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1. Older Than Nazca: Mysterious Rock Lines in Peru

Older Than Nazca: Mysterious Rock Lines in Peru

May 5, 2014 06:30 PM ET // by Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience

New rock lines discovered in Peru predate the famous Nazca Lines by centuries and likely once marked the site of ancient fairs, researchers say.

The lines were created by people of the Paracas, a civilization that arose around 800 B.C. in what is now Peru. The Paracas culture predated the Nazca culture, which came onto the scene around 100 B.C. The Nazca people are famous for their fantastic geoglyphs, or rock lines, built in the shapes of monkeys, birds and other animals.

The new lines date to around 300 B.C., making them at least 300 years older than the oldest Nazca lines, said Charles Stanish, the director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles, who reported the new find today (May 5) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"They used the lines in a different way than the Nazca," Stanish told Live Science. "They basically created these areas of highly ritualized processions and activities that were not settled permanently." (See Images of Ancient 'Nazca' Lines & Fair Site)

The closest European analog, Stanish said, would be the medieval fairs that brought visitors from far and wide.

More:
http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/older-than-nazca-mysterious-rock-lines-in-peru-140514.htm#mkcpgn=rssnws1