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The ancient Nasca lines of Peru shed their secrets. In the coastal desert of southern Peru, sprawling fi gures etched on the land— a spider, a monkey, a strange fl ying animal, and more—have inspired wonder in air travelers since fi rst spotted in the 1920s. Now scientists believe they know why ancient people created the designs, beginning more than 2,000 years ago. For more stories like these, subscribe today. Click here to order. For the Nasca, the gods who brought rain asked a terrible price in return. Likely a token of fertility, a severed head from Cahuachi hung from a rope of vegetable fi ber. The victim may have been a local man sacrifi ced at a time of drought. A skull from Carrizales (above) shows a typical form of deliberate shaping, per- haps a sign of elite social status. Many buried corpses, including that of a man found at Ullujaya (left), were mummifi ed naturally by the region’s arid climate. SEVERED HEAD COMPOSED OF THREE IMAGES ����� ����� For more stories like these, subscribe today. Click here to order. By Stephen S. Hall Photographs by Robert Clark rom the air, the lines etched in the fl oor of the desert were hard to see, like drawings left in the sun too long. As our pilot cut tight turns over a desert plateau in southern Peru, north of the town of Nasca, I could just make out a succession of beautifully crafted fi gures. “Orca!” shouted F Johny Isla, a Peruvian archae- role in conserving the geoglyphs. But her own ologist, over the roar of the engine. He pointed preferred theory—that the lines represented down at the form of a killer whale. “Mono!” settings on an astronomical calendar—has he said moments later, when the famous also been largely discredited. Th e ferocity with Nasca monkey came into view. “Colibrí!” Th e which she protected the lines from outsiders has hummingbird. been adopted by their caretakers today, so that Since they became widely known in the late even scientists have a hard time gaining access 1920s, when commercial air travel was intro- to the most famous animal fi gures on the plain, duced between Lima and the southern Peruvian or pampa, immediately northwest of Nasca. city of Arequipa, the mysterious desert drawings Since 1997, however, a large Peruvian-German known as the Nasca lines have puzzled archae- research collaboration has been under way ologists, anthropologists, and anyone fascinated near the town of Palpa, farther to the north. by ancient cultures in the Americas. For just as Directed by Isla and Markus Reindel of the long, waves of scientists—and amateurs—have German Archaeological Institute, the Nasca- infl icted various interpretations on the lines, as Palpa Project has mounted a systematic, mul- if they were the world’s largest set of Rorschach tidisciplinary study of the ancient people of the inkblots. At one time or another, they have been region, starting with where and how the Nas ca explained as Inca roads, irrigation plans, images lived, why they disappeared, and what was the to be appreciated from primitive hot-air bal- meaning of the strange designs they left behind loons, and, most laughably, landing strips for in the desert sand. alien spacecraft . As our plane banked into another turn, Isla, A ft er World War II a German-born teacher a native of the highlands who works at the An- named Maria Reiche made the fi rst formal sur- dean Institute of Archaeological Studies, kept veys of the lines and fi gures—called geoglyphs— his broad, high-cheeked face pressed to the outside Nasca and the nearby town of Palpa. For window. “Trapezoid!” he shouted, pointing out half a century, until her death in 1998, a huge geometrical clearing looming Reiche played a critically important into sight. “Platform!” he added, ges- turing with his fi nger. “Platform!” PERU SOUTH This depiction of a giant bird, with a AMERICA Platform? He was pointing at a NASCA long, pointed beak and wings spanning CULTURAL small heap of stones at one end of the 220 feet, may evoke tiny hummingbirds AREA trapezoid. If Isla and his colleagues are CHILE that fl itted through irrigated fi elds. right, such unprepossessing structures ����� ����� For more stories like these, subscribe today. Click here to order. MADE A 1,200-year-old CH INshipwreck opens a A window on ancient global trade. Crusted with sea life, this Tang dynasty stoneware jar was found off Indonesia’s Belitung island. For more stories like these, subscribe today. Click here to order. BY SIMON WORRALL • PHOTOGRAPHS BY TONY LAW he world economy in the ninth dishes and plates that held the meals of wealthy century had two powerful engines. Persian Gulf merchants arrived by sea in Arab, One was Tang dynasty China, an Persian, and Indian ships. empire stretching from the South It was a long and perilous journey. And some- China Sea to the borders of Persia, times a ship just vanished, like a plane off a Twith ports open to foreign traders from far and radar screen. wide. Th e Tang welcomed diverse people to its Since time immemorial, ships have come to capital, Changan, the site of modern-day Xian, grief in the Gelasa Strait, a funnel-shaped pas- and multiethnic groups lived side by side in a sage between the small Indonesian islands of city of a million—a population unmatched by Bangka and Belitung, where turquoise waters a Western city until London in the early 19th conceal a maze of submerged rocks and reefs. century. Th en, as today, China was an economic Despite the dangers, sea cucumber divers were powerhouse—and much of that power was built working the area a decade ago when, 51 feet on trade. down, they came across a coral block with The other economic engine was Baghdad, ceramics embedded in it. Th ey pulled several capital of the Abbasid dynasty from 762 onward. intact bowls from inside a large jar, took them That dynasty inherited the Muslim world in ashore, and sold them. the Middle East; by 750 it had spread as far as the Th e divers had stumbled upon the most impor- Indus River to the east and Spain to the west, tant marine archaeological discovery ever made bringing with it trade, commerce, and the reli- in Southeast Asia: a ninth-century Arab dhow gion of Islam (the Prophet Muhammad himself fi lled with more than 60,000 handmade pieces of had been a merchant). Tang dynasty gold, silver, and ceramics. Th e ship Linking the two economic powerhouses were and its cargo, now referred to as the Belitung the Silk Road and its watery counterpart, the wreck, were like a time capsule of proof that Maritime Silk Route. Th e overland road gets all Tang China, like China today, mass-produced the attention, but ships had likely been plying the trade goods and exported them by sea. Work- seas between China and the Persian Gulf since ing in shift s until the monsoon stopped them, a the time of Christ. In tune with the cycle of the team of divers retrieved the ancient artifacts. monsoon winds, this network of sea-lanes and Th e treasure—much of it, anyway—turned out harbors bound East and West in a continuous to be the Tang equivalent of Fiestaware: so-called exchange of goods and ideas. Changsha bowls, named after the Changsha Tang China was hungry for fine textiles, kilns in Hunan where they were produced. Tall pearls, coral, and aromatic woods from Persia, stoneware jars served as ninth-century shipping East Africa, and India. In return, China traded containers; each could hold more than a hun- paper, ink, and above all, silk. Silk, light and dred nested bowls that might originally have easily rolled up, could travel overland. But by been padded with rice straw, a sort of organic the ninth century, ceramics from China had bubble wrap. Scholars already knew that such grown popular as well, and camels were not simple, functional tea bowls had been exported well suited for transporting crockery (think of worldwide from the eighth to the tenth centu- those humps). So increasing quantities of the ries: Shards of them had been found at sites as RARE ARTISTRY Goods from the Belitung ship exemplify the creativity and craft that fl ourished far afi eld as Indonesia and Persia. But few of the in Tang dynasty China (clockwise from upper right): An intricately engraved gilt silver fl ask, an Simon Worrall has contributed to both National bowls had ever been found intact. Geographic and National Geographic Traveler. Th is Now the Java Sea had yielded up a shipload, ornate bronze mirror already antique when the ship sailed, a wine cup and bracelet shaped from is Tony Law’s fi rst assignment for this magazine. many perfectly preserved—protected in the pure gold, and the oldest intact cobalt-blue-and-white ceramic from China ever discovered. �������� ���������� • ���� ���� ��������� For more stories like these, subscribe today. Click here to order. WHEN HENRY HUDSON FIRST LOOKED ON MANHATTAN IN 1609, WHAT DID HE SEE? Before New York Turning back the clock by four centuries, ecologists reveal how Manhattan Island appeared on the September aft ernoon Henry Hudson and his crew sailed into New York Harbor. COMPUTER�GENERATED IMAGE �TOP�: MARKLEY BOYER For more stories like these, subscribe today. Click here to order. TIMES SQUARE Long before it became a symbol of Manhattan’s hectic pace, the intersection where Seventh Avenue crosses Broadway (right) was once a quieter place. Two creeks met here in a red maple swamp and fed a beaver pond.

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