Nazca Lines explained?
Those of us lucky enough to have access to the National Geographic Channel might do well to tune in for Nasca Lines: The Buried Secrets.
The documentary investigates the mysterious Nazca (or Nasca) Lines that are etched into the desert in southern Peru.
It will be showing at noon (EST) on February 28 and 3pm (EST) on March 4. Us UK viewers will have to wait until 9pm on March 7.
Here's the blurb for the show:
Etched, as if by giants, onto the arid moonscape of Peru's southern desert lies one of man's greatest mysteries; the Nasca Lines.
More than 15,000 geometric and animal-like patterns have been discovered criss-crossing the pampas like a vast puzzle. Who built them and what was their purpose? Ancient racetracks, landing strips for aliens, or perhaps a giant astronomical calendar?
And are the Lines connected to the gruesome discovery of large cache's of severed human heads. Now, after decades of misunderstanding, modern archaeology may finally have the answer.
Excavations in the surrounding mountains are uncovering extraordinary clues about the people who made them and why.
A long since vanished people, called the Nasca, flourished here between 200BC and 700AD. But the harsh environment led them to extreme measures in order to survive.
Archaeologist Christina Conlee recently made an extraordinary find: the skeleton of a young male, ceremonially buried but showing gruesome evidence of decapitation.
In place of the missing human head, a ceramic "head jar" decorated with a striking image of a decapitated head with a tree sprouting from its skull.
Conlee wonders who this person was? Why was he beheaded and yet buried with honor. Was he a captive taken in battle, or could he have been a willing sacrifice? And did his decapitation have anything to do with the lines?
The discovery of large caches of human heads adds grisly weight to Conlee's theories and helps unravel on of man's great mysteries.
It certainly piqued my interest as I've always been fascinated by the subject, click here for an earlier post and some weird facts about the Lines.
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Daniel Smith - a long time ago, in a galaxy far away just north of Watford, Daniel fancied himself as a scientist but turned out to be the worst scientist since that bloke who mapped out all those canals on Mars that turned out to be scratches on his telescope's lens. Luckily, he is now not working on the Large Hadron Collider inadvertently creating a black hole that would swallow the world but is safely behind a desk writing this blog, bringing you the fantastical underbelly of nature... weird science.
