Tales from the Island of Serendip 4 4

[Flex Mentallo]

“Everything had prepared me for this life. The isolation into which I found myself, my parents putting me aside after my brother was born, my shortsightedness not being detected, all made me an introvert. It made me aloof because I was never the popular type. Now the tourists have made me popular. I was never popular! I sometimes wanted to be, but I could never be. What compelled me on this quest was my curiosity. I wanted to know!"

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

But Gerald Hawkins and Anthony Aveni, experts in archaeoastronomy, concluded in 1990 that there was insufficient evidence to support such an astronomical explanation.

 

In addition to which, in 1985, the archaeologist Johan Reinhard had published archaeological, ethnographic, and historical data demonstrating that worship of mountains and other water sources predominated in Nazca religion and economy from ancient to recent times.

 

[Flex Mentallo]

He theorized that the lines and figures were part of religious practices involving the worship of deities associated with the availability of water, which directly related to the success and productivity of crops. He interpreted the lines as sacred paths leading to places where these deities could be worshiped. The figures were symbols representing animals and objects meant to invoke the gods' aid in supplying water. In support of this, Aveni thought the lines were the pathways for important ceremonial processions. This was later confirmed by local people native to the town of Nazca, who when asked, offered to demonstrate the procession, in which hundreds of people literally walked the lines.

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Bound up in her own theories, Maria Reich had never though to ask them.

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Next: Heaven's River

[quicksilver]

Wow...fascinating stuff Michael, thank you...

[conditionfreak]

I feel I am a better man for having read this thread.

 

Thank you for the journey to here.

[Flex Mentallo]

Wow...fascinating stuff Michael, thank you...

 

 

 

I feel I am a better man for having read this thread.

 

Thank you for the journey to here.

 

 

 

 

Many thanks guys!

 

Happy Easter everyone!

[Unca Ben]

I have been waiting for another addition to this thread, the only topic I have in my watched topics list.

It's always worth it.

Thank you so much, and Happy Easter back to you.

[Flex Mentallo]

Secrets of the Inca

 

"I was born as a lily in the garden, and like the lily I grew, as my age advanced

I became old and had to die, and so I withered and died."

Pachacuti

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

The Andean civilizations made up a loose patchwork of different cultures that developed from the highlands of Colombia to the Atacama Desert.

 

[Flex Mentallo]

They are mainly based on the cultures of Ancient Peru, stretching back to the sacred City of Caral, which was undiscovered until 1948, it's significance further ignored because the site did not yield many typical artifacts that were sought at archeological sites throughout the Andes at the time.

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Yet Caral may shed light on the origins of cities. No trace of warfare has been found at Caral: no battlements, no weapons, no mutilated bodies. Findings suggest it was a gentle society, built on commerce and pleasure. In one of the pyramids, archaeologists uncovered 32 flutes made of condor and pelican bones and 37 cornetts of deer and llama bones. One find revealed the remains of a baby, wrapped and buried with a necklace made of stone beads.

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Caral is the oldest known civilization in the Americas and one of the six sites where civilization separately originated in the ancient world. It flourished between the 30th century BC and the 18th century BC.(Note: The most ancient Peruvian skeletal remains so far found date back to 7000 BC. These settlers had broad faces, pointed heads, and stood 1.6 metres tall. Early cave paintings have been discovered at Toquepala (Tacna, 7600 BC) and houses in Chilca (Lima, 5800 BC). Artefactual finds have led a growing number of scientists to believe that Peru was first settled 20 or more thousand years ago.)

 

[Flex Mentallo]

A succession of civilizations followed, including the Mochica..

 

[Flex Mentallo]

the Nazca...

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

the Chimú...

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Tiwanaku...

 

[Flex Mentallo]

and Wari...

 

[Flex Mentallo]

The Wari people had their capital near the modern-day Ayacucho, in the Andes. The civilization thrived from the 7th to 10th centuries AD, conquering all of what is now Peru before a mysterious and dramatic decline.