Customer Reviews

Between the Lines: The Mystery of the Giant Ground Drawings of Ancient Nasca, Peru

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Materialist anthropologist and scholarly careerist, Aveni goes to some lengths to try to debunk and/or discredit previous theorists and supplant their ideas with his own compendium of possibilities for the lines: "water, walking, astronomy, kinship, divisions of labor and ceremonial responsibility, sweeping, radiality," and two or three more, including line and terrasculpture as ceremonial labyrinth. The author is so busy condescending to people like Maria Reiche, who spent her entire adult life on the pampa, that he contradicts himself. For example, while he early-on questions Reiche's position that the lines are the "biggest astronomy book in the world," after rambling for some chapters from his materialist point of view, he grandiosely posits, "The Nasca lines were written in the stars." Boil it all down and get rid of the professional jealousy and condescension and the unnecessary recounting of other "wonders fo the world" and "earth geometry," and you have some pretty good photos and graphics and an updated list of theories. One warning: Aveni devotes only one chapter to extended discussion of the animal figures; his primary focus is the lines, trapeziods, zigzags, etc.

I thought that the author did a superlative job as far as being comprehensive in regard to the various theories that have been advanced to explain the Nazca line enigma. The illustrations were excellent and, in most cases, the photography was the best available at the time of publication. Anthony F. Aveni also was very thorough in his integration of ideas from other sources such as pottery, textiles, and native customs.

If anything negative can be said of the work, it might be that the author has included too much between the covers. For example, it may not have been necessary for him to have devoted an entire chapter to other wonders of the ancient world which tends to tire the reader who, understandably, is more concerned with getting at the mystery at Nazca. At one point one tends to forget what the book is really all about. I realize that Mr. Aveni is wanting to give us a thorough presentation for comparison to the Nazca ground drawings and, thus, qualify them as the Eighth World Wonder from ancient times. He goes perhaps a bit too far in satisfying his own desires in this venture. He can, perhaps, be forgiven for his gallant attempt at providing an interesting 'filler'.

In conclusion, I would have to say that any serious student of the Nazca phenomenon would find Aveni's book invaluable. The book is an up-to-date work providing information on all previous theories by archeologists, anthropologists, astronomers and others, while at the same time mustering supporting evidence for the author's own arguments. While Aveni may not have solved the Nazca riddle, he has been successful in guiding the reader around previous pitfalls in thinking, and, at least, has shown what the Nazca lines are NOT.

I was a bit doubtful about this book - *another* book on Nasca lines? However, despite some rambling on about "wonders of the world", which I thought beside the point, it has some useful background information about the Nasca and Inca peoples.

What this book does is successfuly emphasise how little we actually know about Nasca and the Pampa. The lines were NOT ment to be seen from above in a plane but formed,in some now indescribable way, a central part of community and spirital life of these people for centuries.

I found this book wandered around all over the place on topics not related to the lines or Nasca people, but I found it useful to fill in background information on the people themselves (what litte of it exists) and that is what I was after. I now know that most of Andean archaeology is based on a large dose of guesswork.

The lines are approched by the author in context to their enviroment and the people who built them - a wise and long overdue assement in my view.

This book is worth it for the background information on the Nasca even if it dosen't offer any real "answers".

The Nasca Lines are one of the world's great enigmas. Who etched the more than 1,000 animal,human, and geometric figures that cover 400 square miles of barren pampa in southern Peru? How did the makers create lifelike images of monkeys, birds, and spiders without an aerial vantage point from which to view these giant figures that stretch across thousands of square yards? Most puzzling of all, why did the ancient Nasca lay out these lines and images in the desert? These are the questions that pioneering archaeoastronomer Anthony Aveni seeks to answer in this book.

Aveni, though he has done a good job on the Nasca lines, rambles on aimlessly "parading" his knowledge about South America generally! He should have stuck to the point viz. Nasca and give us his views on Incas and Aztecs in another book! It becomes a punishment to read those useless pages! This has been the common complaint of other reviewers also! If he wants to make a thick book, there are better ways to do this!