Do you mean to tell me that "Ancient Aliens" on the History Channel was incorrect?

;)

Odd how no "new light" has illuminated these lines drawn in the desert, contrary to the article title.

Either the aliens dun it or humans are not quite sane.

"""Using stratigraphic and taphonomic reasoning to decide which lines were contemporary, they discover an itinerary so complex they can justify calling it a labyrinth, and see it as serving ceremonial progressions."""
The word 'taphonomic' describes the study of the transitions of remains, parts, or products of organisms, from the biosphere to the lithosphere, i..e., the creation of fossil assemblages.

I do not see any relation of that definition to Nazca lines. Sure, it's archaeology, but how does 'fossils' become relevant in the lines, except for determining their age?

As seen from far above, the straight lines are perfectly straight and distances between them are evenly spaced. These drawings had to be done from above, not at ground level, imo. Laser beams?

troll alert

Nice, but that is likely as far as we will get without insight into the communities responsible.

@ Vendicar: Lots of new info in the article, likely more in the paper. Eg: These are not functional in part, but symbolical. And their purpose is not to be seen from far away but is tied to the creation process.

@ obama_socks: Meaningless to ponder how they applied taphonomic reasoning directly or indirectly without looking in the paper.

And their result rejects your idea that these things were seen from above. Today people make similar patterns in vegetation fields by using ropes. "Laser" - are you joking or are you a joke (or a troll, but I rather not consider that)?

Either the aliens dun it or humans are not quite sane.

Obviously humans are not quite sane.

One need only look at all the ancient cultures which practiced human sacrifice, both in the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East. Ancient Rome, not quite sane with it's gladiator pits and forced battle re-enactments.

Or what about modern man? Our culture is insane as well, paying circus clowns thousands of times more per year than people who have real jobs.

The images drawn in the soil are a mystery only to those who seek to be mystified.

VendicarD: The new light was this part: "They discovered a new design of labyrinthine complexity 'hidden' in the landscape. Invisible in its entirety to the naked eye, the only way of knowing its existence is to walk its 4.4km length through disorienting direction changes which ended (or began) inside a spiral formation. They studied the integrity of many lines and figures, and suggest that after 1,500 years, the often well-preserved contours of these features argue against crowds of people and their animals walking along them to the ancient pilgrimage centre of Cahuachi in the nearby Nazca Valley."

The different lines of different ages ~are~ the fossils, Obama Socks.

Laying out straight lines like that would be an easy task for almost any motivated Boy Scout or Girl Guide, using three long sticks, and some rope would allow them to lay out any parallel lines they want

I wouldn't correct obiewan the fake NASA technospeak engineer. It might make you look silly. She is completely familiar with all the permutations of many hypertech words like 'fossil'.

Perhaps particle beams would have been more de rigueur?

"The new light was this part:" - Richard

I must admit that that part was new to me as well. Never in my imagination would I have thought that anyone else would have thought that these thin lines drawn in the dirt were caused by crowds of people and their animals walking in a CLOSED path that traced out the shape or a bird on their way across the desert.

Perhaps the theorists who did think such things also thought that the entire lot of them would upon closing the end of the closed path, would magically jump from the end to the other side of the desert, leaving the place without footprints.

It could happen. I read about it on a ConservaTard Blog.

Or maybe the Dork brothers, Doug and Dave were there to use their rope, wooden planks and baseball caps just as they did for the hoaxy crop circles in England?
Oh wait, that would have to be their ancestors a few thousand years before who lived in Peru who did the Nazca lines.

:D

When it comes to religion. They are all dork brothers.

The really amazing thing about the Nazca lines is that some mountains were leveled flat in order to draw these lines...this alone would have taken a few hundred years...it would have been an enormous undertaking, similar to that of building the pyramids.
These lines could have been drawn from the ground...no mystery there, but can only be appreciated from high altitude.
Erich Von Daniken ideas may seem bizarre, but compared to what i have read in the Bible and Quran it makes a hell of lot more sense.

naaaah...Theghostofotto1923 aka Blotto will tell you that there's no such thing as flying saucers since he knows that for absolootly positootly for certain. Because as you know, the nose knows.

You know, I can say for certain that magic leprechauns don't exit, and they'll continue to NOT EXIST until PROVEN otherwise. Should my comment be mocked too? Cause the "nose knows"?

Maybe they were intended as markers for a structure that was never built.

"These drawings had to be done from above, not at ground level, imo. Laser beams?"

No, Trigonometry.

Nawangsari made an important point. It seems to me there is an important component overlooked here -- something to do with biophotonic emission. there are after all the Sudbury Hill and other monuments that make no sense unless you consider these have to do with 'recharging the Earth.'
The author site shows the entire diagram and the lines get closer together (something like how electromagnetic waves in the spectrum do) and end spiraling IN. Note that UV is 380 on the E/M specturm --can the reduction in the separation of the lines be compared the the reduction of the spectrum as it approaches 380?