Beyond the Nasca Lines

Ancient Life at La Tiza in the Peruvian Desert

Bibliographic Data

ID2785476
AuthorsWilliam H Isbell (State University of New York at Binghamton, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume97
Issue4
Pages723-725
Publication date2017-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHispanic American Historical Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-2168 • E-ISSN: 1527-1900
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00182168-4214369
OpenAlexW2766328972
LanguageEN
Citations received12

Nazca is famous for the “lines,” or geoglyphs, that attract thousands of tourists to Peru's south coast each year. But Nazca also offers an intriguing archaeological case study of one of the ancient world's most fascinating examples of cultural adaptation to an extreme environment, the Atacama Desert of the central Andes. The pre-Hispanic people of the Nazca Valley, known generically as the Nazca culture, succeeded in one of the driest places in the world, where geological conditions throughout the valley made long-term maintenance of a complex society especially challenging.Christina Conlee's goal for this book is to examine the development of culture in the Nazca region, employing information from her excavations at an archaeological site known as La Tiza—a settlement occupied for some 5,000 years that overlooks the confluence of the Aja and Tierras Blancas tributaries of the Nazca river system. Conlee seeks understandings that will contribute to the study of complex human societies more generally, especially ancient communities living with extreme aridity. To succeed she avoids the comprehensive site report of traditional archaeology and instead presents her La Tiza excavation data within chapter-length reviews of current research and thinking about each of the cultural periods into which central Andean archaeology—and Nazca prehistory—are divided. Each chapter describes and discusses the more important finds at La Tiza, placing them within a broad discussion of what is currently known about Nazca prehistory. This is timely in that several excellent summaries of Nazca prehistory were published more than a decade ago and a great deal of new research has been completed, especially a multidisciplinary German project emphasizing new scientific approaches to the Nazca past. Readers will enjoy Conlee's comprehensive reviews, creatively organized around her La Tiza discoveries.Conlee's presentation of La Tiza within the broader cultural context helps compensate for somewhat spotty data from the archaeological site. La Tiza is the ruin of an ancient residential community that covers approximately 30 hectares—an immense area for an ancient Nazca settlement. It is located 60 kilometers from the coast, about 675 meters above sea level, on an extremely steep valley side occasionally tailored by long walls and artificial terraces. Investigated between 2002 and 2010, cultural strata are usually shallow and eroded, while the site has suffered extensive looting. The percentage of the site sampled is small. Artifact yields were generally low, and mixing of cultural contents occurred in many contexts. Conlee's excavations were small to medium-sized cuts placed across La Tiza, located in accord with remains visible on the surface. Contextualized social information provided by large area excavations is scarce. Readers are treated to specific information about many important human activities at La Tiza—which plants were present by what dates, which obsidian sources supplied what percentage of the stone-tool inventory, what proportion of meat came from what animals, when and where slingstones were stashed in the community. However, it is comparative discussion that gives a sense of daily life and community social organization.Some archaeologists might consider La Tiza so poorly preserved that it hardly merits extensive research, but Conlee's labors paid off with valuable discoveries as well as a unique picture of a large Nazca community where people lived more or less continually for an immensely long time. Discussions of La Tiza excavation results present a good deal of specific data as well as interpretive decisions based on wider cultural contexts—whether an architectural remain is best interpreted as a storage building, as a place for rituals, or as residential, among other options. Among especially valuable research discoveries is the excavation of a Middle Preceramic occupation in the lower eastern portion of the site. Significant new data are gained regarding demography and cultural variation as the Early Horizon gave way to the Early Intermediate Period. These phases saw the rise of a great ceremonial center at Cahuachi and were also the key eras for lines and geoglyphs. Exciting new information is presented about the Middle Horizon, when the Nazca participated in an international empire known as Wari. New mortuary practices were especially important, but these innovations were followed by drastic demographic problems. Readers will find Conlee's description of cultural and demographic reconsolidation in Nazca during the Late Intermediate Period especially fascinating and will be surprised by the modest impact of the great Inca empire at La Tiza. With its theoretical discussion and general evaluation of Nazca within broad anthropological interests, this book will be enjoyed by a wide range of readers. However, it holds special appeal for professional archaeologists, students, and aficionados of New World prehistory

Ancient history · Archaeology · Cartography · Desert (philosophy · Excavation · Geography · Human settlement · Paleoanthropology · Political science · Prehistory · Settlement (finance · Tributary · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Archaeology and Natural History · History · Latin American history and culture