The Nazca culture flourished in southern Peru from around 100 BC to 800 AD, centered around the ceremonial site of Cahuachi. They developed an agricultural society and intricate aqueduct systems called puquios to sustain life in the arid environment. The Nazca are known for their beautiful polychrome pottery painted with vivid colors and textiles featuring motifs also found in pottery designs. They created geoglyphs known as the Nazca Lines, giant designs visible from the air, between 500-800 AD covering an area of hundreds of square kilometers in the Nazca desert. Archaeologists have proposed various theories for the purpose of these enormous glyphs, but their exact meaning remains mysterious.

1. THE NAZCA LINES

2. THE NAZCA CULTURE
• What is the Nazca culture?
The Nazca culture was a pre – Inca culture that
flourished in the south of Peru from 100BC to
800AD.
From 500AD, civilization started to decline and by
750AD had fallen completely. What happened?
This tought to have occurred by a destructive
flooding. Evidence suggests that Nazca people
may have exacerbated the effects of floods by
gradually cutting down trees to make room for
agriculture.

3. THE NAZCA CULTURE – MAIN
CHARACTERISTICS
• Society
– social structures: early Nazca society was made
up of local chiefdoms and regional centers of
power centered around Cahuachi, a non-urban
ceremonial site of earthwork mounds and plazas.

4. THE NAZCA CULTURE – MAIN
CHARACTERISTICS
• Religion: likely related to the arid and
extreme nature of enviromen, Nazca belifs
were based upon agriculture and fertility.
Religious events and ceremonies took place in
Cahuachi. The people worshiped the nature
god to aid in growth of agriculture.
• Trophy heads and partial burials: the trophy
heads were trophies of war or objects of
ritual. The partial burials includes bodies that
are missing several parts.

5. TROPHY HEADS

6. THE NAZCA CULTURE – MAIN
CHARACTERISTICS
• Economy: Nazca subsistance was based
largely on agriculture. Iconography on
ceramics indicate that Nazca people had a
varied diet.
The Nazca people created an aqueduct
system to sustain life in the exceedingly
arid enviroment.
They are known as puquios and some still
function today.

7. AN EYE OF A PUQUIO

8. THE NAZCA CULTURE – MAIN
CHARACTERISTICS
• art and technology.
– Pottery: the Nazca culture is characterized by
its beautiful polycrome pottery, painted with
at least 15 differents colours.
Archaeologists have excavated highly valued
pottery among all classes of Nazca society,
illustrating that it was not just the elite that
access to them.

9. THE NAZCA CULTURE – MAIN
CHARACTERISTICS
• art and technology.
– Textiles: the textiles would have been made
using a backstrap loom. The motifs were the
same as on pottery. The dry desert has
preserved them.
Many of the textiles found were garments that
were include with grave goods.
Different garments suggest different social
roles and responsability.

10. NAZCA LINES
- What are the Nazca lines?
- Where are they located?
- Who was their discoverer?
- How were they made?
- Which are the different theories about the
construction of the Nazca lines?

11. NAZCA LINES

12. NAZCA LINES
- My personal theory of the Nazca lines
- After all these theories… what is your
opinion?