European study says Indigenous civilization Nazca created desert causing its own fall: report has mistakes but leaves important message for Peruvians

A controversial report by European scholars published today, says that the Nazca people, an Indigenous civilization of today's Peru, caused its own destruction by cutting the few huarango trees forests.

Though this study is not completely correct, but it leaves an important message for Peruvians today, especially those living in Lima.

Indigenous Nazca city of Cahuachi. By Kim MacQuarrie

London paper The Guardian says today:

The ancient Nazca civilisation of Peru, made famous by the giant geoglyphs it left etched in the soil, partly triggered its own downfall by chopping down forests and creating a desert, according to researchers.

The society vanished 1,500 years ago after flourishing for centuries, during which it made sophisticated arts and crafts as well as the famous Nazca lines. A study published today suggests its collapse was caused by the clearing of huarango trees, which had maintained an ecological balance in that corner of South America.

The Nazca wanted land for corn and other crops and did not realize the forests were crucial to soil fertility and moisture, said the Cambridge University-led report. "In time, gradual woodland clearance crossed an ecological threshold – sharply defined in such desert environments – exposing the landscape to the region's extraordinary desert winds and the effects of El Niño floods," said David Beresford-Jones, from the McDonald institute for archaeological research at Cambridge University.

Another author of the mentioned study tells Los Angeles Times that Peru of today should learn from what apparently happened to the Nazca peoples:

"They died out because they destroyed their natural ecosystem," said archaeologist Alex J. Chepstow-Lusty of the French Institute of Andean Studies in Lima, coauthor of a paper in the current issue of Latin American Antiquity. "As the population expanded, they put in too many fields and didn't protect the landscape. The El Niño wiped away society."

Chepstow-Lusty says modern Peru can learn from the research. The exploitation of oil, gas and gold resources is leading to widespread deforestation along rivers, which will reduce the region's already fragile water supply, he said. The last few huarango groves on the southern coast are being cleared for illegal charcoal production.

These are interesting and truthful conclusions, but I can't help it but to think about some mistakes this study seems to have.

This report creates doubts behind its truth

Although the study wrote by Europeans have a positive message for Peruvians today, in the sense that development or the so called progress shouldn't be done with the destruction of the environment. Especially now that Andean glaciers are to dissappear by 2015, affecting all urban areas of the coastal region of Peru, especially its huge capital Lima.

But also this study creates some doubts, when it implies that the Nazca people created a desert which is not true. The region has been a desert for centuries before the Nazca state was created around the IV century, but it had small valleys and small huarango forests -called algarrobo in northern Peru. These small valleys were created by water coming from the Andes, which the Nazca took advantage by building hydraulic channels.

Also the report wrongly states, according to The Guardian:

The findings contrast with the stereotype that Native Americans lived in harmony with nature until the voracious European conquest, and follows reports that other ancient cultures suffered similar fates: the Maya of central America abandoned their cities and pyramids after over-intensive use of water and land, while the tribes who erected giant stone statues on Easter Island all but died out after clearing too many trees.

Usually European scholars and historians manipulate human history to their convenience. The European invasion was not a conquest, but a process of assimilation and invasion, with few military battles and a vast campaign of indoctrination.

Until recent decades, the Europeans said the Nazca lines and the citadel of Machu Picchu were built by extraterrestrial aliens. German scholar Maria Reich spent many years in Nazca studying the lines unsuccessfully -that we know of- and she died poor and almost forgotten. Since is hard to explain how the Indigenous peoples could achieve knowledge the European never learned, they say our people dissapeared, vanished:

The mysterious people who etched the "Nasca Lines" across deserts in Peru hastened their own demise by clearing forests 1,500 years ago, [...] "The mistakes of pre-history offer us important lessons for our management of fragile, arid areas in the present," said co-author Oliver Whaley of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

The British scholars present the Nazca as a very ignorant people when it comes to the environment, but this may not be true, as they knew very well their land and even had advanced skills in astronomy.

Nazca lines in map by Maria Reich. Click to enlarge

How could be possible for the Nazca to destroy the few forests they had, when they were a very religious society that respected our mother land? They even worshiped the land, winds, water, and all nature elements. They believed in life after death -mummies and sacrifices- and had high knowledge of astronomy -the lines- and hydraulic engineering.

The Nazca built an extensive network of irrigation channels to use the scarce water resources. Even today, thousands live in the region, growing goods among the small valleys. The destruction of forests as a cause for environmental destruction is well known by any reasonable society, the Nazca included.

The European scholars who wrote this report, can't understand the idea that the Native peoples of Nazca didn't disappear. They migrated and assimilated to other civilizations. Their textile techniques were continued by the Wari people, in the central Andes for instance. They could have joined also the Chimor, by their own will or by force.

This report gives as an important conclusion, is a message for Peruvians today -especially the people of Lima. We have to remember that water resources will be shorten as the Andean glaciers will disappear by 2015. This can cause famine and chaos in a consumerist city like Lima, with its 8 million people.

Peruvians have to work to protect their water resources, and also to study and rewrite our true Native history, and learn from the past, the good and the not so good.


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