This page groups sacred sites by whether their sacred status is still actively maintained. Wikipedia notes that Mircea Eliade "argues that while the concept of a sacred space is often associated with religious traditions, it is not exclusive to them," since secular societies can keep treating a place as significant too. Browsing this way lets a visitor tell a site with living religious observance apart from one preserved mainly for its history.
Facts
Overview
What Defines This GroupingGeoglyphs of the southern Peruvian coast: lines, trapezoids and animal figures made by clearing the dark desert surface to expose the paler ground beneath. They appear to have been made to be walked and to be bound up with water and its sources; their purpose is inferred from their form, their siting and the pottery smashed on them, not from any text. 2 Contested Use
Contested or Appropriated Modern UseThe claim that the lines were made for or by visitors from space, popularised from 1968, has no archaeological standing and was answered in detail by the excavators. The atlas records it as a modern claim made about the site, and keeps it separate from what the archaeology supports. 2 Attestation
Era of AttestationThe geoglyphs are dated by the ceramics deposited on them and by excavation of the lines themselves to roughly the last centuries BCE through the seventh century CE, with some figures earlier than the main group and some later. 2 Learn More
Sacred Sites of the Nazca
This small group gathers a sacred site of the Nazca culture of the southern coast of ancient Peru, known above all for the vast geoglyphs, the Nazca Lines, traced across the desert, whose ritual or astronomical purpose is still debated.
The browser will find the site the atlas classes here. The entry describes what is known of its significance, distinguishing archaeological understanding from popular speculation.
Ruin or archaeological site; the cult has ceased
Filter Results1 entry
Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
2. The Nasca
Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
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