The Nazca Lines: Erich Von Daniken and Fraudulent Claims

This article will explore the geoglyphs of the Nazca. It will begin with a brief introduction to the Nazca culture and some discussion concerning Cahuachi and construction methods. It will continue with the theories of Erich von Däniken. Finally, the article will conclude with an analysis of Von Däniken, and his "ancient astronaut hypothesis," and the pseudoscience found therein. It is hoped an article of this sort will shed some light on the mystery that continues to surround the southern coast of Peru and the lines that have been discovered there. More importantly, it will endeavor to offer further insight into fraudulent claims.

The Nazca were a people and culture that thrived in the southern coast of Peru from about 100 C.E. to 800 B.C.E. Although they never developed a system of language, they were able to subsist in inhospitable conditions. Many cultures would have found themselves hard-pressed to have survived in such an environment. They were an inventive people and capable of monumental architecture. Of worth note, is a ceremonial center known today as Cahuachi. Cahuachi is a large complex on the pampa that overlooks many of the southern lines. It is here that we can easily see that the Nazca were not spending all of their time collecting "trophy heads" and elongating the skulls of their infants for social status. Nor were they only constructing ceramics, textiles, and geoglyphs - although each are worthy of praise in their own right.

The ceremonial center of Cahuachi consists of 40 known mounds and a stepped pyramid, which stands 75 high. Although it has yet to be completely excavated, it is thought, perhaps, that Cahuachi "once might have been a pilgrimage center, where groups of farmers from the Nazca, Ingenio, and other valleys congregated to perform religious ceremonies" (Aveni, 2000). The massive complex (which covers over half a mile) served as a permanent settlement for but a handful of residents. Again, Cahuachi was thought to be a religious center of sorts and, as such, provides testament to the fact that the Nazca were willing to create structures that offered little to their own subsistence and survival.

As for Cahuachi's relationship to the lines, it has been suggested that Cahuachi was a place in which Nazca priests, "from their elevated shrine, could observe the entire pampa with its lines, along with the surrounding mountains and its deities" (Aveni, 2000). In this regard, Cahuachi plays an active role in a culture occupied with religious belief. Due to the arid area in which they lived, the Nazca were forever concerned with water, and "it seems highly probable that the worship of water sources, including mountains (both nearby and further into the Andes), played a prominent role in their beliefs at the time" (Silverman and Proulx, 2002). Aqueducts, or ojos, can be found in the Nazca valley and are still used to the present day. The aqueducts were, and are, an inventive way of taping much needed subsurface water sources for irrigation.

Today, we know little about the geoglyphs that riddle the Peruvian landscape. Theories abound but most remain inconclusive. As to how they were created, however, the technology used is simple and easy to work out: "It involved the removal of dark, [...] desert rocks to expose the lighter surface beneath" (Wilson, 1988). The volcanic rock and the white subsoil of the desert were more than suitable for this subtractive technique, and the region offered an arid climate equally suitable to preserve the lines from rain and wind. A system of measurement (involving nothing more than a rope and a few sticks) would have been all that was needed for the more intricate of the geometric figures. Additionally, "several replicative experiments have demonstrated how the long straight lines, large spirals, and huge figures could have been made without the benefit of aerial overview" (Silverman and Proulx, 2002 ). These experiments, which have been well documented, can be seen on just about any television program related to the Nazca (i.e., Discovery, National Geographic, and so forth) and are easy to replicate and can be completed in a single setting.

It has been suggested that the lines are not nearly as complex as previously supposed. With the use of 3-D recording, researchers have noticed the "geoglyphs are not of very high geometrical precision. Thus the production cannot be considered a great engineering achievement" (Grun et. al., 2000). Regardless, it is difficult to argue that the Nazca lines are not monumental in both their immense size and scope. The lines may not have been as difficult to create as the pyramids of Giza, for example, but they are "culturally important" and a "coordinated organization of labor is implied; that is, someone or some group was in charge of their elaboration" (Silverman and Proulx, 2002). This is not to mention the fact that they have more than withstood the test of time.

This leads us to three, key points in regard to the Nazca lines, and these points are as follows: 1) The Nazca were capable of monumental architecture, beyond the creation geoglyphs, and the ceremonial site of Cahuachi is evidence of this. The Nazca were an inventive people. 2) Archaeologists have a good understanding of the techniques used for the lines. And, finally, 3) the lines are not as elaborate, nor as geometrically precise, as some would like to believe. In other words, they would have most certainly required a coordinated effort from the Nazca in their construction, as stated, but some sort of external involvement - whether it be from another culture or "elsewhere" - would not have been necessary.

Erich von Däniken, a Swiss author, has proposed that extraterrestrials (beings not from Earth) have had direct involvement in the lives of ancient peoples, including the Nazca. According to the author, and his version of what has become known as the "ancient astronaut hypothesis," extraterrestrial involvement began rather early on, in prehistoric times, as aliens visited our planet and chose to manipulate, and selectively alter, the evolutionary path of our species. In Chariots of the Gods, Von Däniken (1968) writes, "Even though I do not know who these extra-terrestrial intelligences were or what planet they came from, I nevertheless proclaim that these 'strangers' annihilated part of mankind existing at the time and produced a new, perhaps the first, homo sapiens."

So it appears, according to Von Däniken, that extraterrestrials decided, for reasons known only to themselves, that archaic humans needed a kick start towards increased, biological complexity. Without it, they were an evolutionary dead-end... lost and abandoned on the African subcontinent, perhaps... still struggling with leopards and stone tools and fire. It is interesting to note that, although presented as a work of fiction, Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick's vision of our evolutionary past provides a similar scenario, albeit in a different way. In their version, after centuries of intellectual darkness, the appearance of alien technology (in the form of obsidian monoliths) propelled humankind forward. Clarke (1968), in his novelization of 2001: A Space Odyssey, writes, our ancestors "could never guess that their minds were being probed, their bodies mapped, their reactions studied, their potentials evaluated."

Sound familiar?

Not surprisingly, 2001 was released to film and literary audiences the same year as Von Däniken's Chariots of the Gods. The year, of course, was 1968, and the cultural climate, during this time, was intent on space exploration. People thought a great deal about what might exist out there in the stars. Some even began to believe and theorize that there could be life.

Von Däniken's alien hypothesis does not end there.

He proposes that extraterrestrials continued to intervene in our affairs. People began to worship and deify them as gods and goddesses. In Arrival of the Gods, Von Däniken (1998) writes, "if we just replace the little word 'gods' with 'extraterrestrials,' we've finally hit the nail in the head." To offer a bit of credence to his theories, Von Däniken provides examples of ways in which ancient people, from all parts of the world, venerated the extraterrestrials in varying contexts. This included items such as the sarcophagus lid of the Mayan ruler Pakal (which, according to the author, depicts an ancient astronaut) and the revelations of Ezekiel in the Old Testament (which offers a direct, oral account of alien contact and spaceships). The extraterrestrials also had some hand - either outright or through indirect means - in the building of monumental architecture. The works of Stonehenge, the Moai of Easter Island, and the pyramids at Giza are used as examples. Von Däniken bases his theories on the belief that the construction of certain archaeological sites required the intervention of a higher intelligence, beings of great wisdom and technical ability, since, once again, such intellectual achievements were supposedly beyond the mental capacity of the people at the time.

Concerning the Nazca, Von Däniken believes that the extraterrestrials visited the Nazca valley, as well, and their space crafts even touched down upon the surface of the dry Peruvian desert. Von Däniken states some of the impressions we see today could well be the result of such landings. Along the way, however, the people became curious about the visitors from space and took an active interest in them:

"Then one day was a thunderous noise. The Indians rushed to their observation posts and saw the heavenly chariot ascending into the sky. That was the beginning of Nazca as a place of pilgrimage. It was 'holy ground.' The gods had been there!"

And, in turn, the people, wishing to commune and speak to the extraterrestrials, began to remove the dark rocks and etch their own lines, in a collective effort to summon the gods back:

"In all directions, there arose lines and trapezoid surfaces as one tribe tried to outdo the other. They all slaved away in the blessed hope that the gods would return and reward them for their dedicated service. [...] The toil in the desert was seen as a kind of 'sacrifice.' The more impressive an earth marking, the greater would be the god's reward."

As fantastic as this all sounds, these perspectives, in regard to the Nazca, and all things ancient, are an imaginative reconstruction of the past and created solely in the mind of the author. Though interesting, Von Däniken has written a work of fiction and presented it as fact. This is what is known as pseudoscience. On the subject of "not so scientific" claims, Kenneth Feder writes (2008):

"Extrasensory perception. Astrology. Faith healing. Alien abductions. Clairvoyant cats. Palmistry. Pyramid power. Ancient astronauts. Crop circles. Feng shui. If all the claims related to these and other supposed phenomenon were true, this world would be an extraordinarily strange place..."

And Feder is quite accurate in this remark. It would be a strange place, a very strange place - akin to The Twilight Zone. We would exist in a world in which the rules we have become quite accustomed, those that govern the known and observable universe, would no longer apply.

Returning to what we know of the Nazca today, we have found no evidence of the alien contact Von Däniken mentions. We do have evidence of religion and belief, found in the archaeological record at the site of Cahuachi - and possibly in the geoglyphs themselves, for example - but it is a far stretch to assume that the gods worshipped were extraterrestrials, as Von Däniken suggests. Likewise, Von Däniken assumes the Nazca were not resourceful enough to have came up with the idea of constructing the geoglyphs on their own - as a result of their own ingenuity and cultural tradition. This, too, is a bit of a stretch when we remember the Nazca were a people, just as any other, rich in tradition and originality.

Applying Occam's Razor (in which the simplest answer is often the most correct), we do understand how the lines were created, we know the Nazca were resourceful, and we are aware, despite their lack of geometric perfection, that the lines served some sort of cultural purpose to Nazca society. What this purpose was to the Nazca, exactly, remains to be determined, but the involvement of Von Däniken, and his entirely subjective view of the past, has no place within the rigid objectivity of science. Science not only theorizes, but tests these theories, as well, by means of extensive analysis and collection of data in the real world. It does not rely on the "what if" possibilities, as many pseudoscientists would have it. It is interesting that Von Däniken draws a parallel between his "ancient astronauts" and the gods. Because the existence, or the nonexistence, of god is impossible to test with scientific inquiry. The same can be said of extraterrestrials, and we simply haven't the evidence to state much about either, one way or another. What we have here, in Von Däniken, is a Celestial Teapot, an Invisible Pink Unicorn, a Flying Spaghetti Monster, Sagan's Invisible Dragon - all analogies of unfalsifiable claims; and we are left wondering what poor soul would possibly waste the time, or energy, to refute him. Von Däniken, of course, uses the lack of refutability in his arguments to its full advantage. As an example, notice the following: "Since we are not prepared to admit that there was a higher culture or an equally perfect technology before or own, all that is left is a hypothesis of a visit from space" (Von Däniken, 1968)! This is a logical fallacy, of the worst sort, and the writings of Von Däniken are chalk-full of such items. In his typical, pseudoscientific fashion, he forever leaves the burden of proof to the reader:

"Who can produce concrete proof to show why another planet should not have provided more favorable conditions for the development of other or similar intelligences? Is there any reason why we may not have 'competitors' on another planet who are equal or superior to us? Are we entitled to discard this possibility?"

As a whole, Von Däniken makes ethnocentric assertions in regard to our ancestors and other cultures. ("Who put the idea of corporeal rebirth into the heads of the heathen?" ) He refuses to allow the possibility, which has been clearly shown in the archaeological record, that civilization is not so easy to come by and requires a great deal of human effort and ingenuity to both create and maintain it. ("Who gave them their incredible knowledge of math and a readymade writing?") He assumes the cultures of the past were incapable of independent thought, self-reliance, and reflection. ("How on earth could people in the dim past arrive at different perceptions of one and the same thing, when the horizon was very limited?") Perhaps the Nazca deserve more respect. Not that it would matter much to them today (their civilization is gone), but it isn't always a bad idea to offer a bit of credit, when credit is do. Erich von Däniken, unfortunately, presents us with only aliens.

To conclude, the question Chariots of the Gods - and Von Däniken's subsequent writings - raises is does pseudoscience have practical use to scientific inquiry? The answer to this question is most likely a resounding... NO. Von Däniken appears to have overstepped his boundaries. His claims offer nothing to our current understanding of Nazca lines, or any other cultural achievement, for that matter. Nevertheless, Von Däniken is a best selling author. This is something we can verify, just as one might Darwin's theory of evolution or the tilting of the Earth towards the Sun in springtime. Hence, it is suggested here that the value that lies within Erichvon Däniken's writings is not scientific but one of a more subtle nature. It is doubtful many read him for the purpose of gaining archaeological insight into the past. We read him - although some with skepticism - because it is enjoyable to think of the possibilities... to wonder what it might have been like if things were different. Every scientific theory begins with a question. Our ability to imagine, "perchance to dream," works the same way, too.

References

Aveni, A. (2000). Between the Lines: The Mystery of the Giant Ground Drawings of Ancient Nasca, Peru. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.

Bar, S., Beautner, S. & A. Grun. (2000). Signals in the sand: 3-D recording and visualizations of the Nasca geoglyphs. Institute of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 33, 53-61.

Clarke, A. (1968). 2001: A Space Odyssey. New York, NY: Penguin.

Feder, K. (2008). Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology (6th edition). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Morrison, T. (1978). Pathways to the Gods: The Mystery of the Andes Lines. New York, NY: Harper

Silverman, H. & D. Proulx. (2002). The Nasca. Malden, MASS: Blackwell.

Von Däniken, E. (1968). Chariots of the Gods: Was God an Astronaut? New York, NY: Berkley Trade.

Von Däniken, E. (1998). Arrival of the Gods: Revealing the Ancient Landing Sites of the Nazca. Boston, MASS: Element.

Wilson, D. (1988). Desert ground drawings in the Lower Santa Valley, North Coast of Peru. American Antiquity, 53 (4), 794-804.