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NASCA, PERU 1-800 AD
Nazca• Nazca is one of the most
arid regions in the world with an average annual precipitation of 4 millimeters!
• Located on the southern region of Peru.
• Water was vital for Nasca subsistence, which depended mainly on a diet of maize.
• The rivers were not a reliable source to sustain the levels needed to feed the local population and a network of irrigation canals made it possible to practice intensive agriculture.
Nazca the Nazca produced an array of crafts and technologies such as ceramics, textiles, and geoglyphs—specifically the Nazca Lines.
Border from an embroidered mantle 200 B.C. – 600 AD
ReligionLikely related to the arid and extreme nature of the environment, Nazca religious beliefs were based upon agriculture and fertility.
Much of Nazca art depicts powerful nature gods, such as the mythical killer whale, the harvesters, the mythical spotted cat, the serpentine creature, and the most prevalent of worshiped figures, the anthropomorphic mythical being.
shamans used hallucinogenic drugs, such as extractions from the San Pedro cactus, to induce visions.
The people worshiped the nature gods to aid in the growth of agriculture.
Art Subject matter: shamans, animals, bodiless
human headsVessel forms: double-spout-and-bridge
containersColors: They are painted in as many as
thirteen colors, including white, red, brown, gray, yellow, orange, and pink
***Artwork is highly linear!***
Nasca art is full of images of agricultural abundance, shamanic ritual, and geometric forms that place the human in the natural and the supernatural.
Dualism- Pairs, doubles, and visual oppositions are and reflect the prominence of symbolic dualism in religions, ritual performances, and social order
Double-spout-and-bridge bottle with steps
• Known use of turntables to construct ceramics and to paint
• Up to 13 different colors used to decorate ceramics- more than any other people of the Americas
• Use of thick dark outlines.
• show an interest in textile patterns
• The Nazca produced quantities of ceramic vessels in a variety of shapes.
• ..
Double-Spout Bottle with
Hummingbirds Double-spout bottles such as this one were used as funerary offerings.
They were also an integral part of the ritual consumption of food and corn beer.
Nazca iconography includes a great variety of plants, animals, and more than twenty species of birds.
This bottle shows hummingbirds with long thin beaks feeding on flowers painted at the base of each spout.
Vessel in the Form of a Musician
Sometimes ordinary people were buried with figures and implements showing their occupations, such as the musician playing a panpipe.
Music was important for ceremonies, as excavated bells, rattles and pipes demonstrate.
Throughout the Andes, ceramic single- and double-chambered vessels called silbadoras also made sounds.
A hollow sphere of clay with a small hole was secured inside the vessel so that when you blow into the spout, air passes across the hole. Liquid half fills double-chambered bottles, which whistle when the vessels are tilted.
Double-Spout Bottle: GuardianTwo identical figures grasping heads in one hand, presumably trophy heads, and a staff in the other are represented.
Their short bodies float sideways on a clean white background.
They wear elaborate costumes consisting of a forehead ornament, mouth mask, pendant disks, necklace, tunic, loincloth, and cape, and have white staring eyes and protruding tongues.
Little faces animate the forehead ornament, the whiskers of the mouth mask, and staff, while profile heads appear on the cape.
Such masked figures are common in Nazca art, where they are generally identified as mythical beings or demons, or they may depict real masked individuals involved in ritual headhunting.
Trophy Heads
The debate over the purpose of trophy heads continues to this day, whether they were trophies of war or objects of ritual.
Visual depictions of decapitations often associate the decapitators with weapons and military-like dress, but such garments could have been worn in purely ceremonial circumstances as well
all the heads had one modification in common- a hole in the forehead through which a rope could be affixed, presumably so that the severed head can be displayed or carried.
This added to the consensus that these were trophy heads
Vessel in the Form of a Killer Whaleemphasizing its open mouth, vicious teeth and the strong curve of back and tail. The bottle’s opening is made in the double-spout and bridge style.The orca clutches a trophy head by the hair in each hand-fin, and along its body are painted offerings of fish and stylized human heads. The color scheme of black, red and white reinforces the dramatic effect, showing the fear the cetacean inspired in the fishermen of coastal Peru.Orcas were ‘worshipped as one of the most important divinities’- reproduction, agriculture and cyclical thinking
Vessel in the Form of a Standing
Figure
The figure has face paint as worn in Nazca harvest rituals.
In his right hand he holds a jicama plant and in his left a yucca (cassava) plant
Textiles • Emphasis on geometry,
symmetry and abstraction.
• Throughout Andean prehistory, the tunic, with or without sleeves, was the primary item of clothing for men.
• Tunics have a vertical slit opening at the top for the neck; they display a great deal of variety in weaving techniques and patterning and a wide range of color.
• In addition to being practical, they were expressions of ethnic affiliation, social status, and religious beliefs
Tunic7th–9th century
■ The design consists of two reptilian or fishlike creatures with spotted zigzag bodies facing each other at the center seam of the tunic.
■ They have large heads with bicolored eyes, bared teeth, whiskers or barbells, and ears or fins.
The Nazca LinesThe Nazca drew geoglyphs and lines across the surrounding deserts and hills which were either stylized drawings of animals, plants, and humans or simple lines which connected sacred sites or pointed to water sources.
Their exact purpose is disputed, but the most widely held theory is that they were designed to be walked along as part of religious rites and processions.
The width and length of lines can vary; one of the longest straight lines is 20 km long and the total combined length of Nazca lines has been estimated at over 1,300 km.
• 130 square mile (220-square km) natural blackboard, essentially a layer of dark over light stone, was gradually filled with over 1000 miles of lines!
• The Lines mostly consist of trapezoids and radiating lines, but also include 30 immense figures of animals, humans, plants, objects, and fantastical patterns (including monkey, dog, killer whale, lizards, eight type of birds, rayed face, sanding human, flower, tree, forehead ornament, as well as several geometric figures and unidentifiable images).
PurposeThese enormous ground drawings were made for the earth, the deities, and perhaps the constellations, rather than for a human audience, since the Lines are too large to be comprehended from the ground of the low hills around the plains.
They may have served for ritual purposes, as sympathetic magic to help ensure a good harvest.
A great many of the Lines point to the sun’s position on the horizon during the exact time of year when the rains begin.
The giant figures were all created as one unbroken line, suitable for processions.
The hummingbird spans over 5 lengths of a jumbo jet!
The Monkey image
stretches 180 feet!
