The Disappearance of the Nazca Civilization.
The Nazca civilization disappeared over 1500 years ago and with no written history by the civilization or any written content made by them the question remains “Where did they go, what happened to them?” We can only theorize about the end of the Nazca civilization, it has been shown through geological and archaeological analysis that the Nazca occupied around 5,000 square kilometers. Archeologists have discovered many things about the Nazca people through ceramic and textile finds. They have also discovered an impressive system of underground aqueducts or ‘puquois’ whit still function today.
The most discussed and talked about remnant of the Nazca are the Nazca Lines. These can only be seen from the air and are now a tourist attraction for the area. What do they represent and why where they made, where they a communication to aliens or their gods or a platform for ceremonies.
So where did the Nazca’s go, why did they vanish? First we must understand that the Nazca civilization did not have a single ruler or government but was a network of self-regulated communities. They also subsisted on grown crops.
One theory is that the Nazca people where responsible for changing their environment and that led to the demise of the civilization. They started a cycle of deforestation to grow crops they would irrigate as the region is very arid. In deforesting to plant crops they would cut down the huarango trees. These trees can grow in arid environments and have large root systems that spread out and go 50 meters deep. This system holds the soil together and the removal of the trees may have been the downfall of the culture. Without the protection of the trees to hold the soil together and it became exposed to strong winds from the Pacific. It also had the soil being removed by flooding caused by the El-nino effect. With the loss of crop producing fields the Nazca’s where forced to move and the community then fell apart.
Another theory is the strangest and that is that the Nazca lines where a communication to aliens who contacted the people of the civilization warning them of impending disaster and relocating them to another planet.
A third theory is one that has destroyed so many civilizations in the past. Dis the Nazca civilization have a civil war due to the lack of crops or for the gain of more productive land. This could have happened as a result of the first theory.
The truth is that it is unknown but more and more are agreeing that it was the demise of the ecology in the reason that led to the downfall of the Nazca civilization.
