The Palpa figures: were these images created before the Nasca lines?

The extraordinary lines and animal motifs populating the Nasca plateau in Peru are world-famous. Just to the north, though, a wealth of rather different images can be found in the environs of the modern city of Palpa. These compositions usually feature human figures or creatures, and are generally believed to be the handiwork of the Paracas culture, which lasted from c.800 BC to AD 1. If so, the Palpa figures were probably created before their celebrated neighbours, which are attributed to the Nasca culture, lasting from c.1 to 650 AD. The presence of these two distinct geoglyph styles provides an opportunity to compare and contrast creation techniques and image styles.

Between November 2017 and April 2018, we conducted extensive aerial surveys of the mountain slopes around the city of Palpa, to locate and document geoglyphs. This work was conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, in order to identify archaeological features and thus help to protect them. Our survey was partially funded by the National Geographic Society as a component of the GlobalXplorer’s programme, which aims to test findings by amateur archaeologists. As well as examining such sites, our surveys successfully discovered several new examples of Palpa figures.

Finding the Palpa figures

Fieldwork was conducted by a team of Peruvian archaeologists led by Luis Jaime Castillo, from the Catholic University in Lima, and by Johny Isla, from the Peruvian Ministry of Culture, and included Fabrizio Serván and Karla Patroni from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP). Examining this vast region of low mesas – flat-topped and steep-sided hills – and mountain slopes required subjecting it to systematic aerial survey for the first time. Drones were flown at low altitudes and took thousands of photos that were then processed through photogrammetry software. This approach created highly detailed and accurate 3D models and 2D orthophotos – that is, images presented at a uniform scale – of the slopes, which faithfully capture even the slightest crease in the surface. Just like the neighbouring Nasca region, Palpa’s climate is extremely arid. Indeed, it receives almost no rain, so modifications to the surface can remain visible for millennia. The creation of both the Palpa figures and the seemingly later Nasca lines relied on a common technique, which involved removing the dark-coloured stones that carpet the ground, to expose lighter soil underneath. Fortunately, altering the surface in this manner means that the handiwork of the people creating the Palpa figures can still be detected using both 2D images and 3D models.