[troutman]

I met Maria Reiche when I visited the Naza lines in 1994. She would have been 91 then.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Reiche

Around 1946, Reiche began to map the figures represented by the Nazca Lines and determined there were 18 different kinds of animals and birds. After Kosok left in 1948, she continued the work and mapped the area. She used her background as a mathematician to analyze how the Nazca may have created such huge-scale figures. She found these to have a mathematical precision that was highly sophisticated.[1] Reiche theorized that the builders of the lines used them as a sun calendar and an observatory for astronomical cycles.

Because the lines can be best seen from above, she persuaded the Peruvian Air Force to help her make aerial photographic surveys. She worked alone from her home in Nazca. Reiche published her theories in the book The Mystery on the Desert (1949, reprint 1968), which had a mixed response from scholars. Eventually scholars concluded that the lines were not chiefly for astronomical purposes, but Reiche's and Kosok's work had brought scholarly attention to the great resource. It is widely believed that they were used as part of worship and religious ceremonies related to the "calling of water from the gods."[2]


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazca_Lines#Purpose


Determining how they were made has been easier than figuring why they were made. Scholars have theorized the Nazca people could have used simple tools and surveying equipment to construct the lines. Archaeological surveys have found wooden stakes in the ground at the end of some lines, which support this theory. One such stake was carbon-dated and was the basis for establishing the age of the design complex. Prominent skeptic Joe Nickell, refuting the "ancient astronaut" hypothosis of Erich von Däniken, has reproduced the figures using tools and technology available to the Nazca people. Scientific American called his work "remarkable in its exactness" when compared to the actual lines.[14] With careful planning and simple technologies, a small team of people could recreate even the largest figures within days, without any aerial assistance.[13]