{
  "author": "ChronologiaOS editorial guides",
  "date": "2026-10-09",
  "department": "Kingdoms & Monuments",
  "department_id": "KINGDOMS",
  "epistemic_label": "Source guide",
  "epistemic_status": "SOURCE_GUIDE",
  "period": "500 BCE \u2013 500 CE",
  "place": "Coastal plain of southern Peru",
  "public_sources": [
    {
      "publisher": "UNESCO World Heritage Centre",
      "title": "Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Palpa",
      "type": "Heritage site record",
      "url": "https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/700/"
    }
  ],
  "publication_state": "PUBLIC",
  "read_time": "3 min read",
  "sections": [
    {
      "body": "UNESCO lists the Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Palpa across about 75,000 hectares of arid coastal plain. It dates the figures to between 500 BCE and 500 CE, describes animals, plants, and geometric designs several kilometres long, and reports that they are believed to have had ritual and astronomical functions.",
      "heading": "Start with the geoglyphs",
      "source": 0
    },
    {
      "body": "The research record keeps function as an open dispute: what did distinct classes of geoglyphs do? It also notes that the date range does not imply one function or one production episode. Figures made across a thousand years by different communities can have different purposes.",
      "heading": "Belief is a labelled claim"
    },
    {
      "body": "Separate three questions: when were they made, how were they made, and what were they for. The first two have physical evidence; the third needs an argument that connects the figures to something else, such as water, routes, or the sky.",
      "heading": "Try the research habit"
    },
    {
      "body": "If you measured one line's alignment with a sunrise, what else would you need before calling the alignment intentional?",
      "heading": "A question to carry forward"
    }
  ],
  "short_title": "What were the geoglyphs for?",
  "slug": "nasca-lines-a-date-range-is-not-a-function",
  "summary": "The geoglyphs of Nasca and Palpa are dated to a thousand-year span. Learn why that range cannot by itself tell you what any one figure was made to do.",
  "tags": [
    "Nasca",
    "Geoglyphs",
    "Palpa",
    "Function",
    "Peru"
  ],
  "title": "The Nasca lines: a date range is not a function."
}