Thirty Years of Investigations in Nasca: From Proyecto Nasca to the ITACA Mission

The Nasca Project, which can be considered the longest-running archaeological mission in Peru, came into being in 1982. The project, sponsored by the Centro Italiano Studi e Ricerche Archeologiche Precolombiane (CISRAP) in Brescia, was conducted uninterruptedly in the Nasca area of the Ica region in Peru from 1982 to 2014, thanks to a bilateral agreement between the Permanent Director of the Mission, Giuseppe Orefici, and the Peruvian Ministerio de Cultura (formerly the Instituto Nacional de Cultura). It is part of the Peru-Italy Cultural Agreement, and is renewed periodically thanks to an agreement between the presidents of the two republics. The research program, still ongoing, is dedicated to archaeological excavations in various areas, as well as to the iconographic analysis of Nasca (culture) and the study of rock art. The first twenty years of research activity were devoted to the study of several archaeological sites, including San Jose, Pueblo Viejo, Cahuachi, Huayurí, Santa Clara, Atarco, Quemado, Usaka, Jumana, and Estaquería. Since 1984, the excavation of the ceremonial center of Cahuachi occupied much of the time spent on research, this being the world's largest ceremonial center built with adobe. Since 2002, in combination with artchaeological excavation, the Nasca Project began the rehabilitation and partial restoration of the monumental structures of Cahuachi, focusing on Zone A. The excavations in large areas has also enabled us to discover most of the existing buildings in the ceremonial center and the relationship between them. Since 2008, the research has been conducted in collaboration with the Mission ITACA of CNR, directed by Nicola Masini, that, with integrated investigations based on geophysics and remote sensing, has played a decisive role in for the management of excavation planning. In some cases, archaeo-geophysical research has enabled the discovery of several structures, tombs, and ritual offerings.