NASA imagery to help preserve Peru's Nasca Lines

Proving the point that any story that can draw on the glamour of NASA and its space program, media this week are reporting on an agreement reached whereby NASA will provide Peruvian authorities with radar imagery of the Nasca Lines to help protect from damage.

The Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca, scratched into Peru's rocky coastal desert between 500 BCE and 500 CE, were named a world heritagesite in 1994 and are famously one of archaeology's great enigmas.

Aerial view of a Nasca geoglyhph depicting a monkey

While the Nasca Lines have suffered damage over the years as a result of human activity - including tourism - their protection became a matter of international attention in the wake of an ill-fated protest in support of renewable energy by the environmentalist organization Greenpeace in 2014, which allegedly disturbed the Lines.

Under the agreement, imagery will be shared on a no-cost basis, allowing authorities to quickly spot potential threats to the Nasca Lines, and hopefully address them before any damage is done.

Lima newspaper El Comercio has given readers a sense of what the information to be provided with the publication of an image showing one of the geoglyphs along with apparent damage to the site.

Peru proposes a code of conduct for NGOs following Greenpeace's ill-judged Nasca Lines protest

Many Peruvians were outraged in December 2014 when Greepeace staged a protest in support of renewable energy that involved laying yellow fabric letters near the Nasca Lines. The Nasca Lines are one of Peru's leading world heritage sites and encompass a series of gigantic geoglyphs etched into the Pacific coastal desert between 500 BCE and 500 CE. Peruvian officials accused Greenpeace of permanently damaging the geoglyphs, which in turn led to an embarrassing climb-down for the organization.

Greenpeace protest at Nasca Lines in December 2014

Now, Peru is promoting the approval of a code of conduct at UNESCO for NGOs and civil society organizations to respect countries' cultural heritage. According to the Agencia Peruana de Noticias, the code would establish expected behaviours to help preserve and conserve the world’s cultural heritage and prevent it from being damaged.

While this sounds like a worthy initiative, we will have to wait until the proposal is formally tabled at an upcoming UNESCO committee meeting in Namibia to gauge the level of support among other member states.

Architects champion ancient Peruvian design principles

The sacred city of Caral-Supe, the site of an urban settlement established 5,000 years ago by the Caral civilization in the coastal desert of central Peru, is by many accounts an engineering marvel. With its complex architectural features, including monumental stone and earthen platform mounts and sunken circular courts, was designated a world heritage site by UNESCO in 2009.

The ancient city was the focal point for a gathering early this month of the International Union of Architects (known by its French acronym, UIA), whose members used the occasion to issue a document entitled the Caral Letter, which celebrates the city as an example of sustainable urban planning in harmony with the natural environment. According to UIA Adviser José Arispe, the ancient builders of Caral built flexible foundations to withstand earthquakes, maximized the availability of fertile land for agriculture by building on arid ground, and used innovative design techniques to supply air to fires used in religious ceremonies. These engineering feats are all the more impressive considering that they were accomplished without the tools builders have came to rely on, whether the wheel or the plum line.

The Caral Letter is to be formally presented at the upcoming UN climate conference in Paris.

Huaqueros, or the scourge of Peru's ancient grave sites

When it comes to the pillaging and loss of cultural heritage, the Middle East is currently top of mind given recent events in countries such as Syria, Iraq and Yemen. However, destruction and looting of historical sites remains a problem the world over, and especially in those places where the rule of law is more shaky.

One such country is Peru, which has an incredibly diverse historical legacy, ranging from the City of Cuzco,  to the lines and geoglyphs of Nasca. Yet it also suffers from corruption and endemic poverty among large segments of the population. Combined with the demand for pre-Columbian artefacts on the international market, these factors have created permissive conditions for the pillage of sites like this ancient cemetery near the Pan-American Highway south of Lima.

Looted ancient cemetery in coastal Peru

A stone's throw from the highway the desert sand was pockmarked with pits. Skulls, bones, rotting fabric and clay pots were strewn everywhere. Visiting the site, one could not but wonder what would drive someone to show such a lack of respect for the deceased, whether they died ten years ago or a thousand. Sadly, huaqueros - as those who specialize in looting forgotten graves or burial sites are known - continue to operate throughout Peru.

Machu Picchu's new twin

Twinning with a city or town in another country is a favourite way for municipal governments to try to promote themselves on the world stage, yet Otama in Fukushima Prefecture in Japan has done better than most by twinning with Machu Picchu, a world heritage site in Peru featuring the ruins of an 500-year old sanctuary high in the Peruvian Andes.

A testament to the longstanding history of Japanese immigration to Peru in the last century, authorities in Machu Picchu agreed to the twinning after turning down many other requests. According to the Japan Times, the arrangement is meant to honour Yokichi Nouchi (1895-1969), who was born in Otama and contributed substantially to tourism development in Machu Picchu after immigrating to Peru in the early 20th century. 

Congratulations to both parties in the twinning!