american-holocaust

42 AMERICAN HOLOCAUSThigh and so remote that once Machu Picchu was deserted it was not foundagain (at least by non-Indians) until the twentieth century. And then therewere and are the Nazca people, whose culture was flourishing 2000 yearsago. These are the people who created on the barren desert floor south ofpresent-day Lima enormous etchings of various living things-hummingbirds,condors, dogs, plants, spiders, sharks, whales, and monkeys-as wellas spiritual figures, domestic designs (such as a huge ball of yarn and aneedle), and precisely aligned geometric patterns, including trapezoids, triangles,zigzags, and spirals. Because of their great size (a single line of ageometric figure may run straight as a ruler for more than half a mile) thefull patterns of these perfectly drafted images can only be seen from theair or from very high ground. As a result, outlandish modern theories oforigin have circulated widely, betraying once again our unthinking disparagementof the native peoples of this region who, it intuitively is thought,could not possibly have created anything so monumental and precise. Interestingly(and conveniently overlooked by those who believe these greatprojects to be the work of outsiders), many of the same designs from thedesert floor are found decorating ancient Nazca ceramics as well, and additionaloversize animal representations and other designs, less famous andsmaller in scale, have also been found in North American deserts, 3000miles away. 68Compared with Mesoamerican cities, those of the Incas were almostaustere. Even the fabulous city of Cuzco at first seemed most brilliant inits superb surface simplicity, its streets laid out on a cruciform plan, itshouses mostly single-story affairs with steeply pitched roofs to fend off theheavy rains of the Andes. Apart from its gold, the first Europeans weremost impressed with Cuzco's exceptional cleanliness, perhaps exemplifiedby the dear-water rivers and streams from the mountains that flowedthrough the center of the Inca capital. Before entering the city these waters'upstream pools and rivulets provided bathing and recreation for Cuzco'sinhabitants; for years after the Spanish conquest, wrote one conquistador,it was common to find there "small gold ornaments or pins which [Incawomen] forgot or dropped while bathing." 69 As the waters ran throughCuzco, however, they were captured and diverted into perfectly engineeredstone gutters that followed the routes of the city's many streets, helping towash away debris and keep the roadways clean.At the center of Cuzco was an enormous plaza, large enough to accommodate100,000 people wrote the Spanish friar Martin de Murua, andhere any sense of the city's austerity ended. When the pleasure-loving peopleof this metropolis held their frequent dances and festivals in the square,it was roped off with a fine cable of gold, immensely long and fringed atboth ends with bright red wool. Around the ceremonial square stood Cuzco'spalaces, each built by an Inca ruler during his reign. Here lay the deadleaders' mummified remains, along with all their furniture and treasures.