Original subtitles

Narrator: in the parched desert Of western peru,

Extraordinary images Emerge from the dust.

Today, technology may be about To solve an iconic mystery

That has baffled Across the ages...

...And finally reveal The true purpose

Of the iconic nazca lines.

Conlee: there's really nothing Else like the nazca lines

Anywhere on this planet.

Narrator: for over 1,000 years, These bizarre, ancient symbols

Have been hidden In plain sight...

...Visible only from the sky.

What are these Extraordinary structures,

And what happens To the people who build them?

This was a society that was Becoming more violent.

Narrator: Today, investigators use Pioneering drone technology

And 3-d analysis To solve the riddle

Of why the lines were built.

Look here, there is another one.

Narrator: They trace the connection To these mysterious pyramids.

When we excavated, we found That he did not have a head.

Narrator: to solve the puzzle of The purpose of the nazca lines,

We'll deconstruct These remarkable images.

We'll dive deep into the hearts Of these mighty pyramids

And pull back the desert sands

To unearth The astonishing secrets

Of a civilization lost in time.

--captions by vitac-- Www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by Discovery communications

Narrator: The renowned nazca lines --

A timeless mystery that reminds Unsolved through the centuries.

Formed with beautiful precision,

Their purpose baffles Archaeologists.

On the ground, the lines Are hard to make out,

Unintelligible.

Their true form can Only been seen

From hundreds of feet above.

How do ancient people Create images

That only make sense From the air?

There's outlandish theories About the nazca lines,

Including ancient hot air Balloons,

Ancient aliens, a racetrack.

And I think the reason why we Keep having these ideas come up

Is that the lines Remain an enigma.

Narrator: the nazca lines Are an enduring mystery.

Hundreds of alien-looking Drawings

In the peruvian pampa...

...Some over 2,000 years old.

Geometric shapes that stretch Across entire landscapes...

...Arrow-straight lines

That crisscross through the sand

For hundreds of miles...

...Detailed images -- Dozens of them --

Stretching hundreds Of feet across.

Who builds these mysterious Monuments and why?

Archaeologist christy conlee Has been investigating

This desolate landscape For two decades.

But in the last two years,

Pioneering, satellite, And drone technology

Unearth 30 new lines.

Christie's on her way To examine one of them.

The lines are known As geoglyphs, or land drawings,

And she's traveling with the man Who knows them better

Than anyone on the planet --

Archaeologist johny isla.

Whenever a new geoglyph Is reported,

It's johny's job To investigate.

Okay, here we are.

The new line Is a spectacular find.

A monstrous figure 200 feet across

With a mouth Full of giant teeth,

A massive pile of stones Forms a huge eye

Popping out Of the creature's head.

The jagged lines that form Its shape are fins and a tail.

This is a hunting Killer whale -- an orca.

Soil analysis shows that this Glyph is the oldest ever found.

It's been sitting in this Hillside for over 2,000 years.

♪♪

The discovery of a new line Allows christy to explore

Exactly how these designs Are constructed.

This ancient work Is extremely fragile.

Before exploring the new line,

Christy and johnny must Wear specialized footwear --

Huge flip-flops to avoid Damaging the surface.

Across the centuries,

Desert debris hides Some of the designs.

These surface stones Have been oxidized

And weathered to a dark brown, But underneath,

There is a lighter layer Of sand and white clay.

Conlee: yeah, the contrast

Really brings out the image. Sí.

So it's more of a moving The stones.

They're not carving The earth.

They're basically just removing The stone, yeah.

It's beautiful.

It's really amazing To see this geoglyph

Up close and personal.

Johny has been cataloging The geoglyphs for 20 years.

The extraordinary images Of plants and animals

Make up only a minority Of the nazca lines.

A maze of arrow-straight lines And geometric shapes

Form the vast majority Of the design.

They are complex and baffling.

It's just like some Kind of chaotic map.

I want to see a pattern And understand what they mean.

The purpose of these lines

Is one of archaeology's Enduring mysteries.

Could the answer lie in the sky?

When an american researcher

Comes across the nazca lines In 1939,

People think They might be canals

To irrigate the dry pampas.

But one day, he stands on a line Just after the winter solstice,

And he sees that it points Directly at the setting sun.

Later, a straight line is found

Running from the beak Of the hummingbird

Right into the sunrise On the summer solstice.

The lines seem to have links To the seasons and the heavens.

Could they be the world's Largest astronomical calendar?

Johny and christy examine A 3-d model

Of the lines in the landscape.

It's a model that helps Archaeologists and astronomers

Put the celestial Calendar theory to the test.

Most of the lines bear Little relationship

To the position of the stars.

So, if they're not Astronomical,

There must be Another explanation.

Perhaps the clearest clue To the purpose of the geoglyphs

Lies not in the stars,

But in the images themselves.

They depict monkeys, birds, And even plants.

So, where do they come from?

Could the answer lie with these Mysterious pyramids

In the valley below?

Narrator: the nazca lines --

Giant drawings in the landscape From over 1,000 years ago.

Who are the people that create Images of animals and plants

In the world's driest desert?

Italian archaeologist Giuseppe orefici

Works in a valley Just 30 miles from the lines.

Here, he uncovers An architectural wonder.

The lost pyramids of cahuachi.

♪♪

In its day, cahuachi is bigger Than rome with temples, plazas,

And a huge central pyramid.

Hidden deep In the abandoned ruins

Are clues to the people Who come here.

Blowing away the walls Reveals hidden cavities.

Inside them, archaeologists Find rich offerings,

Giant seeds stuffed With rodent-head sacrifices...

...A human skull cradling A guinea pig carcass,

And mummified Human trophy heads.

The ultimate gift to the gods.

Scattered around them, Shards of pottery.

They, too, depict animals And the natural world.

Do the same people Who draw the lines

Also create these pyramids?

♪♪

Could pottery and textiles Reveal who creates the lines

On the peruvian desert?

Items at The regional museum of ica

Match those found At the pyramids of cahuachi.

Mm, oh, wow.

Christy conlee examines The pieces.

This is really A fantastic textile.

Narrator: the fabric survives For more than 1,500 years.

We're here in the desert,

And there's no water, There's no rain,

And so these organic materials Do not rot.

Narrator: some of the themes Are instantly recognizable.

What you have here are a series Of hummingbirds.

You have these beaks Of the hummingbirds

That are going into these, like, Amazingly constructed flowers,

And just one after another.

The symbolism is so reminiscent Of the hummingbird geoglyph.

Narrator: just as revealing As the textiles

Are the ceramics.

Conlee: so we have a monkey, The spiral pot,

And this is an amazing example Of an orca, of a killer whale.

There's actually blood Being represented

Here in its mouth -- its tail.

Narrator: The orca has curious motifs

Of heads that it has swallowed.

Conlee: For me, there's absolutely No doubt that the same culture

That made this pottery

Also made the geoglyphs.

Narrator: The same images from the desert

Appear again and again.

The similarity of the spiral Of the bowl

And the spiral geoglyph.

The monkey with its Curling tail, its jug ears,

And the hands that reach around And clasp together.

The orca with its jaws, Its round eyes,

And its distinctive tail.

Even down to the symbolism

Of the swallowed head.

Radio carbon dating confirms

That the pottery And most of the lines

Are made by a people who lived Here 2,000 years ago --

The nazca.

Forensic anthropologist Elsa tomasto

Investigates skeletons Buried in the region.

She thinks they hold Hidden clues

To the mysterious nazca people.

Elsa starts by looking At their teeth.

Tomasto: when you have some Health problem,

And your teeth are growing,

And the enamel is forming, The enamel can stop growing,

And a kind of scar forms.

Narrator: how often these Telltale lines appear

Can indicate The relative health of a people.

We found that the nazcas had Lower frequency of these scars

Compared to other populations.

Narrator: It's not just the teeth

That reveal The good health of the nazca.

Longer-than-average femurs Show they're well-built.

The nazca have to survive In the atacama desert.

It's one of the most Extreme environments on earth --

Less than an inch of rainfall A year.

But the evidence From the skeletons

Reveals that the nazca Not only survive,

They thrive.

The nazcas were healthier than Their ancestors or descendants.

Narrator: At cahuachi, there is evidence

That the nazca build A complex civilization.

♪♪

Outside cahuachi,

Archaeologists Find ancient settlements

Stretching for many miles Across the desert plain.

They unearth shards Of intricate ceramics

In many of the villages,

Remarkably similar to The pottery at cahuachi itself.

Analysis of the clay reveals it Is all created at the same site.

The crafting, painting,

And firing may all happen At the temples of cahuachi.

The nazca gather at the temples And pyramids

For their rituals...

And take home the pottery As tokens of their pilgrimage.

Giuseppe orefici is now Convinced that cahuachi

Is one of the most important Ceremonial centers

In the americas.

The sheer scale reveals The might of the nazca culture.

As notable in its day as The maya, the inca, the aztecs.

Like these civilizations, They build pyramids.

But why do the nazca stamp their Artworks onto the desert hills?

And how do they create them When they have no way

Of seeing them from the air?

Narrator: the nazca lines --

An unparalleled set of geometric Shapes and giant images

Preserved for over 1,000 years In the peruvian desert.

But how are they made?

It's an enduring puzzle

How the nazca create huge images

That only make sense From the air.

Some believe that they used Ancient hot air balloons,

Or even more extraordinarily,

Have help from Extraterrestrial visitors.

But any explanation must account

For some curious Inconsistencies in the designs.

The spider is pure symmetry.

Its abdomen is a near perfect Circle,

And its limbs are precisely Mirrored parallel lines.

Right next to it is the condor.

It's just as complex with Razor-sharp connecting lines,

But it contains Curious mistakes.

The wings aren't the same size.

One claw is bigger Than the other.

Could these errors...

Be a clue to how the nazca Build the lines?

♪♪

Archaeologists christy conlee And johny isla

Investigate How the lines are made.

They've come to the edge Of the desert,

Just outside the protected zone, To experiment.

Many of the nazca lines Are incredibly long.

Some stretch for miles -- Arrow straight.

Pace out about 10 meters.Okay.

The first thing christy And johny want to work out

Is how the nazca make straight Lines with basic equipment.

First, they put two stakes In the ground

At a distance from each other.

Yeah, that looks good.

The next task is to put in A third stake

That lines up With the first two.

It's done by eye, Creating a sight line.

A little bit to the left. Perfect.

This can be repeated any number Of times

To create as long a line As you need.

Okay, next.

Rope can be used to create A precise line guide

Between the stakes.

They could've done this in the Past with materials they had --

Cotton or llama fiber,

Yarn or cordage,

And they could've used rocks As an hammer and wooden stakes.

But many of the nazca lines Are more complex

Than a simple straight line.

How were these made?

One theory is that they use An ingenious technique

To upscale the images.

You start with a small drawing On a piece of cloth,

Then you divide it with a grid.

♪♪

You draw a huge grid On the desert floor,

Copying each cell, carving The design into the earth.

Once you dig the lines into the Ground, you wipe away the grid

And have a perfect nazca line.

But in this technique, errors Mainly show up in single boxes,

Which does not explain The asymmetry in the condor.

Christy believes she can explain The asymmetry in the lines...

...But it involves a coordinate System rather than a grid.

Okay, well, Let's do an experiment.

Let's try to make Our own geoglyph.

So I sketched out A somewhat simple one, a star,

And we can try.

You can do one side, And I'll do the other

And see if we can make A symmetrical images.

Narrator: A coordinate system involves Working out the distance

Of key points on the design

From the central dissecting Line,

And then scaling up These distances.

And we'll pace down 5 1/2 Paces to here,

And then over 2 for our First points of the star,

And we'll continue From there.

Let's give it a try.

Johnny and christy do not Have identical strides.

Will this introduce some Asymmetry into their star?

They move onto higher ground To see their work from above.

Conlee: so from up here, it Doesn't look really distorted.

I mean, I can see a little bit On my side to the right

Is maybe smaller, But I think it looks good.

The star is not bad, But it's not perfect.

The differences in pacing Warp its shape

And explains the apparent errors In some of the nazca lines.

Do the nazca themselves see The mistakes

In their huge designs?

No mountains surround The desert plateau.

They have no clear way to Viewing their lines from above.

Some archaeologists question Whether the lines

Are even Meant to be viewed at all.

It's a new and radical idea.

Maybe they aren't Giant artworks after all.

And could new, Grisly discoveries reveal

Why the lines Are ultimately abandoned?

Narrator: the nazca lines.

They lie neglected For more than 1,000 years

And aren't rediscovered Until the era of the airplane.

They look like giant artworks,

But are they?

Why do the nazca construct 300-foot-wide images

And mile-long lines that They have no way of viewing?

There are clues scattered around The geometrical shapes.

Protruding from the ends Of the trapezoids,

There are mysterious Mounds of rocks.

Hidden inside are slabs That look like altars.

Wrapped around them Are stone walls

Littered with crayfish claws, Crab skeletons,

And fragments Of mollusk shells.

What are all these Dead sea creatures doing

Cemented onto altars nearly 4,000 feet above sea level

In a dry, barren desert?

[ blowing ]

These mollusks symbolize Life-giving water.

Johny believes that they're Brought to the glyphs

As an offering for rain.

And there's another clue To the rituals conducted here.

The concentration of shards Of nazca pottery suggest

That they are smashed On purpose.

Desert weathering could not Have caused this fragmentation.

Johny's excavations suggest The nazca lines are sacred sites

Where people smash pots And make offerings for rain.

He believes the way To understand their purpose

Is not to view them from above,

But to look at them as the nazca Would have seen them --

At ground level.

Johny has spent countless months Up on the plateau,

Documenting and restoring Newly discovered nazca lines.

It's given him a unique insight.

Many are made up of A single unbroken line,

Like a maze with a way in And a way out.

Johny believes that these lines Are pathways.

If he's right, the nazca lines Are not to be viewed

As giant pieces of art,

But pathways to be walked.

Johny's exciting insight Puts the nazca lines

In a radical new light.

Different communities walking The lines

Would bring the designs to life.

Could we finally be discovering The true purpose

Of the nazca lines?

♪♪

Each nazca community In the valley

Has their own line Which they build and look after.

It's part of their Social identity.

On key dates, they gather On the plateau

To walk and dance Along their lines.

Each community visible To the others across many miles.

A shaman leads the ceremony,

Surrounded by music.

He may even drink A hallucinogenic brew

To connect with the gods.

Finally, the precious pottery Is smashed onto the line.

An offering to the gods In return for rain

And fertile land.

This new way of looking At the lines reveals

That they're not giant artworks,

But huge outdoor cathedrals.

But there's a mystery.

Around 400 to 450 a.D.,

There's a sudden increase In ritual offerings

And pottery smashing.

What terrible event has made The people

So desperate To appease their gods?

And is this connected to the Ultimate disappearance

Of the nazca people?

Narrator: The iconic lines of the nazca --

Huge outdoor cathedrals Where ancient communities

Gather to perform rituals And pray for rain.

People walk these lines and Smash pottery as an offering,

But there's a puzzle.

Why do these ceremonies Dramatically increase

Around 450 a.D.?

Could this be linked To the fate of the nazca?

In the ceremonial heart Of cahuachi,

Clues to a dark chapter In the nazca story

Lie hidden in its grand Central pyramid.

The mud plaster conceals Evidence from an earthquake

That rips through cahuachi Around 1,600 years ago.

Stuffed inside the crack Are 27 pottery pan pipes,

Smashed as ritual offerings.

The ruined ceremonial enclosure Holds the bones of llamas --

64 of them lined up Like soldiers.

And two mummified human heads,

Suspended from rope Drilled into the bone.

These are sacrifices to placate The angry gods, a plea for help.

♪♪

Giuseppe's team radiocarbon Dates the reeds

In the repair plaster Of the walls.

They find that the quake Strikes cahuachi

Around 400 a.D...

...Just when ceremonial Activity out on the desert hills

Is increasing.

Are the nazca trying to appease The anger of their gods?

Forensic anthropologist Elsa tomasto

Examines nazca skeletons.

She finds evidence That it's not just cahuachi,

But nazca society itself That is beginning to crumble.

This person suffers several Injuries in their lifetime.

It's just one of many cases.

Tomasto: The frequency increases.

Society was becoming More violent.

And also, we found a couple Of cases of child abuse.

Narrator: elsa discovers other Injuries in the bones of a child

Less than a year old.

Tomasto: it's very hard to break The bones of children so young

Because they are flexible.

Narrator: she finds That these tiny bones

Healed more than once.

This reveals that the child Has repeated fractures.

This case reveals A wider problem.

And it's not frequent To find child abuse

In archaeological context,

So it tells that probably The society was breaking.

Narrator: What causes the gradual Breakdown of nazca society?

There's evidence Of a prolonged drought,

And that their success As farmers

Is the very reason For their undoing.

The nazca decimate

The 1,000-year-old forest In the valley

When they cultivate the land With maize and cotton.

Instead of powerful huarango Tree roots

Reaching over 100 feet Deep into the soil,

There are now only shallow roots Just a few feet down.

If those crops wither and die In a drought,

There is nothing To hold the soil in place

When the rains finally return.[ thunder rumbling ]

Instead of giving life,

The rain rips away The fertile earth

And turns it into A deadly mudslide.

Giuseppe finds evidence That cahuachi is hit

By a double hammer blow.

First the earthquake,

And then Two devastating flash floods.

It isn't just a river of water.

It's a deluge of mud.

Even the temples are buried.

The nazca mastery of farming

Allows them to flourish In the arid landscape.

But as their lands dry up

And flash floods strip The valleys of soil,

This extraordinary civilization Begins to disintegrate.

In a desperate attempt To appease their gods,

The people increase Their offerings at the lines.

Yet a mere 200 years later, The lines are abandoned.

Is this the end For the nazca people?

Narrator: The iconic nazca lines.

About 1,600 years ago, A series of natural disasters

Devastates the nazca Civilization that creates them.

The people increase Their offerings at the lines

In an attempt To placate their gods.

What happens to them?

Archaeologist christy conlee Scours the ancient nazca sites.

She's at latesa, Just 20 miles upriver

From the old nazca Pyramids of cahuachi.

So, it looks just like an empty Hillside right now,

But in the past, it would've Been teeming with people.

Narrator: traces of the ancient Nazca can be seen here today.

All over the place, You find pottery,

Ancient pottery Very typical of nazca.

Narrator: the pottery confirms That the nazca are here

Long after they stop using The lines on the desert hills.

They don't die out.

They just abandon their Sacred cathedrals in the sands.

But why?

Christy believes that the answer Lies in their tombs.

They reveal the influence Of a new people --

The wari.

Conlee: the typical nazca tomb Is very small,

And oftentimes, it's just A single individual in a pit.

This tomb is very different.

It's much larger,

And we found several individuals Buried inside.

We see nothing of this In the nazca culture.

Instead, we see it In the wari culture.

Narrator: the wari civilization Emerges in the andes mountains

To the east of the nazca.

Their impact On the nazca way of life

Reveals itself in the remains of Around 40 nazca men, women,

And children Excavated from the tombs.

Christy's team discovers Evidence of shocking violence.

Are the nazca at war With the wari?

So, this man was found

In an unlooted tomb at latesa

In a seated position,

And when we excavated, we found That he did not have a head.

His head was missing.

Narrator: Forensic anthropologist Elsa tomasto

Examines the vertebrae.

There are cut marks.

There are cut marks.

You can see clearly

At least three marks That go in this direction.

Okay?

So you can see this is one Around here

And one around here And one more around here.

So you almost can see

The movement Of something going this way,

And it's something that happened

At a time very close to death.

Narrator: this man seems To suffer a grisly death,

But christy doesn't think That he dies in battle.

So, this decapitated man, he was Buried so nicely, with care,

And he had this beautiful head Jar that was buried with him,

Probably as a head Replacement object.

Maybe to help him Go into the afterlife.

This all suggests that there was A real ritual focus

To what happened to him.

Narrator: none of the bodies From the latesa tombs

Show any battle injuries.

So, if the nazca aren't Conquered by violence,

Why do they start burying Their dead like the wari?

One set of remains provides An intriguing clue.

This a woman, And this is her skull.

And this is another one That's more fragmentary pieces

Of the skull And some of the teeth.

Narrator: christy can tell Where these people grew up

By analyzing their teeth.

When you're growing up, And your teeth are forming,

The enamel forms,

And the isotopes that are in the Soil and in the water

Get absorbed into the teeth

From the food that you eat And the water that you drink.

Narrator: the chemical markers In the teeth

Reveal that these women Are not nazca, but wari.

Conlee: this is the isotopic Signature of the teeth.

Most people fall within The middle of this range,

Which is the local range,

But we have two clear Outliers here and here.

Their signatures come from areas East of nazca

Up in the highlands That wari controlled.

Narrator: their presence reveals The surprising relationship

Between the two peoples.

We have little evidence that They conquered people by force.

Instead, it appears As if in many places,

They made alliances With local people.

And in that case, These two women may have married

Into that nazca community

In order to establish close Ties between nazca and wari.

Narrator: confronted by extreme Weather and natural disasters,

The nazca abandon Their desert lines.

Their prayers and rituals Fail them.

A once-thriving civilization Fragments.

Conlee: So the nazca didn't disappear.

You could say that they lost Their faith.

They no longer practiced Ceremonies out on the geoglyphs,

And those people that remained,

They embraced a new culture And new beliefs.

Narrator: scientists are finally Beginning to explain

One of archaeology's Greatest enigmas.

Not built by aliens Or with hot air balloons,

Not even meant to be viewed From above.

The nazca lines Are open-air cathedrals

Dedicated to ceremony.

The nazca culture may collapse,

But the desert preserves

Their incredible nazca lines.

♪♪

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