All language subtitles for Historys+Greatest+Mysteries+S04E19+-+ENG

Tonight, they've been called the world's
greatest archaeological enigma.

Everyone focuses on the Nazca Lines
because of just how mysterious they are.

2 ,000 -year -old drawings so massive,
they can only be seen from the air. But

what are they and why were they created?

We know they didn't just appear out of
thin air, but there is virtually no

historical record of previous societies
in Peru.

Now. We examine the top theories behind
their mysterious origins.

Maybe the lions were ritual
battlefields, but I don't think that's

were. They found a collection of severed
heads, and this really suggests that

these Nazca lions could be connected to
ritual human sacrifice.

This is why we think the Nazca lions may
have been repurposed.

Can new research... finally unravel
their secrets.

Researchers make a shocking discovery,
and if this theory is correct, they

have solved one of archaeology's
greatest riddles.

What is the true purpose of the Nazca
Lines?

September 1926, Nazca, Peru.

Archaeologist Toribio Mejia Cespi leads
an expedition in the Peruvian desert.

Cespi and his team have been drawn here
by a discovery of a giant underground

acropolis full of hundreds of mummies.

When most people think of mummies, they
tend to think of Egyptian mummies. But

in fact, the oldest mummies in the world
are from northern Chile and southern

Peru. Dating back over 7 ,000 years,
They're known as the Chinchorro mummies.

Zespi examines some that are wrapped in
thick layers of expertly woven cotton

textiles covered in vibrant images of
mystical figures and animals.

One day, while taking a break from his
work, Zespi hikes up a nearby hill.

He gets to the summit, looks out over
the desert plain, and he's met with a

stunning sight he can barely believe.

Zespi sees a series of thick lines
carved into the rocky desert.

Some stretch as far as his eyes can see.

These lines are incredibly long, perhaps
miles.

And they're straight as a ruler.

At first, he thinks they're trails or
roads. But he notices that several of

plow right over the mountains and other
rugged terrain.

Not exactly what you would do if you
were building a road.

Eventually, he realizes a lot of these
are forming geometric shapes. You know,

kind of standard rectangles, spirals,
squares, triangles.

Some of them as big as a football field,
to put it in perspective.

Intrigued, Zespi puts his mummy research
on hold to investigate.

One of the things Zespi realizes would
be useful is to get a better look at

these from higher up. So he calls in the
Peruvian Air Force to get that overall

aerial view. They can fly over it, see
what's really going on.

When they reach altitude, the pilots
can't believe their eyes.

The lines and shapes cover an area that
stretches for hundreds of square miles.

Far beyond what Thespi originally saw,
there are spirals, zigzags, there are

drawings of birds, spiders, monkeys,
immense in scale.

These images are impossible to see in
their entirety from the ground. So the

pilots realized they're probably the
first people to ever truly witness the

scale of this unusual formation.

The strange markings become known as the
Nazca Lines.

When you look at how many lines are
actually there, it's an incredible

Over 800 lines total, hundreds of
geometric shapes, and at least 100

present in this whole area.

Some of the lines are thousands of
meters, all the way up to 25 miles, and

is quite incredible.

The precision of these lines is super
impressive, even by modern survey

standards, because many of them are just
dead straight.

And for 100 years now, ever since CESPI
first spotted them, They've been a

mystery. Who made them? When were they
made? Why?

What's the purpose of them?

Initially, it's believed the Inca are
responsible.

Beginning in the 12th century, the Incan
Empire eventually rules a large area of

South America until Spain conquers them
in the 1530s.

But scientists eventually date the lines
to between 300 BC and 800 AD, which

means all of them predate the Incas.

In fact, Some of the lines are almost 2
,500 years old.

We know they didn't just appear out of
thin air, but there is virtually no

historical record of previous societies
in Peru because the Incas, and later the

Spanish, made it a policy to suppress
and destroy every trace of the cultures

they conquered.

And so who built them remains one of the
biggest mysteries.

But how they were made is much easier to
answer.

The ground is covered with a desert
varnish. It's these small pebbles and

that have this black patina on them.
When you scrape away the darker layer,

reveal a lighter layer underneath.

It's a stark contrast, like a negative
image. So that's the method they used.

The region is also one of the driest on
Earth.

It receives only a millimeter of rain a
year. And because there's no rain in

this area, these lines were able to
survive for thousands of years.

After 13 years researching the lines,
Zespi presents his findings at a

conference in 1939.

This conference is the first time that
people from outside of Peru have heard

these lines.

Zespi's work has been mostly cataloging
and measuring them. He doesn't suggest

an overarching purpose for the lines.

But it gets a lot of people excited.

Among those intrigued, a scholar named
Paul Kosok.

Kosok is a history professor from Long
Island University in Brooklyn, and he's

in Peru studying pre -Columbian society
and culture, particularly focused on the

irrigation systems.

Inspired by Zespi's work, Kosok travels
to Nazca to try and solve the puzzle.

In June of 1941, he's charting several
of the shapes in the vast desert plain.

As he contemplates their purpose, he
glances up at the setting sun and is

with a sudden epiphany.

Kosciuk realizes that the line he's
charting points directly at the sunset

the horizon.

Kosciuk has a revelation about what
these lines could be.

It's late June in Peru, just about the
time of the winter solstice in the

southern hemisphere.

It strikes him that these lines could be
an astronomical calendar.

Kosciuk returns to Lima.

with this incredible story of
discovering what might be the largest

textbook in the world etched into the
sands of the desert.

There, Cossack consults with a German
mathematician named Maria Reiche to

out more specifically what the calendar
is tracking.

So Reiche works at the National Museum
of Lima and is a restorer, and she hears

about this and really gets interested.

and exploring in much more detail how
these figures could work from an

astronomical perspective.

On her first trip to Nazca in 1941, Rika
identifies 16 lines that point

directly at the rising or setting sun on
the dates of the solstice.

Rika also thinks she knows why the lines
creators might have made this calendar

to begin with.

One of the things Rika did really well
was track a large number of

between the different figures and
different elements of astronomical

Two examples are a line on the spider
figure that points to Orion and a set of

lines on another figure that point to
the Pleiades.

Many ancient civilizations are based
around agriculture and farming, and

when to plant or when to harvest is
vitally important.

Often these times would coincide with
atmospheric patterns like rain, but what

do you do in a place where it never
rains?

Most of this region's water comes from
periodic runoff from the surrounding

mountains. So a farming culture with an
environment with virtually no rainfall

would rely heavily on a celestial
calendar to determine planting times for

survival. When that water comes, you
need to be ready.

So one constellation you can use in this
fashion is the Pleiades. When they show

up in November, you know you're really
close to the rainfall up in the

mountains. You're about to get your
runoff, so you start your planting

And when the Pleiades leave the sky
later in the year, that's when you know

time to start your harvest.

Rika reports her findings to the press,
providing the first published theory on

the Nazca lines.

To this day, Rika's interpretation of
the lines dominates the public's

perception of them.

She's dubbed the Lady of the Lines.

There's plenty of reason to believe this
theory, because...

There are examples of many other
prehistoric cultures of earthworks being

constructed to aid in astronomical
sightings and calendars.

The famed Stonehenge may be one such
example.

In the 1960s, an astronomer named Gerald
Hawkins calculated the positions of its

standing stones using an early IBM
computer and announced that the monument

designed to predict astronomical events.
His work was a sensation around the

world and inspired a new branch of
science known as archaeoastronomy.

In 1968, Hawkins visits Nazca to study
the lines using the same computer

matching technique.

In particular, what Hawkins looks at is
21 triangles and 70 or so lines and

really asks, okay, how well correlated
are these with astronomical phenomena?

His conclusion?

The connections Riker found were only
coincidental.

One of the issues is that there are just
so many of the lines and in such a

large variety and in so many directions
that... To suggest all of them, or even

most of them, are connected to astronomy
is a clear stretch.

Rika and Kosak, when they see the
findings, they don't disagree with them.

mean, the computer findings are pretty
solid. But they do point out that this

isn't necessarily conclusive. It doesn't
rule out that some of the lines aren't

astronomical. They believe there are
some alignments which are done on

to be used as a celestial calendar.

But there must also be a much larger
grand purpose to the design that they

haven't figured out yet.

When Peruvian archaeologist Toribio
Zespi discovers the Nazca Lines in 1926,

the first thing that strikes him is
their incredible scale.

When you look at these shapes and
features, they're so huge they can only

viewed from above and very high in the
sky. So this does mean that the culture

that built them would actually never be
able to see them directly.

We know there weren't planes or other
flying vessels 2 ,500 years ago when the

lines were first created, but...

Somehow these people decided to craft
designs meant to be seen from what to

would have been an impossible viewpoint.

It doesn't make sense.

Unless the lines were designed for
another purpose.

In 1968, Swiss author Erich von Däniken
claims he knows the reason. The lines

aren't built for anyone on Earth.

Instead, they're built as a landing
guide to an extraterrestrial species

once visited the Nazcans from the
heavens.

One of the first Europeans to see the
lines is a magistrate named Luis de

in 1586.

He initially suspects that they are
traces of ancient roads, which of course

know isn't true these days.

When he asks the locals about them, he's
told of a legend. In very old times,

the Nascans were visited by a people
they called the Viracochas.

They're referred to as saintly persons.

The locals tell de Monzon that the paths
were actually built for them.

Viracocha is also the name of a Nazcan
god.

This deity dates back to around 3000 BC,
and the legend says that he came from

the sky in a golden boat, from the other
side of the Milky Way, to be specific.

In the oldest depictions, he's pictured
with a cone -shaped skull and only four

digits on his hands and feet.

Von Daniken believes these legends are a
reference to extraterrestrials.

One of Von Daniken's key theses and
beliefs...

is that the ancient people saw these
extraterrestrials, these aliens, as

Von Daniken believes that when the
Viracoches, or aliens, first visit, they

teach the Nazca people how to make these
lines.

The earliest lines are built as a
landing pad or navigational marker,

an airstrip for these alien ships.

We don't know if these aliens ever made
any return visits, but Von Daniken

believes that eventually they stopped
coming, and the Nazca decide to get

creative.

They want the Viracochas to return back
as soon as possible, so they start

building more and more elaborate Nazca
lines.

Von Daniken's 1968 book, Chariots of the
Gods, turns the Nazca lines into an

international phenomenon.

When Von Daniken first came out with his
book, this really generated a lot of

interest, a lot of excitement, a lot of
buzz. It was a very, very intriguing

idea that maybe aliens had visited.

And in fact, some people look at one of
the Nazca geoglyphs in particular and

believe it may prove von Däniken's
theory.

Known as the astronaut, this figure
covers nearly 100 feet of a hillside

overlooking the desert.

Some call it the astronaut because it
looks like it's wearing a space helmet,

which, of course, is a modern
interpretation.

Most historians refer to him as the
Owlman.

It's a humanoid figure.

but clearly not entirely human. It
features large, round eyes, and it seems

be waving hello to someone in the skies.

A thousand years after the creation of
the Nazca astronaut, the Inca built the

statue of Viracocha in Cusco, raising
his right hand much like the astronaut.

Scholars believe the Nazca astronaut
could be an image of the same god.

We don't currently have any way to know
if the Nazca astronaut is an alien.

There are no records from this society
apart from the Nazca lines themselves.

But one ancient practice might offer
more insight.

Remember those ancient Peruvian mummies
Vespé was examining?

Well, shockingly, many of them have
elongated skulls.

Today, it might be seen as a strange and
disturbing look, but it's believed that

the natives did this on purpose by
attaching wooden boards to their

heads. Several mummies are even found
with these boards still attached.

The question is, why?

We've seen Viracocha represented with an
elongated head and many representations

of aliens with a similar head shape.

Well, perhaps they're trying to emulate
the appearance of their gods who had

similar features.

A 2017 discovery takes this claim a step
further.

Dr. Konstantin Korotkov, professor of
biophysics at St. Petersburg Federal

University, shows the press these
mummies that he believes aren't human at

They look like they're covered in
plaster, but Korotkov explains this is

calcification and protective material.

They have elongated heads, large, round
eyes, and just three digits on their

hands and feet. He calls it, quote,
another creature, different from

else in our fossil record.

These mummies are made famous by a web
series claiming to investigate their

authenticity. Millions of people watch
as stupefied scientists declare them to

be the genuine article.

The body they examine is indeed organic,
and it dates back 1 ,700 years.

But when another team of scientists
inspect the mummies, they're proven to

fake.

They discovered that these were mummies
that were modified for this hoax, and

really... Turns out to be quite
disturbing.

These bodies are made from real
indigenous mummies which have been

make them look like aliens.

Their ears and noses are sliced away and
the alterations are covered up with a

white plastery powder.

But the other mummies with the elongated
heads remain genuine.

Those are humans who most definitely
gave themselves an otherworldly

Why? We don't know.

I think everyone would like to know the
answer to that question.

Maybe they were trying to connect with
another culture that once visited them

from above. Or maybe they just heard
stories of some visit from long ago and

were inspired.

Nazca, Peru, is home to two incredible
ancient phenomena, the Nazca Lines and

a necropolis of South American mummies
several thousand years old.

Everyone focuses on the Nazca lines
because of just how massive and

they are. But we can't lose sight of the
mummies because the two may be

intricately linked.

Mummification here dates back 7 ,000
years.

That's a full 2 ,000 years before the
first Egyptian mummies.

In Egypt, they used different techniques
to dry out the body before they would

wrap it. In this region, they didn't do
anything artificial.

The mummies were able to preserve
because this desert environment is so

In fact, some of these mummies are way
better preserved than what we even see

ancient Egypt.

Dry conditions are one part of the
reason, but the other is the technique

used. While the Egyptians used fine
linen, the Nazca mummies are wrapped in

long, thick cotton and wool textiles,
which are embroidered with a skill and

quality that's unmatched by any other
civilization.

In 1983, Swiss historian Henri Stierlin
thinks he knows their secret.

Stierlin is an art historian, and he
realizes what it would take for these

ancient people to craft these textiles.
They would need a lot of space and huge,

long looms, essentially an ancient
version of a factory to churn out this

incredible amount of cloth.

He looks around at what they have
nearby, and he determines the Nazca

might be the place.

Stierlin writes a book called Nazca, the
key to the mystery, which details his

theory. One of the most stunning
discoveries about these mummy wraps is

they are made from a single piece of
cotton thread, which can be dozens of

long. This idea of a single thread is
reflected in the way the Nazca lines are

created too.

They're made with a single line, which
starts and ends in the same spot.

So first, they need to make very long
threads.

Stierlin believes they use the wide
clearings within the geometric shapes as

sacred spaces for spinning the cotton
fibers into these threads.

As the threads are made, Stierlin thinks
the weavers would lay them out along

the Nazca line's animal designs.

According to Peruvian beliefs, each
animal carries a different significance.

So depending on who they're burying,
they would lay the thread in a different

Nazca line.

to infuse it with the power of that
family's chosen animal.

For instance, the whale provides success
in fishing. The hummingbird provides

fertility.

As far as the actual weaving, Stierlin
thinks this takes place within the Nazca

lines themselves.

So Stierlin had this idea that the Nazca
lines acted as a giant loom. Because

there are these posts within the Nazca
lines, the people would...

take the thread and wind back and forth
over the lines to create the textile.

There were posts found at the Nazca
Lines.

That's actually how scientists are able
to date them in the first place.

They test the remains of organic wooden
posts discovered nearby.

Stierlin believes these posts could have
been the framework to support this

giant loom system.

Stierlin also finds a connection in the
drawings themselves.

So the designs on the mummy textiles are
very similar to what we see in the

Nazca lines, a similar array of animals
and plants.

These ceremonial shapes might have been
a part of the entire process, from the

weaving through to the end of the
mummification.

One single mummy shroud could have over
a million stitches on the main panel and

another 800 ,000 or so on the borders.

This is a huge collaborative effort.

Making the mummies must have been a very
sacred and important process to these

people. So why not build a sacred and
important site to do it?

The Egyptian mummies were preserved and
wrapped by priests and elaborate rituals

inside impressive temples.

This could have been a prehistoric
version of the same thing.

According to Sperlin's theory, the
operation may have expanded beyond

The Nazca Line's mummy factory may have
eventually become a textile factory

serving the entire Andean coast and
parts of the highlands.

It's interesting because while you can't
grow many things in this environment,

you can grow cotton. It's one of the
only useful crops they could have had.

have to wonder, how did they survive?

Well, if this was a place that could
abundantly manufacture cloth, they could

have traded it.

But Stierlin's theory is really based
off of a lot of speculation. There's no

archaeological evidence that any weaving
was done on these lines.

He probably saw the posts and just had
this idea because textile production is

so important in the Andes. And textiles,
in fact, were more important than even

some of the precious metals like gold.

But a new discovery in 1987 challenges
Stierlin's theory.

About two miles away from the Nazca
Lines, up on a high plateau, is a

center called Kawachi.

An Italian archaeologist named Giuseppe
Orefici has been in charge of

excavations there since 1984.

He's working closely with an American
archaeologist, Helene Silverman.

At Kawachi, Silverman and Orofici have
found lots of chambers that we now

believe to be workshops for making
textiles, with remains of weaving

found there.

When Silverman first publishes her work
in the Journal of Field Archaeology in

1988, she finds that Kawachi is the
center for the production of the

costumes worn by the Nazca priests and
where the rituals are performed.

In other words, Kawachi is the mummy and
textile factory, not the Nazca lines

themselves.

But some believe... There's still a
connection between the two locations.

The Nazca Lines might not have been a
mummy factory or textile factory, but

could have been a place to reflect while
that process was happening nearby.

The entire area, both the lines in the
valley and Kawachi perched above, was

most likely a place of pilgrimage for
natives throughout the region.

A kind of religious tourism site, which
included a funeral parlor and textile

trading.

Visitors to Koachi would have had a fine
view of some of the Nazca lines below,

and I don't think that's a coincidence.

Many scholars have studied the Nazca
lines and speculated about their

designs. But it's not until 2019 that a
Japanese research team takes a

closer look at some of the animal
patterns.

Their findings unlock a new possible
theory.

surrounding these shapes.

The animals represented in the Nazca
Lines are referred to as biomorphs.

over 70 of these.

They represent a wide range of animals,
insects like spiders, monkeys, dogs, and

a wide range of birds.

The animals range in size from about 50
feet long up to over 1 ,200 feet, almost

as tall as the Empire State Building.

For about 100 years after these were
first discovered,

no one really thought carefully about
the animals. They just classified them

noticed, oh, there's animal biomorphs.
The reality is that these animals are

shocking because they don't exist in
this area. And so really asking the

question, why these animals, why here,
becomes critical.

Researchers from Hokkaido University in
Japan attempt to answer these questions.

For the first time ever, these Japanese
researchers take a scientific approach

to classifying the species depicted in
the lines.

They want to identify precisely what
species each drawing depicts and where

comes from, and then maybe they can find
some sort of logic or pattern to figure

out the reason.

So one of the exciting things is there's
at least 18 species that they're able

to identify.

There are a handful that they actually
just can't associate or identify a

particular species for.

Along with a rather obvious monkey and
llama, they identify a frigate bird, a

pelican, a guano bird, and even a killer
whale.

The hummingbird, they identify as a
hermit hummingbird, a species that lives

only in the tropics and subtropics far
to the north and east.

The animals that the Japanese classify
are all from places with lots of water,

like the coast or rainy jungle.

So sure enough, they seem to be
identifying a pattern. And the team

that water is the key to understanding
the purpose of the lines.

Throughout history, early civilizations
rely on an abundance of water to grow

food. But the dry desert conditions of
the Nazca region offer almost none.

The very reason these lines have
survived so long is because the area is

It only gets rain for maybe 20 minutes a
year.

20 minutes.

So what do you do in a place where you
don't get any rain, yet you desperately

need it? For many ancient societies, you
pray.

The Nazca are a priestly society, a
deeply religious society.

We know this from the huge religious
complex at Cahuachi, which is like the

Vatican for the Nazca people and the
whole coast of Peru.

The geoglyphs that surround it seem
connected to the complex and the rituals

performed there.

And the Japanese team believes all of it
is centered around begging the gods for

rain. The location of Kawachi is not an
accident.

There's actually a river that runs
through the area. And across this

desert, the river runs underground.

It only emerges above ground again as it
enters the lowlands, right on the spot

where Kawachi is located.

This is where the water is given back to
the people, and so this is where they

establish their most important
pilgrimage shrine.

According to the Japanese team, many of
the Nazca lines are arranged in a path

that leads directly to Kowachi.

They're guiding the people to their
sacred place for water rituals.

All along that pilgrimage route, they
would be saying their prayers in the

that these mystical animals would bring
along their region's rain.

Keep in mind, they're not actually
praying for the rain to fall in the

That won't help them.

They're praying for it to fall in the
surrounding highland and coastal areas

where they plant their fields.

They're also praying for the rain to
come peacefully.

The climate along the Peruvian coast can
be unpredictable and sometimes

catastrophic.

with wild deluges that cause landslides
and flooding, wreaking havoc on the

farmers. So the whole belief system with
this pilgrimage along the Nazca Lines

is centered around creating a friendly,
working relationship with the gods who

control the weather.

These gods are invoked and pleaded with
within the sacred spaces of Kauachi and

the biomorphs.

The team identifies the same species on
rock art, ceramics, and textiles from

the area.

They even made musical instruments out
of pottery.

It must be quite an elaborate and
celebratory process.

You can imagine hundreds of people in
colorful costumes, performing ritual

processions or dances along the Nazca
Lines, accompanied by drums and

It's quite a spectacle.

There seems to be one more connection
between the lines and water.

The last thing they find is that there
are several rock altars at the edges of

some of the clearings, right by the
Nazca Lines.

And inside the altars, there are
crayfish claws, crab skeletons, mollusk

the remains of sea creatures here in the
desert at 4 ,000 feet above sea level.

That's a bit surprising.

They're bringing these materials from
the largest body of water, the ocean, as

way of asking the gods for water.

Once again, this supports the Japanese
theory.

The Nazca Lines were a place for
pilgrims to journey from all around in

hopes of summoning their most sacred
resource.

In 2019, Japanese scientists revealed
their belief that the Nazca Lines were

created as a prayer for rain, a plea
that unfortunately failed.

In the early 5th century, this culture
suffers their most extreme drought of

all. It's so bad that Kauachi is
abandoned.

There's no more sacred city for their
rain and water rituals.

No place for a pilgrimage.

But after the drought, there are still
artifacts and human remains that suggest

people were still coming to the Nazca
Lines.

So I think when you start to make
theories about the Nazca Lines and their

purpose, you have to split them into two
distinct periods.

What were they used for before the
drought, and what were they used for

I think before the drought, the 2019
theory about the prayers for rain is

probably one of the best options.

That seems to check all the boxes.

As for their use after the drought, a
scientist in the mid -1990s thinks he's

figured it out.

So in 1996, David Johnson, who is an
American scientist, traveled down to

region, and he is the first to really
recognize these large, almost well -like

structures in the desert that we call
pukios.

The pukios are the spiral -shaped stone
staircases around a hole that leads

underground to stone -reinforced tunnels
under the earth.

lined with waterproof clay.

The locals really talk about these as
connected to an irrigation system, a way

of getting water to flow throughout the
area. One of the interesting things is

how old they are. They date back at
least to the 6th century, and they're

connected with the ending of this
massive drought that decimated the area.

Johnson realizes there's a connection
between the Nazca lines and these Pukios

and starts working on a theory of his
own.

He believes after the drought...

the Nazca people repurposed their famous
lines and created a map for one of the

world's most sophisticated systems of
water management.

Johnson finds two underground water
sources in the Nazca Desert to support

theory. The first are rivers, which flow
down from the mountains before going

underground through this region.

The second are geological fault lines
that run north to south that bring up

their own water from deeper beneath the
water table.

When you look at this area, not only is
it one of the driest, it's also one of

the most seismically active areas, and
so there's actually a lot of fault lines

in this region.

Johnson notices lots of this area's
ancient settlements are located right

to faults, and that there's usually a
pukeo system there in that spot to tap

into its water source.

And right on top of the faults, in
almost every case, he finds there are

lines marking their paths.

The geometric shapes were designed to
track and locate underground water

sources.

So in this process, it's a way for the
Nazca people to take control of the

instead of just leaving it up to chance
as to whether or not rain or runoff will

show up.

These pukios ensure a reliable supply of
water year -round, meaning they're able

to turn this arid desert into arable
farmland, strictly through their own

ingenuity.

This method is not just relegated to
antiquity.

Johnson is impressed the locals are
still using the system the Nazca created

some 1 ,500 years later.

There are around 30 of these Pukios
still in use in the Nazca Valley.

But it really takes a lot of constant
repair and work. So many are falling

and, you know, are out of use, but they
are still usable where they've been

taken care of.

Johnson shares his insight with
archaeologist Donald Pru and hydrologist

Mabey.

From 1996 to 2000, they formed the Nazca
Lines Project, plotting the course of

several faults to look for correlations
with the lines.

And they're able to confirm Johnson's
ideas.

In almost every case they study, they
find Nazca Lines charting the path of

faults and pointing to where the faults
cross adjacent ridges.

As they finished it, they really came
away feeling like they had solved one of

archaeology's greatest mysteries.

If this theory is correct, the Nazcans
have created a map of the underground

water sources which they can now tap
into to survive.

It's like your local water utility map
on a one -to -one scale.

This is a complex but effective way of
recording knowledge onto the Earth for

later generations to use.

But what about the animal shapes?

This is why we think the Nazca lines may
have been repurposed. The animal shapes

began as symbolic prayers or offerings
to bring rainfall.

According to Johnson, they eventually
become part of the system as well.

While the most important mapping of the
irrigation system is done with geometric

shapes, Johnson writes that the animal
figures might have been used to name the

different water sources or indicate
where they change direction.

These fukyos are an incredible
achievement, and the Nazca lines are a

of what makes them function as a system.

People still thrive in a desert area
because of the knowledge they receive

the lines, a map for survival written in
the sand.

Over the last century, the world has
marveled at the many impressive

achievements of the Nazca people.

The lines themselves are incredible, but
we can't forget about all of the other

interesting artifacts.

and features that have been found in
this region.

There are some of the world's finest
textiles with incredibly elaborate

There's beautifully made pottery.

There are hundreds of mummies that are
way better preserved than what we even

see in ancient Egypt.

And there's a centuries -old underground
water management system that works so

well, it's still in use today.

But there's also a much more disturbing
discovery.

About 90 years ago, Alfred Lewis
Crowbird, an anthropologist, was

the area, and what he found was a
collection of severed heads.

So these heads are really well
preserved, much like the mummies that we

this region because of the lack of rain.
But what's interesting about them is

that they have holes in the center of
their forehead.

And what we think these holes are for is
to put a string so that the head could

be carried.

Experts have long believed that these
are trophy heads taken from rivals

war and then carried around and put on
display.

Some heads are even found next to full
mummies, and researchers believe that a

person might be buried along with the
trophy heads they collected in life.

For nearly a century, these heads are
thought to belong to enemies of the

But years later, a team of scientists in
2009 undertook some studies on these

trophy heads by using strontium
analysis, which can tell you where a

originally born, how that water in the
ground was incorporated into their bones

and into their teeth. They were able to
tell where these heads originated.

Come to find out, the severed trophy
heads come from other Nazcans.

The finding leads some archaeologists to
completely rethink the Nazca lines.

We have a feeling the lines are linked
to rituals or spirituality somehow.

And we have a feeling they are linked to
the precious resource of water.

This new theory takes all of that into
account, plus the fact that we now have

evidence of local natives being
beheaded.

What does this mean? Well, according to
archaeologists Donald Pru and Karina

Kellner, What you have is a situation
where the Nazca lines could be connected

to ritual human sacrifice.

If you examine the images on pottery and
textiles from the Nazca, trophy heads

are everywhere.

Sometimes they're shown with plants
sprouting from them, which indicate they

were likely buried to increase
agricultural fertility.

As we know now, these are local Nazcans.
They're not people from other areas, so

they presumably were not taken in war or
battle.

These are people who have freely
participated in the process and in the

to help their own community.

According to this theory, the venue for
these rituals is the Nazca Lines.

When we look at the geometric figures,
we realize there are these giant open

spaces, and these are potentially the
arenas for these ritual sacrifices,

whether they were battles that were
played out or other ritual actions.

In the Andean culture, warfare is
actually linked to fertility, and the

of battle are sacrificed to the gods to
help with that fertility.

This is all part of the religious
attempt to draw in water.

As the team dates the trophy head, they
feel more confident about this theory,

because right when the major drought
hits the region, the number of trophy

increases dramatically.

They start doing this ritual more and
more in desperation.

In 2022,

A Polish research team finds further
proof to support this theory.

This team tests hair samples from the
Nazca trophy heads and finds that before

their deaths, the victims ingested San
Pedro cactus, which contains mescaline.

Right before the victims were killed or
sacrificed, as part of the ritual, they

were given this hallucinogen to prepare
them.

You find images of the San Pedro cactus
everywhere in Nazca iconography.

This plant is clearly important to their
religion, and now we have proof that

it's involved in their rituals of taking
trophy heads.

The idea is that the Nazca would gather
at the lines in these ritual spaces.

They would participate in the rituals,
ingest the hallucinogenic drug. This

would put them in a translight state and
prepare them to engage in the ritual

battle. At the end of the battle, the
trophy heads would then be buried with

hopes of inspiring the gods to bring
water to the area.

But this is far from the final word on
the Nazca Lines.

Maybe the lines were ritual
battlefields, but I don't think that's

were. There's a good chance they serve
multiple functions.

It's like roads today.

Yes, they move people from one place to
another, but we also stage parades down

them. We block them off for music
festivals. We bury our water pipes

them. This seems like a more logical way
to view the Nazca Lines.

Are we ever really going to know what
the lines were used for? Probably not,

that's okay. That's what's exciting
about them. But one thing we definitely

is the amazing feat of engineering that
these lines represent.

They were clearly very, very important
to the people of the time. They cared

deeply about them, went to great lengths
to build them, and it is a real

testament to human ingenuity,
creativity, and our ability to build

things.

Despite their 2 ,000 -year -old history,
more Nazca lines are still being

discovered. A never -before -seen cat
figure was found as recently as 2020.

Perhaps new evidence can finally reveal
their true purpose.

I'm Lawrence Fishburne. Thank you for
watching History's Greatest Mysteries.