As if one set of fantastical geoglyphs created by an ancient civilization were not enough, now researchers have discovered an even older Peruvian culture that created their own version of mysterious rock lines centuries earlier.
According to Discovery News, scientists believe the newly found lines were created by the Paracas culture, and date to around 300 B.C.
The world has long been fascinated by the well-known Nazca lines, created by the Nazca culture which "flourished roughly from A.D. 100 to 600."
The Nazca built their geoglyphs, which are gigantic patterns of light-colored lines scratched into the darker desert rock. The designs stretch for miles across a high Andean desert that receives barely an inch of rain every century. The hundreds of lines come in geometric, plant and animal shapes, and even a humanoid figure called "the astronaut."
Scientists still don't know why the Nazca lines were made.
Meanwhile, scientists at UCLA discovered the Paracas lines in a valley north of the Nazca site. The Paracas lines are actually rows of rocks laid down near large earthen mounds.
Archaeological surveys had revealed the ancient mounds, which the scientists mapped, along with rock lines associated with each mound. They found 71 geoglyph lines or segments, 353 rock cairns, rocks forming circles or rectangles, and one point at which a series of lines converged in a circle of rays. The researchers also excavated one cluster of man-made mounds.
Some long lines marked the spot where the sun would have set during the June solstice (the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere). Two U-shaped mounds also pointed toward the June solstice sunset, and the largest platform mound on the site lined up with the solstice as well. These lines and mounds probably served as a way to mark time during festivals, the scientists reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Source : http://www.sciencerecorder.com/news/nazca-not-the-oldest-mysterious-rock-lines-in-peru/
