The Ancient Nasca World New Insights from Science and Archaeology

Ancient Nasca world. New insights from science and archeology" collects the innovative results of the Italian research in Peru carried out by the archaeological mission Proyecto Nasca, directed by Giuseppe Orefici, and the Italian Mission of heritage Conservation and Archaeo-Geophysics in Peru (ITACA) directed by Nicola Masini of CNR, present in Nasca since 1982 and 2007, respectively. The volume edited by Rosa Lasaponara, Nicola Masini and Giuseppe Orefici is the original result of the synergy between two realities of Italian research and the dialogue between different disciplines, such as archeology, anthropology, remote sensing, geophysics and diagnostics, in order to respond to the numerous questions posed by the history of the human being in relation to the environment and to the witnesses that has left in legacy that we recognize as cultural heritage. It seems that the Nasca civilization with its mysteries and questions that always poses to scholars from different countries all over the world is the ideal ground for interdisciplinary research and to create a bridge between humanities and scientific disciplines Archeology and science, also through digital technologies, are increasingly connected between them in order to know, interpret and actualize the contribution of the different civilizations and to raise awareness of our origins as well as to develop a vision of the future by learning from the past Nasca and the Ceremonial Centre of Cahuachi are two emblematic case studies which help us to understand how the man has been able to exploit with intelligence and an intimate and mystic relation with the nature the few resources that the environment and the climate of one of the most arid places in the world, the Atacama desert, granted him. The great pyramids of Cahuachi, built by exploiting the hills of the Nasca drainage, marked by floods, and the intelligent filtration systems to retrieve subterranean water are only some of the most significant examples of this ability that the Nasca have had to adapt to desert environment. In this way they created oasis where agriculture flourished, built villages, erected pyramids and drew geoglyphs in order to celebrate their intimate relationship with the gods and to express a vision of the world that the authors of the chapters of this volume have been able to outline in the various artistic expressions (architecture, ceramics, music, textile) and with the most innovative methods of scientific analysis.