干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Peru is worldwide known due to UNECSO world heritage like Cuzco, Machu Picchu or Nasca desert lines. However, other areas are unknown for many people and cannot be saved on national level due lack of finance. Many valuable historical areas were destroyed in the past by climatic events; many were destroyed during last five centuries by man. Near well-known city of Nasca, there is an archaeological site Cahuachi, which was a ceremonial centre of the Nasca culture. This culture is often joined with famous Nasca lines, whose origin and reason are still unknown. There is much evidence that indicates that the Nasca Lines were created by people from Cahuachi; it is supported by a number of found artefacts but the origin and purpose of all Nasca Lines are still not explained satisfactory (mainly figural geoglyphs or trapezoids). The archaeological survey [10] shows that this important centre was at least three times damaged by El-Nino; last catastrophic flooding around 350 AC meant the end of this big ceremonial centre. The complete fall of Nasca civilization was around 750AC. This was apparently due to El Niflo effect which triggered destructive flooding. Excavation shows many pieces of evidence of this catastrophe. German -Czech expedition in 2004, 2008, 2010 and 2012 investigated and documented some parts of Peruvian history; original maps using terrestrial and aerial photogrammetry, GNSS measurements and very high resolution satellite images have been created. Field work was focused on dating of some parts near Nasca city; project outputs will be described in this paper.