The Nazca Lines Continued: Reality Vs Hollywood

This post was going to be a simple continuation of my Nazca Line post which I started on Friday in honour of Ack's birthday. On Sunday night, however, Robert and I went to see the latest Indiana Jones movie. We didn't know anything at all about the movie, so we were surprised to see that it was set in Peru. It involved an ancient hidden city in the Amazon, a trip to the Nazca Lines and aliens from outer space. We were quite amazed with how Hollywood Nazca compared to the real Nazca. So, as I continue my Nazca post, I will also point out the difference between what Indiana Jones saw, and what we did!
First, here is one last figure I wanted to show you. This is called the dog. You can just make out that he has his tail in the air. Below, is an image I pulled off the web.
One question that someone asked about the Lines is: 'What do they look like from the ground?' The answer is that you can barely make out that they are lines at all.

Here is a 'Line' taken from the side of the Pan American Highway. It is part of the figure called the tree. You can view the 'tree' from the Maria Reiche tower.
This is a brief reminder of what the tower looks like. This is about half an hour outside of town. We hired a taxi to take us there.

Here is the tree taken from the tower. You can just about make out part of it. The problem is that the figures are so big that they are hard to appreciate unless you are very high. The largest figure is 270 metres long. The figures I have shown you are just a fraction of what was produced. The lines cover 193 square miles. There are hundreds of them. Some are elaborate figures, some are just lines or geometric shapes.

The two big questions that people ask about the lines are: 'How were they made?' and 'Why were they made?'. The first question is a bit easier to answer. The Nazca desert is covered by a thin layer of iron oxide coloured soil. Underneath is a white chalky layer. So, the lines were made by simply removing topsoil and rocks to reveal the white surface underneath. Because it almost never rains in the Atacama desert and there is almost no wind, the lines have remained undisturbed.

How were the Nazca people able to make such large figures? The most convincing answer I have heard was offered by people who specialise in studying Andean weavings. Everyone apart from Ack can read on. I would like Ack to pause a minute to see if she can figure out the answer for herself...

The Nazca people were expert weavers. Above is a sample from a museum. I am not too sure what this figure is supposed to be. I would say it was a monkey if it wasn't for the things coming out of the head. Note the cross between the head things. The cross was a symbol in South America long before they were introduced to Christianity. It represents the coming together of opposites. What the weaving specialists figured out is that the Nazca people simply scaled up from weaving figures. A woven textile like you see above can be broken up into individual squares marked out by the warf and weft. So, to scale this up, you would peg out a system of squares in the desert and mark out the pattern accordingly.

The Nazca were also potters. The figures in the lines, like monkeys and spiders, etc. also appear in the pottery and weavings. The figure above is (I think) a jaguar (note the whiskers). More about this later.

So, why were the Lines created? Various theories have been offered. Von Daniken, of course, theorised that they were linked to space aliens because they can only be seen from very high up (i.e. from a space ship). Quite unsurprisingly, this is the theory embraced by the Hollywood creators of Indian Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The crystal skull, is actually the skull of an alien. Of course, the design of this skull was based on the actual skulls of Inca noble mummies.
This skull shape was achieved by binding the heads of babies in woven belts. Only Inca nobles did this. I don't know what impact this had on brain function, but they managed to create an empire, so it couldn't have been too damaging.

Theory number two was put forward by Maria Reiche. She had studied maths before getting involved in archaeology. She reckoned that they were part of an ancient calendar. That is, you could look at how the sun hit certain figures on certain days to know when to plant crops, etc. This makes some sort of sense and a lot of work has been done working out how this might work, but it doesn't explain all of the figures.

Theory number three suggests that the lines have to do with helping people locate underwater rivers and streams. As you may have noticed, the Atacama desert is pretty dry. There seems to be some evidence that there was a bit more water about during the time of the Nazca and that irrigation was very important. In fact, there are still some underground aquaducts. These take water from the mountains to populated areas. The town of Nazca gets its water from underground. Some of the figures are indeed lined up with some of these underground sources, but not all of them.

I am sure that theories two and three can explain some of the lines. However, the most convincing explanation for me is theory number four: that these lines have to do with shamanism and with shamanistic visions. Shamans existed on the coast of Peru, in the Andes and also in the jungle. Shamans are able to enter into alternative levels of reality where they can communicate with animal spirits. Basically, the world that you and I perceive isn't reality. Shamans enter a different level of reality where they see things as they really are. So, you and I walking in the jungle might see a jaguar and think: Hey! There is a jaguar. A shaman 'seeing' the same jaguar would know that it wasn't a jaguar at all, but a jaguar person that he could talk to. Sounds strange? The series of Matrix movies provide a nice illustration of this concept. When the guys in the movie are in 'the matrix' they are wearing nice leather jackets, eating steak and thinking that is real. However, this is only an illusion. What is real is the level of reality where they wear grotty looking knitwear and eat porridge. Shamans can do their stuff because they can 'see' what is really real and communicate with beings like the jaguar (who are as people in the really real world).

In contemporary South America, the highland people regard jungle (i.e. Amazonian) shamans as the most powerful as they are regarded as being closer to the animals (and hence better able to communicate with them). In the village where I did my fieldwork, for example, jungle indians were seen as being closer to animals because they wore feathers rather than weaving. Weaving takes on great significance in the Andes because it demonstrates the human ability to take nature (like fleece) and transform it into cloth. It is seen as a demonstration of what makes humans different from animals.

Interestingly, and what I find particularly interesting about the shaman theory, is that many of the animals represented in the lines, like the monkey, didn't exist in the Nazca area. Monkeys are only found in the jungle regions. This suggests contact with the jungle areas, probably through trade. So, the basic idea is that the figures are part of some shamanic effort to communicate with various spirits. There seems to be some evidence that the figures were made during a period when the area was experiencing an extreme drought. Perhaps by calling on jungle spirits (an area associated with water and lush fertility) they might bring some of this water and fertility back to the Nazca region. It seems to me that this theory could easily encompass aspects of theories two and three. What about the 'space man' figure? The proponents of the shamanism theory think that this represents an owl man.
So, what about Indiana Jones and the Kindom of the Crystal Skull? There were a number of areas where Hollywood really went far and beyond reality. There is a point in the movie where they fly above the Nazca Lines. The movie is set in 1957. Indiana Jones eventually goes to Nazca where he is supposed to find a clue to the location of the crystal skull. They take a small plane from Nazca airport. Nazca airport, which must have been built in the 60s, does in fact fit quite well into the movie. However, Robert and I did start elbowing each other when we saw what the digital enhancement guys had done to the lines. They managed to squeeze in the major lines (like the spider and the monkey) into the same shot. They were also highlighted so you can easily spot them. In reality, it is about 10 minutes of flight between these figures. It is a bit of a shame that the digitally enhanced version you see in the movie gives you no idea of how impressive these figures are. Part of this impressiveness is the size of them and the distance between them. I am sure that American tourists going to the Lines in a post Indiana Jones world will be disapointed that they are not all bunched together and more highly visable.

After you see the lines in the film, you end up in a Nazca cemetery complete with mummies. This does actually exist in real life, but not as it was portrayed in the movie. No doubt, to give the cemetery a sense of exoticness, they have it covered in vines. The spider web special effect guy also really went to town. Above is a still from the movie. Below is what one of these tombs actually looks like.
If you take a look at the middle mummy, you will notice a small woven belt just in front of it. Here it is in close up below.
Notice the lack of vines and spider webs.

This is what the Nazca cemetary at Chauchilla looks like. Basically, grave robbers looking for gold and pottery to sell located and broke into a number of tombs. The bones and mummies were scattered across the area. Archeologists, made an attempt to reposition some of these mummies. They also placed the extra bones they gathered back into the tombs. These are just sitting there in the open air. Each tomb has a thatched roof over it and it is roped off. There are no walls or anything else to protect the figures. They must have a night security guard, but I was quite surprised that the figures were just sitting there. You can see some of these structures in the distance above. Again, not a vine in sight.

Due to the lack of rain, the Nazca people were able to mummify their dead. This also allowed hair and textiles to be preserved.
Here are two mummies. Note that they are placed in a squatting position. Their bodies are wrapped in cotton and then they are wrapped with woven cloth. The long strands that you see coming from the backs of their heads is, in fact, matted hair.
This photo gives you a better idea of the hair. These shanks of matted hair appear to come from more than one individual. I guess it was like a Nazca toupee. Archaeologists think that these hair shanks denote ritual specialists. Interestingly, if you go back to the previous pictures of mummies and look at the next ones coming up, you see no evidence of head binding as you see with the Inca. So, this is yet another bit of artistic license in the movie. Indiana Jones tells the young man you see in the picture above that the Nazca people bound their heads to reshape their skulls. Sorry Indy! I don't think so...
Here is another burial where a few of the extra bones gathered from the desert were placed. You can also see a hair shank displayed on the wall.
Here is a close up. One thing that the movie did get right was the fact that the mummies were burried in layers of cotton wadding (or maybe it is fleece) underneath the layers of woven cloth.
This might be simply technical (i.e. it helps protects the body) or it might be symbolic (i.e. unwoven fleece next to the body (symbolising nature) and then covered by woven cloth (symbolising culture)).

A final point about the movie. As you can imagine, Indiana Jones eventually makes it to the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The architecture here is a totally mixed up version of various architectural styles seen throughout Central and South America. Personally, I would have gone for a modified Inca look. Inca temples have very clean lines.
They are also reknown for their amazing stone work. The stone below is in Cuzco and has twelve corners. The joints are so well crafted, that they are held together without mortar and have survived centuries of earthquakes.
Instead, Hollywood went for a a mixture of Maya, Aztec and Tiahuanaco culture.

The temple shape in the movie is very Mayan. The Maya Empire had its major period from 250 to 900AD. Maya people still live today, but there is a big mystery as to what caused the fall of the empire. The leading theory is drought.
At times, you see stone disks set into the floor of the temple. These are very much like the Aztec sun stone. The Aztec Empire lasted from 1428AD to 1571AD (severely affected by the Spanish conquistadores)
Other bits (the base of the oblisk from the temple) look like they come from Tihuanacu near La Paz in Bolivia. This culture had its heyday around 600BC. They predated the Inca.
These heads are set into the wall of a sunken courtyard.
Here is another view of the sunken courtyard. Behind and above, you can see stairs leading up to another level of the main temple. You can also see a gateway and a statue called the monolith. I was here for the solstice in June 2007, so you will see more about Tihauanacu in a later post.

Going back to the movie set, it was a bit like the spider web guy had a contest with the temple designer guy to see who could be the most 'over the top' in terms of what they did to the set. Hopefully, this won't spoil your experience of the movie and like me, you can just simply sit back, eat your over-priced popcorn, think how good Harrison Ford still looks at 65 year old and enjoy spotting the 'Hollywood gone mad' moments in the movie.
Let's hear it for older men!

Happy Birthday Ack

Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick... It is now midnight so I can be the first to wish Ack a happy birthday!!!
It won't be June 6 for a couple of hours yet in Canada. By my calculations, you must be 40! So, welcome to the fabulous 40s!

I thought about what to post for this event. I don't have any digital photos of the Ack, so I can't do a nice retrospective. Instead, this will be a normal Curious Llama post, but with the Ack in mind. I have chosen something that: a) has a connection with the year 1968; b) involves weaving; c) has a connection with Lincoln; and d) is older that ALL of us put together. I present to you today, in honour of Ack's birthday: The Nazca Lines!!!!!!
One of my 'things to do before I die' was to see the Nazca lines. The first I had heard of the NazcaLines was when a friend of mine, Crystal Bramble (a nice little Baptist girl who lived on the Lincoln Road beyond the Dairy Delight), lent me a book by Erich Von Daniken called 'Chariot of the Gods'. This book was first published in 1968 (note: I was at least in grade 5 when I read this, so the book had been knocking around for some time).

The premise of this book was that aliens had visited Earth during ancient times and that many of the classic ancient monuments were indeed linked to these aliens.

Amongst the many famous monuments that he 'explains' in his book are the Nazca Lines. Check out the figure above! Von Daniken said that this looked like an astronaut. He said that the head looked like a helmet.

Now, the Nazca Lines were a bit of a puzzle for archaeologists. The Nazca people, who created the lines, had a major culture between 300BC until 800AD. The thing about the lines is that at ground level, you can't really make out what they are. Below is a photo taken from a tower along the Pan American highway.

Here is the tower. It was built by Maria Reiche. More about her later.
You can make out some of the lines, but not much. The lines were not 'rediscovered' until people started flying planes in over this area of Peru. From the air, the pilots noticed remarkable figures outlined in the Nazca desert. Maria, a German Archeologist, was one of these people who spotted the figures from the air. She devoted the rest of her life to studying the lines. This tower is situated along the Pan American highway. Here is Robert on the Pan Am.

When the highway was originally built, people didn't appreciate that the Lines were there. In fact, the highway cuts across one figure called the 'lizard'. His tail is on one side of the road, separated from the rest of his body. Once people became curious about the lines, Maria was concerned that they would be destroyed by people walking across them. So, she built the tower so that people could view them.

The big Nazca puzzle is who could (and why would) an ancient people create something that could only be appreciated if you flew over it (obviously not an option for the ancient Nazca culture). Von Daniken's answer was that these were made for people who could fly: aliens from outer space. Before I provide any contemporary answers to these questions, let us go back to our journey to the lines.
As I said previously, I had always wanted to see the Lines. Robert and I were in Bolivia in the summer of 2007 and this was on my list of things to do. Robert is not really into 'archeology stuff', but even he thought that going to the Lines 'might be cool'. I had arrived in Bolivia a few weeks before Robert to get started on my research project. I also did some alternative research on the best way of getting from Bolivia to the Nasca Lines. It turned out that a tour company ran a luxury tourist bus service from La Paz to Lima. One of the stops (20 hours along the road) was Nazca. A luxury bus service means that: a) the seats recline; b) there is a video machine which plays pirated DVDs; c) it has a toilet; and d) the prices are high enough that common pickpockets and thieves won't be on board. The chap I booked this with (a Peruvian living in Bolivia) ensured me that this was a Peruvian luxury bus and not a Bolivian luxury bus. Luxury in Bolivia means that you own two chickens as opposed to just one, so we did find this somewhat reassuring. It was a lovely bus. We were even amazed that instead of the normal free-for-all when you board a Bolivian bus, we had to check our luggage in at the ticket desk (like for an airplane). We sat by our 'departure gate' and saw the piece of baggage above being wheeled towards our bus. It could only be a surf board.
Robert insisted on having his photo take with the surf board. Why? We were at 3800m above sea level. Bolivia, having no coast line, is not exactly a surfer's paradise. Nazca, and eventually Lima, where the bus was going did have a coast and surf. However, how on earth did a surfer, complete with board end up at 3800m???? This is yet another Nazca mystery.
We passed through customs (Bolivia to Peru) at Desagardero. I am firmly a 'glass half full' person, but even I have little good to say about Desgardero. What they do have that is good/interesting are rickshaws (you can see one front left in the photo). What is bad about Desagrdero is that once you arrive at the border you are pounced upon by helpful people who want to escort you through the border process. This is, indeed, slightly complicated and it is probably worth forking out the tip your 'helpers' if this is your first time at this crossing. This was not our first time, we knew exactly where to go, what to do, and in what order. I politely told these 'helpful' people that we were fine. Robert took the more direct approach and wasn't so polite. Neither approach had much impact on the swarms of 'helpers'. I did, however, admire the determination of the people who offered to help me even when I waived my entry to Peru visa in front of them.

Once in Peru, it started to get dark. We watched pirated DVDs until we fell asleep. Robert was introduced to Shrek 3 (in Spanish) without having seen Shrek 1 and 2. The best movie of the night was 'Lord of War' with Nick Cage (again in Spanish...Robert had checked out in his reclining seat long before this was on). We woke up to...

The Atacama Desert and the Pacific Coast. The Atacama Desert, along with the Nanibian Desert are two parts of the world where Mother Nature is at her most perverse. These are both deserts along the coast, however, fresh rain water very, very rarely falls in either places. So, you have miles of the above and then you see...

This photo was taken from the window of my bus within about 20 minutes of the previous photo. the road crossed a stream, so this must be some sort of oasis. I was curious about what type of trees these were...

When we pulled close, I was amazed to see that these were Olive Trees!!!!!! You do have to admire the mentality of the first person who looked at the Atacama Desert and thought: 'I could put a few olive trees here'.

So, after 20 hours of bus travel, we arrived at our hotel. The best way of seeing the lines is to take a flight over them, this has been booked by one of my contacts in La Paz. So, the next morning, after settling into the town of Nazca, our tour minibus picked us up to take us to the airport. Our driver's wife was at work that morning, so he had his daughter in tow and was going to drop her off at school on the way back from taking us to the Nazca 'airport'. . She oozed serious cuteness. She crawled onto Robert's lap to make room for the other tourists and he completely melted. One should not be able to conquer men at such a young age.

Because of air turbuence, flights over the lines are either done early in the morning or late afternoon. My Bolivia contact said that we were better off going for the early morning flight as there was less haze.
The plane was tiny. It sat 4 plus the pilot. Here is Robert.
Here is me. You can appreciate that there isn't much space to take photos.The headsets are so that you can hear the pilot when he tells you what figures are below. These didn't work very well. However, we did have a pre flight video, so we knew what to look out for. What follows is a comination of my own photos (where the figures are there, but not too clear) and digitally enhanced photos I pulled off the web).
Above, you can see a good 'off the web' photo of the Hummingbird Figure. Below is what I saw from the plane (mind you, the photo quality is a bit misleading as from the plane I clearly saw the figures). Hint: my bird is facing the other way from the 'off the web' version
This is what I took a photo of from the plane. In real life, the figure is quite prominent.
Above, is a photo of the 'spider' that I pulled off the web. My own spider from the flight was quite clear to me sitting in the plane but didn't come out so well in the photos: spot the spider!!
My favourite 'line' is the 'monkey'
This is what he looks like with a bit of digtal enhancement (photo pulled off the web).
Here is a nice flower (taken from the plane):
Time for bed! It is now nearly 3 hours since I started today's post. Happy Birthday Ack. Don't feel disturbed by the fact that I am still up at nearly 3am.This is quite normal. I have always been a night owl. It is quite cute that my students recognise this. I had to meet one of my students before her flight to Paraguay. I came into the office at 8:30am to meet her. She, sweet thing that she is, had brought me a large cup of takeaway coffee. She handed the coffee to me and said: 'here...you will probably need this'.

Curious Llama Does the Glasgow Women's 10k

What event gets women of all ages, shapes, sizes and levels of fitness pounding the pavement for 10km every year in the middle of May? The Glasgow Women's 10K! I have been doing the 10k for years and for years, my time has gotten slower and slower. This is the run's 16th year. I have only been doing it for the last 5 years. Over 12, 000 women participated in the event, cheered on by more than 30, 000 spectators and well-wishers (mostly husbands, boyfriends, fathers and sons). As part of your entry fee, you get a race T-shirt. Every year it is a different design and colour. This year it was pink!

The people who came to Glasgow for Christine's wedding may well remember the Women's 10k. The wedding party arrived the day before the race. So, happy belated anniversary Christine and Joe!!! This year's race was in the same place.
There are now so many participants and supporters, the Glasgow Underground (i.e. the subway) opens early on race day to facilitate transport to the start line. When I got on, there was one tell tale pink T-shirt. By the time we hit the stop closest to the 10K start line, the carriage was full of pink.
Here I am just before heading to my place in the start line. My bumbag contains all I need or might need for the race: ipod, mobile phone, camera, money to get back home, powergel (essentially liquid glucose with caffine), a map of the route, toilet paper and (just in case) blister pads. The bag gets moved to my backside for the race and my windproof jacket (in case it rains) gets tied around my waist. After having done the race at least 5 times, I pretty much know what I need.
Some women are better runners than others, so we are all organised according to our estimated finish time. The professional runners are at the front. Then the rest of us are organised by colour. I was with the green group. You can make out the green balloons that mark the start of the green corrall. We were due to finish between 1 hour and 1 hour 30 minutes. Behind us were the orange group. They were due to finish in over 1 hour 30. Ahead of us were the whites, blues and purples. We all have a timing chip strapped to our ankle, so it doesn't really matter when you start. The time is measured from when you cross the start line to when you cross the finish line. As you can see, some people dress up a bit. I pretty much stuck with the the group of ladies with the christmas decoration wigs.
Here we are, a sea of pink taking to the streets of Glasgow. At each kilometer mark, there is a sign and a bag piper. You can hear as you are approaching to yet another kilometer marking.
A large part of the route goes through parkland. Many of the 'green' ladies don't run the entire course. We run a bit, walk a bit, then run a bit. Here you can see some green ladies and one blue lady who should be in a faster group but decided to stick with her slower green friend. This summarizes the ethos of the race. Most of us are just out there because it is a fun event, with a great atmosphere.
Here is another photo of the park, complete with a highland cow. This is near the Burrell Collection Museum.
Of course, I stopped to take photos, including these cows. This did rather affect my finishing time!
There was also a professional company taking photos of the event. When you enter, they take a note of your email address. So, three days after the race, I was sent a link where I could pay £15 for a copy of a photo. Hmmm. I just selected an image, saved it as an image in my sample photo file and didn't pay a pence. Of course, I do have a large web address across my photo, but who cares!
The winner (a Kenyan 10k professional athlete) finished the race in 31 minutes and 32 seconds. I came in 10, 216th place with a time of 1 hour and 24 minutes (4 minutes slower than last year). Robert keeps on telling me that I should be able to finish a 10k in an hour. My best time was for my first race. I was younger, weighed less, trained hard and still finished in 1 hour and 10 minutes. I am trying to encourage him to enter the men's 10k so he can walk the walk, rather than talk the talk. His reason for not entering: I will be in Canada. The slowest finisher was 2 hours and 10 minutes. The last woman to finish at 59 minutes and 59 seconds was in 8149th place.

I'm looking forward to next year...maybe this time I will actually train for the event (however, I do have to admit that 10 weeks of training only makes me 14 minutes faster!). That's 1.4 minutes per week of training...hmmm... I wonder if it is worth it? You still get a medal regardless of your finishing time.