 21 Apr 2006 @ 20:29, by Roni Gemma
Ancient Geoglyphs
Geoglyphs are classified as rock art, which also includes pictographs and petroglyphs. Pictographs are rock paintings while petroglyphs are rock engravings. Cave paintings, drawings, petroglyphs, geoglyphs, hieroglyphs and more have been used all over the world for centuries.
Created by the ancients and left for us to explore and ponder, these symbols held great meaning for those civilizations who created them. Some, like the Egyptian Hieroglyphs, we know to be the cultures written language. Others, like cave drawings, express the daily lives or held religious significance for their designers. There are many however that offers more questions and possible answers then one mind can conceive. Among these are the great Geoglyphs found in locations around the globe.
In South America, the lines at Nazca are of the most famous geoglyphs, but they are hardly the only ones. South of Nazca, about 850 miles, is perhaps the world's largest human figure, etched into the side of Solitary Mountain. The Giant of Atacama at Cerro Unitas, in Chile, about 600 miles south of Nazca, is an incredible 393 feet high and is surrounded by lines similar to those at Nazca. Just 130 miles from Nazca, dug into a sloping hill at Pisco Bay on the Peruvian coast. This drawing looks very much like a candlestick - which gives it the name of "The Candelabra of the Andes". There has been much speculation about the purpose of the 595-foot high candelabra, but no definitive answer. It is constructed in a different manner to the Nazca lines, using trenches up to one meter in depth, and is best viewed from out at sea. It can be seen from as far away as 12 miles. Pottery found near the figure has been carbon dated to 200 BC. Interestingly enough, the Incan city of Cuzco was created in the shape of a puma. Its inhabitants were known as "members of the body of the puma".
In North America along the Colorado River from Nevada to the Gulf of California are more than 200 huge figures. One such figure is 176 feet in length. Over 600 geoglyphs have been discovered in the southwest United States and nearby areas of Mexico. The first to be discovered was the giant near Blythe, California by a pilot in 1923. Like the Nazca figures, the Blythe effigies are large and give the impression they were designed to be viewed from the air. Also in common with the Nazca figures, clearing away the surface gravel to expose the lighter-colored soil formed the geoglyphs. Although they are thought to date from a much later period (Setzler 1952), none of the Blythe figures match the size of the largest Nazca drawings. Also the human figures and horse like creatures are much cruder in form, typically having solid-area bodies and sticklike appendages, somewhat similar to some of the Chilean effigies. At China Lake, California, a great star burst can be found and the giant of Paradise Valley in Southwestern Montana that is around 1,287 ft. long with an arm span of about 330 ft! We can also move to Ohio and the Great Serpent Mound. Found just north of Quartzite, Arizona, is the Bouse Fisherman:
The English geoglyphs, like the White Horse of Uffington, England, are mostly chalk figures. In Oxfordshire, England, a layer of soil and mossy vegetation was chipped away in the shape of a 360-foot-long horse to reveal the white, underlying chalk. These require constant maintenance to stop them disappearing back beneath grass and soil. This lack of durability means that many others are bound to have disappeared centuries ago. Who knows how many have been lost to us through the years?
Why were these designed? It would seem logical that these ancient civilizations had much more to be concerned with then giant works of art. Were they messages to their Gods? Possible since most appear to be best viewed from the sky or at great distances. Were they a remembrance of ancient times before them when flight was possible? Around the world there are references of great-lost knowledge and a powerful civilization, ancient even to those we now consider ancient. Atlantis perhaps? Is there a connection binding them we have yet to understand?
New thought is finally emerging in the study of sacred, ancient mysteries and the way these stories appear to be repeating themselves. With thousands of amateur and professional archaeologists sharing discoveries online, similarities are being discovered in some Native American rock-art symbolism and that found in other parts of the world. This means ancient people from other cultures could have migrated here thousands of years ago (or vice versa).
Most interesting are those experts who find geoglyphs interpretation that parallels myth and legend found in all of humanity. This suggest that all cultures on earth had origin from a common influence or had contact long before currently believed.
In this section we will take a closer look at some of the remarkable geoglyphs, the regions around them and explore the many possibilities. Open your minds to old thinking, new ideas and what we have yet to even imagine.
Other articles in this series:
The
Giant Candelabra of the Andes
Atacama
Geoglyphs
SW
Desert Geoglyphs of North America
Nazca
Lines
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