The Paracas Mantles

THE CULTURE OF PARACAS WAS DEVELOPED IN THE TERRITORY OF THE PRESENT REGION OF ICA, 2,700 YEARS AGO. THE MOST IMPRESSIVE PART OF ITS LEGACY IS THE GREAT BEAUTY OF THE TEXTILES THAT THEY USED TO WRAP THEIR DEAD. THE PARACANS WERE THE FIRST GREAT MASTERS OF THIS ART IN PERU.

Data:
- The culture of Paracas was developed between the years 300 B.C.

  and 200 A.D.
- Their most important necropolis is located in Cerro Colorado, 18

  kilometers away from the bay of Paracas, in the province of Pisco.

THE DISCOVERY
The most impressive findings of the Paracas culture are due to Julio C. Tello, who, between 1925 and 1927, discovered 460 mummies in the necropolis of Cerro Colorado, Wary Kayan and Cabeza Larga. After these findings, Tello divided the development of the Paracas culture into two chronological phases: Paracas caverns (from 300 B.C. to 0) and Paracas necropolis (from 0 to 200 A.D.). Mummies were found in caverns that were wrapped in bundles (fardos), with their legs bent, inside a sort of shafts, seven meters deep. However, the tombs of the necropolis period resembled underground rooms, buried at low depth and distributed in rows. The division in social scales is demonstrated in these cemeteries. Some of the mummies found there were wrapped with elaborate mantles and wore shell necklaces and gold bracelets; others, however, were wrapped with mantles of poor quality.

NEW INVESTIGATIONS
Recent findings have contributed to new data about the development of the Paracas culture. In 2004, the citadel of Pernil Alto was discovered (in the photo), which is located just ten kilometers from the town of Palpa. The investigations, who were run by archaeologists Johnny Isla, Moisés Linares and Markus Reindel, have revealed that this establishment developed around the year 800 B.C. According to them, it was verified that the origin of this culture was much older than what was thought. It has also been recently discovered, in the same sector, geoglifos and lines on the ground similar to the ones that centuries later, would be drawn by the Nazca culture.

MUSEUMS
The Paracas culture did not leave archaeological establishments of great dimensions. Most of their legacy is constituted by mummies, textiles, ceramics and other elements, which can be appreciated in the National Museum and the Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology and History, both in Lima, and in the Regional Museum of Ica. Also within the National Reserve of Paracas, located 240 kilometers south of Lima, there is a small site museum that has important pieces.

THE MUMMIES
Before being buried, the corpses were subjected to a special treatment to assure their conservation. The entrails were extracted and the muscles cut out by means of incisions in the extremities. After, the body was left near a fire or under the sunlight to dry out and finally, it was wrapped in several layers of mantles. Mummies have been found in cemeteries that were surrounded by ceramics, ornaments of gold, food, hunting instruments and animal skins. The study of these mummies has also revealed that the Paracans practiced skull trepanations, a sort of rudimentary surgery, to extract damaged bones that after were replaced by gold plates. Another practice was to deform the natural form of the skull. For this purpose, they used small boards that exerted continuous pressure on the head. The skull deformations were not a medical practice, but they were made as a sign of social distinction.

THE TEXTILES
The most elaborate and magnificent of the Paracas textiles are those that were used to wrap the mummies of the great officials of that time. In these, are combinations of up to 190 different color shades and were woven with wool of native camels or cotton fiber. The mantles had embroidered designs of animals, mythological beings, anthropomorphous beings and geometric drawings. Some were even adorned with spangles of gold, silver, and feathers.

Web pages:

http://textiles.perucultural.org.pe/paracas.htm

The Nazca Lines

THESE GEOGLIFOS WERE DRAWN MORE THAN 1,800 YEARS AGO, BUT UNTIL TODAY, ITS ORIGIN CONTINUES TO BE A MYSTERY. THERE IS NO CONSENSUS BETWEEN THE INVESTIGATORS WITH RESPECT TO THE FUNCTION THAT THESE LINES COMPLIED WITH. THESE LINES COVER A SURFACE OF FIFTY KILOMETERS LONG BUT WHAT IS REALLY RECOGNIZED IS THE HISTORICAL VALUE OF THE LINES. UNFORTUNATELY, THE PROTECTION THAT THESE LINES RECEIVE IS INSUFFICIENT.

Data:
- The lines are located in the Pampas of Nazca, Ingenio, Palpa and

  Socos (Ica).
- The Nazca culture was developed between the years 200 and 700

  A.D.
- They were declared Cultural Heritage of Mankind in 1994 by

  UNESCO.

THE NAZCA CULTURE
The area of influence of this culture reached from the north until Pisco, to the south until Arequipa, and to the east, until Ayacucho. The Nazcan culture constructed important aqueducts, like the one of Cantayoc (in the photo), located four kilometers away from the city of Nazca, to extract water from the subsoil and to distribute it towards the cities and agricultural areas. They are known for their ceramics of many colors, in which they represented images of animals, vegetables, and mythological beings.

THREATENED HERITAGE
In September of 2006, UNESCO congratulated Peru for the works executed with the purpose of preserving the Lines of Nazca. Anyway, the deterioration that this Heritage of Mankind has undergone, during the last few decades, is irreparable. The Pan-American highway was constructed over the tail of the lizard geoglifo. But worse than that, was the discovery of new “lines”, which were actually tracks of vehicles and motorcycles that had circulated around the Nazca Pampas, to avoid the toll payment. Incidents of these types have been reiterative during the last years, due to ignorance and the little respect by our historical patrimony. The figures that present greater deterioration are those of the monkey, the humming bird, and the trapeze.

INDELIBLE MARKS ON THE FLOOR
The lines have lasted for almost two thousand years on the ground of the Nazca pampas, in spite of winds and other climatic phenomena. In fact, the actions of man have become their greatest threat. The lines that form the most well-known figures are about seventy centimeters wide. In order to draw them up, the Paracans moved the surface stones, which are of a darker color due to the oxidation process, and left visible to the subsoil sand which has a clearer color at about 15 centimeters of depth. At the floor level, it is impossible to perceive the figures. In order to observe them, it is necessary to do it from a high point. The figure of the condor is one of the best

known on the Nazca Pampas.

DISCOVERY
In 1926, the Peruvian archaeologist Toribio Mejia Xesspe was the first who informed the scientific community of the existence of the lines of Nazca. At the beginning, however, it was believed that they were the remains of some primitive irrigation system. Paul Kosok was the American archaeologist, who in 1940 spread the news about the discovery. His hypothesis was that the lines and geoglifos constituted an enormous astronomical calendar. Kosok recruited the German investigator Maria Reiche (in the photo) to support him in his investigations. Reiche would become the most persistent investigator of the lines during almost six decades, until her death in 1998; she devoted herself to their study, diffusion and conservation.

MARIA REICHE [DRESDEN 1903-LIMA 1998]
A life dedicated to the conservation of the lines, Maria Reiche, daughter of a German magistrate, was born on May 15th, 1903, in the German city of Dresden. She did her superior studies at the Technische Universitat, Dresden. Expert in mathematics, geography and pedagogy, she traveled to Peru in 1932 to work as a private teacher in the house of the German consul, in Cusco. After living for two years in the imperial city, she moved to Lima, where she earned her living dictating English and German classes, and gymnastics. She also worked as an assistant in a cafeteria. There, she met professor Paul Kosok, who was looking for somebody to translate one of his articles from English to Spanish.
The encounter with Kosok changed the life of Maria. He was who, in December of 1941 for the first time, took her to the Nazca Pampas. In 1946, after the end of World War II, she began her investigations on the lines, since then, they became an inseparable part of her life until her death in 1998.
As a recognition of her investigation, conservation, and diffusion her work of this patrimony of mankind, Reiche received from the Peruvian government the decoration of the Order to the Merit and the Order of the Sun, as well as the medal Machu Picchu granted by UNESCO. In 1993, five years before dying, she obtained Peruvian citizenship. That same year, when she had already lost her sight and she was suffering of Parkinson’s illness, she published her last book: Contributions to geometry and astronomy in ancient Peru.

THE LINES OF PALPA
The Nazcans were not the only ones that drew up lines and geoglifos. Near Nazca, on the Pampas bordering the valley of Palpa, have been found similar outlines. The Peruvian archaeologist Johny Isla and his German colleague Markus Reindel, directors of the archaeological project Nasca - Palpa, verified in the year 2005, after more than six years of investigations and carbon 14 tests, that these lines were made during the development of the Paracas culture, between the years 600 and 100 B.C. The lines of Palpa are less known than those of Nazca, but they are equally impressive. The figures that can be appreciated are: a solar clock, a fox, a whale, a pelican, a figure similar to a Tumi and two representations of a God with big eyes, main divinity of the Paracas, which appears in a recurrent way in their textiles and ceramics. Because, near the geoglifos, it was found remains of spondylus shells and native camels, which are associated to religious rituals, the archaeologists have the hypothesis that the lines were a sacred place for the fertility and water adoration.

ANOTHER GEOGLIFOS
Geoglifos have also been found in other places of the country. The archaeologist Krzysztof Makowski considers that the custom to make geoglifos was valid for more than 1,500 years and was extinguished just after the Spanish conquest. The oldest have been found in Caral and they are figures in spiral form. Also, they have been found in the valleys of Saña, Lambayeque, and Santa, in Ancash. In Saña, the most well-known figure is the one of a condor with its wings extended, seventy meters long. It is known that near Lima also there were figures of this type, in the localities of Canto Grande and Tierra Blanca. These were described by the Peruvian investigator Lorenzo Reselló. Currently, they no longer exist, because over them several slums have been built.

HOW TO APPRECIATE THEM
The best alternative to see the lines is to get in a small plane and fly over them. To the height of kilometer 419 of the South Pan-American highway, there is a viewpoint tower, 12 meters high, but from it, it is only possible to appreciate some straight lines and two small figures. The closest airport to the lines is in the city of Nazca. It is also possible to take a light plane in Ica, although the cost is higher. Leaving from Nazca, the flight tour lasts 45 minutes; from Ica, approximately the double. The lines can be visited at any time of the year. The cities of Ica and Nazca offer to the visitors hotel facilities of good quality.

Web pages:
- UNESCO: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/700
- INC: http://www.perupatrimonio.com.pe/pg_Nasca.htm
- Asociación Maria Reiche (Alemania):

  http://www.htwdresden.de/~nazca/Englisch/index.htrnl

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