Talk:Nazca lines

Shamanic Flight

There is no menshon of the posabilitie of the use of shamanic flight in the creation of the lines; whether it be in the design process, or as part of the motivation to create the lines.

Nazca Lines pictures

I think there should be more pictures of Nazca Lines.

Need Help Made Major Discovery

I think I discovered the meaning of the needle and loom glyph... I need to know who to talk to, this is pretty big. No one has published anything about it, and it's very important. Nousoul 08:05, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

Where is Maria Reiche, and who is Michael Vaillant?

As the article stands now, the work of history's most celebrated and long-standing mainstream Nazca researcher — Maria Reiche — receives barely one sentence of coverage. She is still a huge name in this subject (though apparently mostly wrong in her astronomical alignment theory), and a national hero in Peru for her pioneering work -- and yet her full name doesn't even appear in the article (except as part of the name of a foundation)!

On the other hand, a "recent hypothesis from Michael Vaillant" receives three paragraphs.

Who is Michael Vaillant, and why is his hypothesis worth bringing to the attention of Wikipedia readers? Leaving aside the merits of his idea (very poor, it seems to me), and leaving aside his qualifications (unknown, ) he is evidently a poorly known figure commenting from outside of Nazca archaeology: Google reveals only 62 wiki entries as hits for "Michael Vaillant"+nazca, most of them copied directly from this Wikipedia entry. (By comparison, "Maria Reiche"+nazca scores 34,300 hits, for good reason.)

The primary source for Vaillant's hypothesis, linked to in this Wikipedia article, is itself a wiki: something called U-Sphere, for which the "Contacter l'administrateur du site" listing is in fact Michael Vaillant.

This looks very much like original research, and should probably be cut entirely. (Or, at best, reduced to a single sentence.)

At any rate, the scant coverage of Maria Reiche's decades of on-site work and the heavy coverage of Vaillant's notion is a gross misrepresentation of the state of the field, and should be reversed. For now, I'm going to go ahead and cut the Vaillant material completely.

Loxton (talk) 01:42, 21 November 2007 (UTC)

Horribly POV

This article is littered with unencyclopediatic italisized "why"s and unsourced POV statements that completely ruin the neutrality and tone of the article, and it almost completely lacks footnotes. TheOtherSiguy (talk) 19:30, 21 November 2007 (UTC)

The correct spelling of the name is Nasca ....

...., not Nazca. Even articles within Wikipedia show such spelling.

Unfortunately, we can see the wrong spelling even locally.

Map theory

According to Zoltan Zelko's theory the straight lines of Nazca Lines represent a specific type of map of the area where the Nazca culture has florished, with 1:16 scale. Crossing points of lines: emphasized objects (e.g. settlements, fortresses, etc.). Lines themselves are denoting the "watching directions" connecting these objects.

To prove his theory he could fit a certain area of the Nazca Lines (after magnifying it to 16 times of the original) very precisely onto the map of the area of Lake Titicaca. Crossig points of lines of the Nazca drawing perfectly fall onto contemporary or historical settlements (i.e. the ruins of the latter). There is a "technical certification" of the suitability of the cartographic techniques he has used by an independent expert in his book (see below).

Note: Zoltán Zelko thinks there is a substantial difference between the 2 subsets of Nazca figures: the simple geometric shapes and lines on one hand (that he interprets as a map) and the complex drawings (e.g. animals, plants) on the other hand.

He published his theory in the following book: Author: Zoltan Zelko Title: A kosivatag titka (Hungarian, means: Secret of the Desert) Publisher: Magveto Kiado, Budapest, Hungary, 1982 ISBN: 963 271 666 3 I have the book in Hungarian language. I do not know about any English or other language editions of this work.

Hungarian Television made a documentary film on his theory and Zoltan Zelko's trip to the Nazca Lines and Lake Titicaca in the 1980's that I have seen as a child. I have only the following additional information on the film: Director: Jose Andres Laczko Director of Photography: Karoly Boldizsar

As Mr. Zelko's theory is scientifically proven (in contrary to other hypotheses included in the current article) I propose to mention the "map theory" briefly in the "Purpose" section of the article and put this book into the "References" section. I would highly welcome your help in doing that if you think this is valid and reliable information.

Thanks, 84.3.77.113 (talk) 01:15, 9 January 2008 (UTC) Gabor

Maria Reiche

There is a very good but short chapter in Bruce Chatwin's, "What Am I Doing Here" (isbn: 0-224-02634-8)called "Maria Reiche: The Riddle of The Pampa". It was written in 1975 and gives a very interesting account of their meeting in the Peruvian desert, and may be worthy of a link/mention? Zelenka 203.26.122.8 (talk) 01:04, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Help me out for a project

Ok, get this. I have to write a story about traveling to South America, and i can't find any decent information on the Nazca Lines. If you find any brief information on this particular thing in south america, send it to: bradyshepherdgirl@gmail.com. Thank You!