said the newly found figures were created by people and meant for people, and often show daily life. The giant figures of the Nazca period, he said, were made on mostly flat ground so that their gods could see them.
The paranormal reading comes from Erich von Däniken, who proposed that ancient astronauts had built the figures. Wikipedia says the American paranormal investigator Joe Nickell answered him by reproducing figures using only tools and methods the Nazca people could have had. Wikipedia says his work showed that a few people who planned well and used simple means could lay out the biggest figures within a matter of days, without any view from above.
"Joe Nickell, an American investigator of the paranormal, religious artifacts, and folk mysteries, reproduced the figures in the early twenty-first century by using the same tools and technology that would have been available to the Nazca people.[21] In so doing, he refuted the 1969 hypothesis of Erich von Däniken, who suggested that "ancient astronauts" had constructed these works.[22] With careful planning and simple technologies, Nickell proved that a small team of people could recreate even the largest figures within days, without any aerial assistance."
- Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Palpa, UNESCO World Heritage Centre (inscribed 1994)
- AI-accelerated Nazca survey nearly doubles the number of known figurative geoglyphs and sheds light on their purpose, Sakai et al., PNAS (2024)
- Archaeologists use AI to discover 303 unknown geoglyphs near Nazca Lines, The Guardian (2024)
- Scientists Identify Exotic Birds Depicted in Peru's Mysterious Nazca Lines, Smithsonian Magazine, Meilan Solly (2019)