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0:01 ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: Huge drawings etched into the Peruvian desert plains.
0:10 Birds. A monkey. And lines that stretch for miles.
0:17 ♪ ♪ (Johny Isla speaking Spanish) (translated): They're one of the masterpieces
0:23 of Andean society here in Peru. NARRATOR: They are the Nazca Lines, remnants of a long-gone civilization
0:33 that left its mark, quite literally, on the landscape.
0:38 (translated): Most of us in Peru descend from these populations. NARRATOR: But the Nazca people are a mystery.
0:44 They had no written language, and the desert drawings they left behind
0:50 had been baffling archaeologists for almost a century.
0:56 (Isla speaking Spanish) ISLA (translated): What function did they have? It's a question we're still asking ourselves.
1:03 NARRATOR: Now researchers are using 21st-century technology to closely study the landscape.
1:09 ♪ ♪ And they're discovering figures made before the Nazca were known to have existed.
1:22 Who lived here before the Nazca? (translated): It's a mythological being-- look here.
1:27 Wow. NARRATOR: Archaeologists are trying to piece together more than 1,000 years of history
1:33 and have found evidence of thriving civilizations in Peru's southern desert.
1:39 (Giuseppe Orefici speaking Spanish) (translated): It is the largest adobe ceremonial center in the whole world.
1:48 NARRATOR: How did the Nazca Lines start? What did they mean?
1:54 And why did they end? ♪ ♪
2:00 "Nazca Desert Mystery," right now, on "NOVA."
2:09 ♪ ♪
2:23 (wind blowing) ♪ ♪
2:31 NARRATOR: It is one of the most arid deserts in the world, averaging less than an inch of rainfall a year.
2:40 And running along Peru's southern coast...
2:49 ...more than 1,500 years ago, the people here created remarkable earthworks
2:55 across an area spanning about 200 square miles.
3:00 Giant figures: a hummingbird. A spider.
3:05 A monkey. And thousands of lines,
3:11 some more than five miles long, etched in the ground.
3:18 They are known as the Nazca Lines. ISLA (translated): Technically, they are called geoglyphs,
3:24 drawings on the earth. (speaking Spanish) (translated): The Nazca geoglyphs can be seen
3:31 in all their splendor from the air. NARRATOR: Erosion and the remoteness of many of the lines
3:39 meant that these vast designs were all but forgotten for more than a millennium. ♪ ♪
3:46 They were rediscovered in the 1920s, but it was not until airplanes started flying across the region
3:53 that their true scale was revealed. (Isla speaking Spanish) ISLA (translated): There are estimates about how many geoglyphs there are,
4:00 around 6,000 or 7,000 geoglyphs. Most, almost 90%, were geometric motifs-- lines, trapezoids--
4:09 and around ten percent figures. NARRATOR: But what were they for?
4:19 And who created them?
4:26 Peruvian archaeologist Johny Isla has been studying the Nazca geoglyphs for more than 30 years.
4:36 ISLA (translated): The Nazca were a social group that developed along the southern coast.
4:43 This territory is pretty arid because there's no water for most of the year.
4:49 Their dwellings were along valleys, which are really small oases in the middle of the desert.
4:56 NARRATOR: Archaeologists named the ancient group of farmers and fishermen who once lived here the Nazca,
5:03 after the local river valley. ♪ ♪
5:09 They used the surrounding desert plateaus as a canvas for drawing giant geoglyphs.
5:15 (Isla speaking Spanish) (translated): The Nazca covered these plains with geoglyphs
5:21 and turned this desert into a space which was inhabited, dynamic, social, and vibrant through time.
5:29 (fire crackling) NARRATOR: Over the years, there have been many theories about these geoglyphs.
5:37 That they were astronomical calendars. Signs left by aliens.
5:45 Or appeals to gods looking down from above.
5:52 But whatever the reason, the ancient people who lived in this area left a lasting mark in the desert.
6:00 ♪ ♪ Today, urban expansion means
6:07 some geoglyphs are on the outskirts of town.
6:12 MAN (translated): I live 500 meters from the geoglyphs.
6:18 Here in Nazca, we are proud of what the ancestors left us.
6:25 (woman speaking Spanish) (translated): Who knows what the ancestors were thinking when they did this? But it's very beautiful.
6:39 NARRATOR: Nazca civilization disappeared more than a millennium ago. But a growing interest in the past
6:46 has spurred a revival of ancient Indigenous traditions, like the Yaku Raimi,
6:52 a celebration of water. CANDY HURTADO: The matter of indigeneity is very complex here in Peru.
6:58 People will not often identify as Indigenous. It is still something that is associated
7:05 with underdevelopment or a lack of progress. But they will identify themselves
7:11 through dances-- they will say, "I dance that, so I am that." Um, "I sing that, so I am that."
7:18 (flutes and drums playing) NARRATOR: Candy Hurtado is an ethnomusicologist from Jauja
7:23 in the highlands east of Lima. She's studying rituals, and has come to Nazca to record the water festival.
7:33 HURTADO: In the Andean worldview, we understand that time is not linear,
7:38 but that it is cyclical. So that we are always, through ritual, connecting with the past, the present, and the future.
7:47 We're connected to our ancestors, we are connected to the people that come after us
7:52 in a very real way, as well as to the environment. The environment is also considered our ancestors.
7:58 ♪ ♪
8:09 NARRATOR: Peruvian archaeologists studying the environment to piece together the Nazca story
8:15 have made surprising discoveries. Using drone images,
8:21 they've identified a different type of geoglyph. Not on the flat desert plateaus,
8:28 but on the hillsides.
8:33 ISLA (speaking Spanish):
8:41 NARRATOR: Johny Isla and his team are restoring his latest discovery,
8:46 a very faded geoglyph. ISLA (speaking Spanish):
9:02 NARRATOR: Years of erosion have damaged the geoglyph. Johny's team moves stone after stone
9:08 by hand to re-expose the lighter layer below. It's a painstaking process.
9:16 (speaking Spanish) (translated): When we realized that on the hillside there were other figures,
9:22 other geoglyphs, we realized we have to change the way we thought and look to the hillsides, where we didn't think
9:31 there were any drawings.
9:38 NARRATOR: The team has revealed the outline of a group of people walking,
9:44 but it needs more work. ISLA (speaking Spanish):
9:54 NARRATOR: The desert hillsides have long been overlooked. But now there is newfound interest in them.
10:08 ISLA (translated): It's really one of the most striking finds of recent times.
10:13 It's a mountain cat, the Pampas cat, an animal in danger of extinction.
10:24 NARRATOR: Almost 10,000 miles away, in Yamagata, Japan, archaeologist Masato Sakai
10:32 studies drone footage from the Nazca desert. He's turned to a high-tech method
10:38 of searching for geoglyphs. Artificial intelligence.
10:44 (speaking Japanese) SAKAI (translated): At the beginning, we were looking at the northern Nazca plains, where hummingbirds,
10:49 monkeys, and other famous geoglyphs are concentrated. (speaking Japanese)
10:56 (translated): We let A.I. learn from these famous geoglyphs and other data from this area. NARRATOR: By analyzing aerial images,
11:03 computer algorithms can spot the cleared surfaces that form the figures.
11:11 Once the A.I. knows what to look for, it begins scanning the desert for patterns that appear human-made.
11:21 The software homes in on a very faint shape. ♪ ♪
11:31 (Sakai speaking Japanese) SAKAI (translated): We discovered it is a geoglyph of a person
11:36 holding a club in their right hand.
11:42 NARRATOR: The person with the club, the people walking, and the Pampas cat were all found on the sides of hills.
11:50 And Johny thinks this unexpected positioning is the clue to their purpose.
11:57 (speaking Spanish) ISLA (translated): These geoglyphs were made by people for people.
12:02 As they're drawn on sides of hills, people could see them as they crossed the desert or the valleys.
12:10 (speaking Spanish) They seem to be markers of territory or routes through the desert.
12:19 NARRATOR: But it isn't only their position that is unusual.
12:25 They're in a different style from the classic Nazca images like the monkey and the hummingbird.
12:32 So were these giant geoglyphs made by the same people?
12:37 Or someone else? To find out, researchers turn to other sources
12:43 for designs and imagery that might match the figures on the hillsides.
12:50 (Isla speaking Spanish) ISLA (translated): To identify and categorize these geoglyphs, we take a stylistic approach.
12:58 We compare them with ceramics and textiles. ♪ ♪
13:03 NARRATOR: They find similar motifs, but not from the Nazca period.
13:10 ISLA (translated): These geoglyphs date to the year 200 or 300 BCE, which means that they were made
13:16 before the famous Nazca geoglyphs. NARRATOR: The hillside geoglyphs were created earlier than the Nazca
13:24 are thought to have existed. So who was making geoglyphs before the Nazca--
13:31 and why? ♪ ♪
13:39 In the 1920s, Julio César Tello, the first Peruvian archaeologist,
13:45 found 429 mummies wrapped in extraordinary textiles in an ancient burial ground
13:54 in the Paracas Peninsula. So archaeologists called the ancient people the Paracas.
14:03 The funerary bundles are stored in Lima, in the National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology,
14:08 and History of Peru. ♪ ♪
14:17 The fabrics the mummies were wrapped in reveal the extraordinary skill and artistry of the Paracas.
14:27 And the images and symbols provide insight into their worldview.
14:33 There are shamans in trances. Deities.
14:42 And severed heads.
14:49 One of the most iconic Paracas textiles has only recently arrived at the museum.
14:55 DELIA APONTE (speaking Spanish):
15:03 APONTE (translated): In the 1930s, after Julio Tello's excavations in the Paracas Peninsula,
15:09 there was a lot of looting, and some pieces, this one among them,
15:14 were taken out of the country. It ended up in Sweden.
15:20 NARRATOR: This is the first time archaeologist Delia Aponte has been able to examine the 2,000-year-old mantle.
15:28 (speaking Spanish) (translated): I'm happy. I've always wanted to see this piece.
15:36 I'm surprised by the use of color.
15:41 For the Paracas, colors have meaning, and the way they organize them is important.
15:48 It's part of their identity. There is a symbolism we haven't deciphered yet,
15:54 but which is definitely there. NARRATOR: The Paracas imbued their funerary textiles with meaning,
16:02 and Delia is particularly interested in their symbolism. (Aponte speaking Spanish)
16:08 APONTE (translated): Here we have a toad, associated with humidity and agriculture.
16:14 A few plants are sprouting from its back. (speaking Spanish)
16:21 (translated): Here there is a condor. Hummingbirds drinking from a flower.
16:30 A bean in the form of a human. NARRATOR: The imagery related to animals and edible plants
16:37 throughout the seasons suggests that the Paracas textile is a symbolic representation
16:42 of the agricultural cycle. (translated): I think this is a masterpiece,
16:49 the pinnacle of 900 years of this society's development.
16:57 NARRATOR: Many of the Paracas images strong resemble the newly identified hillside geoglyphs found in the Nazca region.
17:07 It suggests the desert figures were created by the Paracas.
17:16 ♪ ♪
17:22 The Paracas were ancient Peru's most accomplished weavers.
17:30 Today, communities in the highlands of Cusco keep some of their ancient traditions alive.
17:35 (Nilda Callañaupa Alvarez speaking Spanish) (women talking softly)
17:41 ALVAREZ: Over here, they are warping, which is also traditional
17:48 technique from the Paracas culture.
17:53 NARRATOR: Nilda Callañaupa Alvarez is a weaver and expert in textiles from Chinchero
17:59 in the Cusco region, 350 miles from Lima. She has made it her mission
18:05 to preserve and promote pre-Hispanic weaving methods.
18:11 And here, in Pitumarca, she works with weavers who practice Paracas weaving techniques. (all talking softly)
18:18 Paracas have managed many techniques which they adorned the huge mantles for afterlife.
18:27 Textile tradition, practiced today, part of the traditional clothing and part of our identity.
18:35 So different regions will have different types of textile.
18:41 We are very lucky to have ancestors, civilizations, cultures like Paracas who left to us
18:48 such rich textile tradition. We, as weavers today, we like to learn
18:56 those techniques, and we like to reintroduce, pass to the younger generation
19:01 for the future.
19:10 NARRATOR: Paracas finds were not limited to the peninsula.
19:17 Archaeological discoveries reveal the civilization stretched across a swath of land
19:22 almost 250 miles north to south.
19:28 And there is evidence of a settlement at a site called Animas Altas, Animas Bajas.
19:39 (Aïcha Bachir Bacha speaking French) (translated): I can see that this figure was cut at the neck.
19:45 It could be the sacrifice of a figure which could actually represent a human sacrifice.
19:56 NARRATOR: Archaeologist Aïcha Bachir Bacha has been piecing together the history
20:02 of this 250-acre site. (Bacha speaking French) (translated): Since 2009, we've discovered the façades of pyramids
20:10 and also tombs of members of the elite. (speaking French)
20:15 (translated): And we also discovered low platforms which were workshops and residential sites.
20:24 NARRATOR: At the end of the dig season, the excavated areas get filled in to protect them, but Aïcha can use
20:30 the data the team collected to reconstruct the ancient Paracas site.
20:36 (Bacha speaking French) BACHA (translated): The 3-D reconstructions of the buildings at Animas Altas, Animas Bajas
20:43 help us to show that under all that sand, we really have an Andean town which developed
20:51 2,500 years ago. NARRATOR: This settlement appears to have been abandoned
20:57 around the year 100, when the site was covered in earth and buried by the Paracas, creating earthen mounds known by the Quechua name of huaca:
21:06 something sacred and revered.
21:15 ♪ ♪ The finds at Aïcha's site reveal objects and practices
21:22 similar to other Paracas locations.
21:28 Some 75 miles to the north, in the Chincha Valley, lie more Paracas sites: 20 massive huacas overlooking today's farmland.
21:40 HENRY TANTALEÁN: Wow. (Charles Stanish speaking Spanish) TANTALEÁN: Wow. NARRATOR: Archaeologists Charles Stanish and Henry Tantaleán
21:48 have worked here for more than a decade. TANTALEÁN: Classical Paracas.
21:55 NARRATOR: Some of the huacas now have buildings or entire villages built on top of them.
22:02 But Charles and Henry's team have been excavating some of the mounds, such as this one, called Huaca Soto.
22:15 STANISH: You can see a giant sunken court here, so we assume that this would have been painted
22:21 in beautiful colors, at least white and red, probably yellow. We found stairs on either side of these courts.
22:28 We discovered a spondylus shell and various other evidence of feasting.
22:34 NARRATOR: Spondylus shells, the remains of shellfish brought from as far away as Ecuador,
22:40 were considered prestige offerings associated with water and fertility.
22:46 Charles and Henry believe that it means this, Huaca Soto,
22:52 was a Paracas ceremonial site. ♪ ♪
23:03 Adobe walls erode over time, so it's difficult to be sure exactly what Huaca Soto looked like,
23:09 but it was clearly a monumental structure.
23:16 STANISH: For many years, we thought that these were only ritual centers, but now we realize, after our excavations down below,
23:24 that there's at least a square kilometer of village adjacent to the pyramids.
23:30 We had a huge population living down there. NARRATOR: Charles and Henry realized that the huacas were right
23:37 in the middle of a densely populated landscape. STANISH: We have buried villages,
23:43 there's a massive settlement system, a number of political centers, a ritual center,
23:49 and this was the demographic, political, and cultural capital of Paracas.
24:01 ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: Several miles away in the desert,
24:07 Charles and Henry found a network of five more huacas.
24:13 Archaeological finds suggest these remote platform mounds were also religious centers.
24:24 TANTALEÁN (translated): People used to get together here to do celebrations. Over here, we found a group of six mummies
24:33 from the Paracas era-- they were women. We also found the remains relating to elites,
24:40 who were possibly directing the worship that took place in this pyramid.
24:49 NARRATOR: As well as looking at the huacas, the archaeologists studied the surrounding desert.
24:55 And made a startling discovery. STANISH: As you can see behind, there's a long line, a couple kilometers long,
25:03 that goes all the way to right in the middle of the Paracas site.
25:10 NARRATOR: It's one of several lines that lead straight to the desert mounds. But that's not all.
25:16 So we can see up ahead a large pile of rocks. It's an intentional mound that is integrated
25:24 into all of the lines, and this was one of the many many places, about 200,
25:31 that we found throughout the entire geoglyph area.
25:37 NARRATOR: Charles believes these were altars where Paracas pilgrims might have left offerings.
25:44 STANISH: If you use the analogy of pilgrimages from around the world, from almost all cultures-- Hindu, Christianity, Muslim--
25:51 they all have these kinds of pilgrimages where people stop, and they know exactly what's to be done
25:57 and when it's to be done, and this is exactly what we see throughout all of these lines.
26:04 ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: Charles and Henry think that these altars were ritual stops
26:11 on the lines which led people to their ultimate destination: the desert ceremonial centers.
26:19 But what motivated people to go on this journey?
26:25 (translated): In the Andes, a classic way of joining spaces together and of survival is by exchanging goods from different ecological zones.
26:34 So people from the coast gave fish, and those from the mountains crops, for example.
26:44 NARRATOR: But the finds at the desert huacas raise a question: with the Paracas capital in the lush green valley
26:53 just a few miles away, why would the Paracas choose to meet and trade in the desert?
26:59 The archaeologists have a theory. STANISH: The reason they chose this landscape is because
27:05 it was barren, it wasn't owned by anybody, and it was neutral. Paracas had a lot of intra-ethnic fighting going on:
27:13 trophy head-taking and all this and that. And so we know from history and ethnography
27:18 that people will set up these neutral spaces, in-between zones, where both, all parties feel comfortable.
27:25 And here you can feel quite comfortable. NARRATOR: Charles and Henry believe that the desert was the setting
27:31 for periodic markets where goods were exchanged. ♪ ♪
27:38 And the orientation of the lines and mountains suggest the Paracas markets may have been held during the Winter Solstice,
27:46 which in Peru takes place in June. STANISH: One of the great theories as to why civilization developed
27:53 is that people in pre-capitalist times developed these elaborate marketplaces, fairs, pilgrimage areas,
28:02 where the people came together and they exchanged products, and marriage partners, and gossip,
28:08 and have a good time, and this is how civilization really gets a kickstart. ♪ ♪
28:15 NARRATOR: The last Paracas offerings and sacrifices at this site were made around 250 BCE, before the ceremonial center
28:23 was covered with earth and abandoned.
28:32 ♪ ♪ So what happened to the Paracas?
28:38 Bioarchaeologist and forensic anthropologist Elsa Tomasto-Cagigao
28:43 looked to DNA for an answer and got a surprise. TOMASTO-CAGIGAO (translated): There is a DNA type
28:51 which is specifically inherited from the mother and is very easy to classify.
28:57 In Native American populations, there are only four lineages-- A, B, C, D.
29:02 And when I did a test for research purposes, it turned out I matched the D lineage most common
29:08 among the Paracas. NARRATOR: DNA analysis of human remains dating from 800 BCE to the year 800
29:17 helps explain what became of the Paracas. (translated): In the Palpa and Nazca area, it's very difficult
29:25 to differentiate biologically between the Paracas and the Nazca; they are genetically very similar.
29:32 Yes, we find cultural differences, which makes sense. As the centuries go by, people change in the way they behave.
29:40 ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: The research suggests that sometime before the year 100,
29:46 the culture of the people living in the region shifted and the Paracas became the Nazca.
29:55 And while the styles changed, the Nazca continued the Paracas line-making traditions.
30:06 ♪ ♪ But there were other similarities, too.
30:13 As archaeologist Giuseppe Orefici found when he arrived in this area 40 years ago.
30:21 (Orefici speaking Spanish) (translated): When we got here, we found a hill which had the remains
30:26 of walls and a surface. (speaking Spanish)
30:31 It was a clue that there was something there, not just a natural hill.
30:37 ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: The site, called Cahuachi, turned out to be a huge Nazca complex.
30:45 (Orefici speaking Spanish) OREFICI (translated): It is the largest adobe ceremonial center
30:50 in the whole world, 24 square kilometers of great pyramids, large ceremonial enclosures.
30:57 There was a lot going on with pilgrims arriving
31:02 from almost 1,000 kilometers away. Cahuachi was the center,
31:09 the beating heart of Nazca civilization.
31:16 ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: But there were no signs of permanent settlements.
31:23 So although similar to the older Paracas sites of Chincha, Cahuachi was a different type of ceremonial center.
31:32 OREFICI (translated): It was a pilgrimage site where people cannot access all areas. They have places they are allowed in,
31:41 and where they can perform their rituals.
31:47 NARRATOR: Giuseppe believes that priests performed their own rituals inside the pyramids, while the pilgrims remained camped outside.
31:57 OREFICI (translated): We excavated a few temporary campsites people went to.
32:03 They ate the food they had brought, and they could see from a distance what was happening inside Cahuachi.
32:10 ♪ ♪
32:21 NARRATOR: Just outside Cahuachi, a team of researchers has made a discovery.
32:27 NICOLA MASINI (speaking Italian): ROSA LASAPONARA (in Italian): ♪ ♪
32:34 (shutter clicks) LASAPONARA: MASINI:
32:42 LASAPONARA: ♪ ♪
32:50 (translated): We do archaeology without digging. A non-invasive archaeology.
32:56 We do this with satellite remote sensing, remote-sensing planes, drones,
33:02 and also with geophysical exploration techniques.
33:08 NARRATOR: Nicola Masini and his team have found lines leading to the Nazca ceremonial site.
33:14 (Masini speaking Italian) MASINI (translated): We can see a clear spatial
33:19 and functional relationship between the geoglyphs and the pyramids.
33:26 (drone whirring in distance) ♪ ♪
33:31 NARRATOR: They found evidence that the pilgrims outside the Nazca ceremonial center were more than just spectators in the events.
33:40 (translated): In this area, the entire setting of the geoglyphs is mainly made up of meandering elements, which clearly evokes
33:50 the ritual activity of the processions. Imagine the Nazca praying, singing.
33:56 ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: So Nicola believes that while the Nazca religious elite could perform in the pyramids,
34:04 the pilgrims carried out their own ceremonies along or within the lines in the desert. ♪ ♪
34:13 MASINI (translated): The geoglyphs and the pyramids can be seen as two faces of the same coin, of ceremonial activity which took place inside
34:21 those structures, in the rooms and corridors of the pyramids. But ceremonial activity also took place
34:29 along these geometric shapes. ♪ ♪
34:38 NARRATOR: At the height of the Nazca civilization, sometime before the year 400, the evidence suggests
34:44 different lines were created for different purposes.
34:50 Straight lines led to ceremonial centers. Meandering ones were a stage for ritual.
34:59 And the famous images were also used for rituals, and perhaps to appeal to the gods.
35:08 But barely 300 years later, Nazca line-making fades away to nothing-- why?
35:17 (translated): Some figurative motifs drawn in the pampa were erased or deliberately covered up
35:23 by the Nazca themselves. NARRATOR: Before line-making dies out, the Nazca draw new shapes
35:29 over some of their earlier figurative geoglyphs,
35:34 and large geometrical shapes such as trapezoids become more common.
35:40 ♪ ♪ Finds within these new geoglyphs hint at them
35:46 no longer being simply pathways for processions. The Nazca were using them differently.
35:54 (translated): We're at the base of a trapezoid made of stones, and the borders are well laid out.
36:03 They finish at a more narrow point where there are two small platforms, where we think rituals took place.
36:10 ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: Johny believes that the shift in design means there was a widespread change in the Nazca rituals.
36:18 And there was a new element to the geoglyphs. (Isla speaking Spanish)
36:27 ISLA (translated): We identified small mounds or altars in the desert, altars with a series of things
36:32 the ancient people left offerings. Like things they grew in the valleys,
36:38 seashells from the ocean, objects made of copper or semiprecious stones, and spondylus shells.
36:45 ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: These altars were no longer ritual stops along the way,
36:52 as they had been in Paracas times. For the Nazca, they were a focal point of worship
36:59 on the trapezoids, playing a much more central role. ♪ ♪
37:06 What happened to cause such a change from the Nazca's previous geoglyph-making tradition?
37:14 ♪ ♪ In Cahuachi, Giuseppe found some clues.
37:24 (translated): This is a big ceremonial precinct, one of the places where ceremonies were held.
37:34 When we excavated it, it was completely covered by a layer of alluvial soils.
37:41 NARRATOR: Alluvial soils are deposited by surface water.
37:47 They're evidence of flooding. OREFICI (translated): We found a boy in it who had been carried here by the water
37:55 who had drowned. NARRATOR: There is evidence that the area had been hit by a major flood,
38:02 and the layers of sediment here reveal this flooding wasn't an isolated incident.
38:08 It was a recurring event. OREFICI (translated): There are frequent floods,
38:14 one after the other, as well as a terrible earthquake, which destroys a large part of Cahuachi.
38:21 NARRATOR: Today, the region experiences flooding at two- to seven-year intervals,
38:28 caused by the weather phenomenon known as El Niño. A warming of Pacific seawater
38:34 leads to low air pressure, increased rainfall, and flash flooding.
38:39 It was a mega El Niño event followed by an earthquake which destroyed large parts
38:46 of the ceremonial center of Cahuachi sometime around the year 400.
38:51 Giuseppe found thousands of shards at Cahuachi, remains of valuable pottery,
38:57 which was smashed at the pyramids, most likely as a sacrifice as the Nazca appealed to the gods.
39:07 ♪ ♪ (translated): There was a big change in Nazca society
39:14 and its relationship with the deities. It seemed the gods had abandoned them.
39:21 ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: And Giuseppe believes that, in response,
39:29 the Nazca abandoned Cahuachi.
39:34 ♪ ♪ The floods were followed by periods of prolonged drought.
39:44 And the layout of big trapezoids hints at the Nazca's main concern.
39:50 ISLA (translated): Many point towards the most important mountains in the region, which is where the water comes from in the summer months.
40:03 ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: In Las Trancas, one of the region's valleys,
40:08 Nicola Masini and his team think they may have found an answer to how the Nazca
40:13 dealt with their increasingly serious water problem.
40:19 MASINI (translated): From satellite images, we discovered these peculiar round shapes. ♪ ♪
40:30 NARRATOR: Near the round mounds, they come across something else. LASAPONARA (speaking Italian):
40:36 MASINI: LASAPONARA:
40:41 MASINI: LASAPONARA:
40:50 ♪ ♪
40:57 NARRATOR: They find a trapezoid geoglyph close to these mounds. It points to Cerro Marcha, the mountain that provides
41:05 the region with water in the summer months. It suggests the mounds are significant for something.
41:11 (translated): Today we will do a 3-D study with the drone.
41:17 And then we'll go over with georadar, a geophysics research tool.
41:25 NARRATOR: The drone and ground-penetrating radar find evidence of an underground tunnel,
41:30 the remains of an ancient aqueduct called a puquio.
41:37 ♪ ♪ The Nazca engineered an extensive network of aqueducts,
41:44 which tapped into subterranean water coming from the mountains, allowing them to bring it to the surface
41:51 to store and distribute. ♪ ♪
41:59 (translated): So we have four elements of the landscape: the sacred mountain; the geoglyph, where the ceremonial and ritual activity
42:07 takes place; the puquio, seen for its ability to produce water
42:13 almost as some sort of miracle, which is why they thanked the deity.
42:19 And the result of all of this is the valley, an oasis where they farmed.
42:28 NARRATOR: There may have been as many as 50 aqueducts in Nazca times. 36 are still in use today.
42:38 ♪ ♪ The rise of the trapezoid geoglyphs
42:44 coincides with an increase in dramatic and violent images on Nazca pottery around the year 500,
42:52 including trophy heads in greater numbers than before. ♪ ♪
42:57 Are things getting desperate for the Nazca? (Tomasto-Cagigao speaking Spanish)
43:03 (translated): Trophy head iconography is very common among the Nazca, and real trophy heads have been found.
43:10 It could have been confrontations between different communities, between enemies.
43:17 But another theory is that it could be a ritual. (crowd shouting)
43:26 NARRATOR: Elsa believes the Nazca may have appealed to their deities in a way similar to an ancient and violent ritual
43:31 still practiced today. (crowd shouting)
43:37 TOMASTO-CAGIGAO (translated): Today, in the Cusco region, in Canas, a ritual war is waged among communities
43:42 that are not enemies, and who, on a given date, in a given space, come together in confrontation.
43:50 It's a real confrontation. People die and are injured, and the blood that is spilled from these clashes
43:58 is seen as an offering to the Mother Earth relating to fertility.
44:04 (crowd shouting) NARRATOR: Could the Nazca have practiced bloody rituals as a response to a lack of rainfall?
44:12 ♪ ♪
44:22 What was causing the droughts? Were they just part of natural climate cycles,
44:29 or was something else going on? ♪ ♪
44:36 More than 6,000 miles away, at Britain's Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew...
44:43 ...conservation botanist Oliver Whaley and archaeobotanist David Beresford-Jones
44:49 have been trying to understand the environmental and ecological pressures the Nazca were facing.
44:56 About 20 years ago, they were studying changes in the ecosystem.
45:02 Traveling off-road through the desert, they found one environment they didn't expect.
45:10 We came across a dune, and we found a twittering, uh, warm and green, verdant forest,
45:18 almost sunken into the desert. ♪ ♪
45:25 NARRATOR: The Usaca forest is six miles long and only a few miles from the Nazca ceremonial center at Cahuachi.
45:35 It was full of absolutely enormous trees, a very cool, shady, beautiful forested environment.
45:41 And it suddenly made me think that perhaps the environments of the past were rather different
45:47 to the sorts of environments one sees today.
45:54 NARRATOR: In order to test his hypothesis, David and his team analyzed soil from different areas in the Nazca desert.
46:04 BERESFORD-JONES: We took samples from the floor of the Usaca woodland, and then we compared those to soil samples from
46:10 parts of the south coast which are today desertified. And we found that the pollen samples were
46:16 directly equivalent. In other words, these now desert landscapes had once been forested.
46:22 (insects chittering, birds twittering) NARRATOR: What happened to the forests?
46:27 The soil samples show trees in the earlier layers were later replaced by agricultural crops.
46:36 The forests had been cut down by the Nazca. But why?
46:45 After the year 500, a rising empire from the Andean highlands,
46:51 the Wari, was spreading out across Peru.
46:57 Distinctive Wari finds show they reached the Nazca region. BERESFORD-JONES: One of the reasons Wari were on the south coast was because
47:05 they wanted to extract cotton, which they couldn't grow in the highlands. NARRATOR: The Nazca valleys,
47:11 kept fertile by the aqueducts, were perfectly places to grow cotton and other crops. Coming under the influence of a more powerful civilization,
47:21 the Nazca cut down their forest to make space for agriculture. WHALEY: The Nazca were pushed
47:27 by the Wari to overextend their agriculture, eating into the last relics of, of forest.
47:37 NARRATOR: David and Oliver tried to gauge just how much of the Nazca's forests still exist.
47:44 We estimate that from the original early Nazca forest extent, we've probably got less than five percent.
47:52 It's probably two or three percent of the original forest cover.
47:58 ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: For centuries, the trees had maintained an ecological balance.
48:04 And large-scale deforestation led to a tipping point, causing irreversible damage to the ecosystem.
48:12 The ground became vulnerable to erosion, and the lack of trees sped up desertification.
48:20 For the Nazca, it marked the beginning of the end. WHALEY: So this is what the forest
48:27 was like in 2001. NARRATOR: Today, what little remains of the ancient Nazca woodland
48:34 is under threat once again. It is being cut down and burnt to be sold as charcoal.
48:42 Tragic. Yeah. ♪ ♪
48:49 NARRATOR: To try and stop the illegal deforestation, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
48:55 supports scientists and conservationists who monitor the remaining Usaca forest.
49:02 Alfonso Orellana Garcia is local to the area. ♪ ♪
49:10 GARCIA (translated): This is a huarango tree forest. The mother tree, the tree of life,
49:16 that's what we call the huarango. By burning, felling our trees and making forests disappear,
49:23 we are repeating past mistakes. ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: Today, Usaca is a dwindling haven
49:29 for wildlife familiar to the Nazca, like hummingbirds. ♪ ♪
49:36 And the Pampas cat, etched into the hillside.
49:42 ♪ ♪
49:50 Geoglyph-making, which began with the Paracas but reached its peak in Nazca times,
49:57 starts declining as Nazca society falls apart. ♪ ♪
50:05 ISLA (translated): This tradition of making geoglyphs ended around the year 650, 700,
50:11 when Nazca society in this region also came to an end. NARRATOR: The evidence suggests
50:18 that as they faced ecological collapse, many Nazca abandoned this landscape and scattered,
50:25 assimilating into the Wari. TOMASTO-CAGIGAO (translated): They had to emigrate.
50:31 Some went eastwards, up the mountains, where the rains were more frequent.
50:39 Others went south. ♪ ♪
50:45 NARRATOR: The remnants of the great civilizations of the Paracas and the Nazca remained etched into the landscape,
50:53 virtually forgotten for hundreds of years. Today, archaeologists believe
50:59 that the geoglyphs were multifunctional. They were ritual pathways, territorial markers,
51:07 the stage for ceremonies. ♪ ♪ Their design and use changing over a millennium.
51:14 ♪ ♪
51:21 And the legacy of the sophisticated societies that created the lines lives on.
51:26 ♪ ♪ (translated): The descendants of the Paracas, of the Nazca, of the Incas,
51:34 we are alive, we are here. Most of us in Peru descend from these ancient populations.
51:40 And we are very proud of our Indigenous past, and interested in learning about it, and we cherish it.
51:50 ♪ ♪
52:12 ♪ ♪
52:27 ANNOUNCER: To order this program on DVD, visit ShopPBS. Or call 1-800-PLAY-PBS.
52:34 Episodes of "NOVA" are available with Passport. "NOVA" is also available on Amazon Prime Video.
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