Wool and cotton embroidery, Nazca, 100-300 AD

from The Yale University Art Gallery

For #SharkAwarenessDay:

There are so many cool animal designs on Nazca ceramics - here are two polychrome vessels ringed with vertical sharks, on display at the Field Museum:

1. c. 100 BCE - 300 CE, Ica Region, Peru

2. c. 300 - 500 CE, Ica Region, Peru

Bowl Depicting a Swarm of Mice. Medium: ceramic and pigment Period: 180 BC - 500 AD. Culture: Nazca; South coast, Peru. Now on display at the Art Institute of Chicago. Illustration by Elena Izcue (1889-1970).

Everyone likes Nazca's fluffy & soft fur

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References

Them. They be on the mind

Archaeologists discovered 168 geoglyphs near the arid Nazca plain in Southern Peru. The new findings, which encompass images of humans, birds, snakes, cats, and killer whales, date between 100 BCE and 300 CE, when the pre-Incan Nazca civilization lived in the region. The discovery adds to nearly 1,000 straight lines and hundreds of figurative drawings that have so far been identified as part of the vast Nazca lines.

Professor Masato Sakai of Yamagata University in Japan and Peruvian archaeologist Jorge Olano led the recent survey. The team used aerial photographs, some captured by drones, to decipher the figures. Most of the newly discovered figures are relatively small — less than 32 feet wide — and many were drawn on hillsides.

Elaine Velie reports.

Nazca (oc by @pja-party)

A pair of gold birds, Nazca, 150-300 AD

from Dumbarton Oaks

I was just in Detroit, for reasons, and stopped in at their Detroit Institute of Arts

and now I have to compose an email to the curation team

because I believe that they are Wrong about this pot:

The display label said “Bowl Painted with Children Spinning Yarn, about 400, Ceramic, Unknown artist, Nasca culture, Peru.” (The collection label is “Bowl Decorated with Men Spinning, between 200 BCE and 200 CE, Nazca, Precolumbian” which is a weird discrepancy but not the point)

The point is, this simply isn’t what spinning looks like. I don’t think anyone in human history has attempted to make yarn this way. It is certainly not how the Nasca bead spindle or the modern Southern Quechua pushka are used.

I’m fairly certain that they are actually holding slings, slingshots. Virtually unchanged from the Nasca culture to the modern Southern Quechua, with a tassel at one end and a slit pouch.

@tlatollotl care to give me a vibe check? before I compulsively pester an institution?

[24/02/2024]

Okay hear me out. If your main mechanic for telegraphing attacks is a red light on the floor, you can't give me a grate floor >:( (<-salty bc they're bad at the game)

Shell inlaid with a kitty, Nazca culture, Peru, 1st century BC - 7th century AD

from The Cleveland Museum of Art

168 New Geoglyphs Discovered in Peru !

Archaeologists discovered 168 geoglyphs near the arid Nazca plain in Southern Peru. The new findings, which encompass images of humans, birds, snakes, cats, and killer whales, date between 100 BCE and 300 CE, when the pre-Incan Nazca civilization lived in the region. The discovery adds to nearly 1,000 straight lines and hundreds of figurative drawings that have so far been identified as part of the vast Nazca lines.

The Nazca people created the works by removing the earth’s top layer of black stone to reveal the white sand below, and although the exact function of the lines is unknown, they are thought to have served a ritualistic purpose in relation to astrology.

Professor Masato Sakai of Yamagata Unviversity in Japan and Peruvian archaeologist Jorge Olano led the recent survey The team used aerial photographs, some captured by drones, to decipher the figures. Most of the newly discovered figures are relatively small — less than 32 feet wide — and many were drawn on hillsides.

Yamagata University began surveying the Nazca lines in 2004. The university last announced new findings in 2019, and so far, Yamagata University has identified a total of 358 previously unknown geoglyphs.

The 290-square-mile protected region that contains most of the Nazca lines is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Most of the works remain in good condition, although the 1937 construction of the Pan-American highway cut through some, and the ancient lines have sustained isolated damage in the past decade. In 2014, Greenpeace activists staged a protest that damaged the geoglyphs, and in 2018, a truck driver drove through the area and cut through three of the drawings. Sakai warned that mining initiatives could threaten the Nazca lines, and the university stated that it plans to use artificial intelligence to establish the lines’ distribution patterns, which will be used to further conservation efforts.

Words by Elaine Velie / Courtesy of Hyperallergic

About the previous comic…

Chalice* somewhere, totally not spying on her cousin & his crush *:

"It WAS FoR U, Utena! Goddamn it!"

Been obsessing over Nazca art lately so I've done some studies of the most commonly occurring critters. Thinking of getting some tattooed.

Look at this delightful pottery! LOOK!

Lobster Effigy Vessel

ceramic - Nazca culture - South Coast, Peru -  c.300-600 CE