The Nazca Lines of Peru



Below is a paper I wrote for my Art 101 class.


    I chose the Hummingbird at Nazca Valley Peru. The Hummingbird is one of the drawings that can be found in the dry desert overlooking the Nazca valley. Estimated to be about 2000 years old, it has a wingspan of over 60 meters or 200 feet. Although no one has proof who made it or why, some people think that the ancient Nazca people probably made this.

    The Hummingbird is a drawing on the surface of the ground. It is an abstracted version of the real hummingbird. Around the drawing, you can see a vast empty space and a faint outline of a highway. Since this picture was taken from the air, you can tell that this is really huge.

    This work demonstrates the element of shape defined by drawing lines on the ground. It also uses the principle of scale that can be obviously seen by comparing its size to the highway also found in the picture and the fact that its full size can only be viewed from the air.

    The Nazca Lines were discovered accidentally from an airplane in flight in 1927. The drawings include straight lines, geometric shapes and stylized depictions of animals, humans and plants. They range in size up to 1000 ft across. Because of their magnitude and their gigantic size, the Nazca Lines have inspired fantastic theories involving ancient gods and aliens. Some said that these lines were part of the irrigation system used by the ancient people. Others claimed that these have more religious importance. The significance of the hummingbird as part of the Nazca drawings has been attributed not just to the fact that hummingbirds are unique birds in the sense that they can fly vertically, backwards and hover by flapping their wings at up to 80 times per second; but also because of its mythological representation. In one Mayan legend they are the sun in disguise trying to court the moon, while another says they were made from the feather scraps left over from the creation of the other birds. The Aztecs believed that every warrior slain in battle orbited the sun for four years and then became a hummingbird. Several South American cultures regarded them as messengers between the worlds.

    I chose the Hummingbird not just because of its beauty but also because I am mystified on how this piece of art was made with perfection on such a grand scale. This and the rest of the Nazca lines have endured the test of time and must have taken hundreds of years and a large number of people working on the project to finish them. These are not only works of art but also a representation of a civilization and their culture. I don’t know why these were made or if these were to serve a purpose for the community, but as a person living in the technology age, I can only look at them and the people who made them with renewed admiration and respect. I wish I could see them in person one day.

http://www.americatravelling.net/peru/nazca/nazca_history.htm
www.crystalinks.com/nasca.html
 www.sacred-destinations.com/peru/nazca-lines.htm

Posted by Blogs by Kameda at March 25, 2009
Categories: About Art
Tags: ancient mythology drawings by aliens ancient drawing Humming bird bird shape Nazca Lines of Peru ancient shape drawing
Previous Post
Next Post

 

What did you think of this article?




Trackbacks
Trackback specific URL for this post
  • No trackbacks exist for this post.
Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

Leave a comment

 Enter the above security code (required)

 Name

 Email (will not be published)

 Website

Your comment is 0 characters limited to 3000 characters.