AVIAN SUBJECTS IDENTIFIED IN NAZCA GEOGLYPHS: PART ONE – THE HUMMINGBIRD.

Hummingbird geoglyph, Nazca, Peru.

Photo Masaki Eda, used with

permission.

A favorite pastime of rock art researchers has long been trying to identify animal or plant images portrayed in rock art as to species or breed. This can have productive results in learning the appearance and physical characteristics of extinct species, or in gaining information as to the range of animals or plants during certain prehistoric periods, or give insight into the technology and cultural practices of the peoples who created the images. Now, a paper by non-rock art specialists has provided the identities of some of the birds portrayed in the geoglyphs of the Nazca desert of Peru. Masaki Eda, a Zoo-archaeologist, and self-described Archeo-ornithologist, from the University of Hokkaido in Japan, and his colleagues have applied their knowledge to analyze details in some of the bird geoglyphs and identify these with some degree of certainty and the results are somewhat surprising.

Hummingbird geoglyph, Nazca, Peru.

Photo Masaki Eda, used with permission.

Contrast enhanced by Peter Faris. 

In their report in the Journal of Archaeological Science they said “in this study, we identified bird geoglyphs in Nasca and Pampas de Jumana by noting any recognizable morphological traits. We then categorized the geoglyphs from an ornithological perspective and compared the identified characteristics with those of modern birds in Peru. In addition, we compared our identification results with those of other studies.” (p. 2)

“20 bird geoglyphs comprise the largest number of all geoglyphs that depict plants and animals at the Nasca and Palpa pampas. These geoglyphs are mainly considered to have been created during the late Paracas and the Nasca Period (c. 2400 to 1300 years ago).” (p. 1) Some of the figures previously listed as bird figures were virtually unrecognizable, either too distorted, incomplete, or too damaged to classify, but the researchers attempted to identify 16 of them. 

Koepcke's hermit hummingbird, Peru.

neotropical.birds.cornell.edu,
Public Domain.

The most commonly identified birds at Nazca are the hummingbirds. The first bird listed by Masaki et. al. is one of them. Lumbreras (2000) listed two bird geoglyphs as hummingbirds. “The bird geoglyph “3a” (BG-3a; Fig. 3a) was listed as a hummingbird (Lumbreras 2000) Its bill is notably long (almost as long as the rest of the body) and relatively thin compared to the width of the head. Short legs extend from either side of the body trunk, and each foot has three toes. The tail (with an elongated middle section) is almost as long as the body trunk. In the geoglyph, the bill is extremely long, and appears to be depicted in an exaggerated way. While hummingbirds (Trochilidae) have long bills, long tails, and short legs, these traits are also found in hacamars (Galbulidae). The feet of hummingbirds are anisodactyl (i.e., three toes face forward, and one faces backward), while those of the jacamars are zygodactyls (i.e., two toes face forward and two face backward). We, therefore, consider that geoglyph BF-3a more closely resembles hummingbirds. The family Trochilidae consist of typical brightly-colored hummingbirds (Trochilinae) and dull-colored hermits (Phaethornithinae). In Peru, long and pointed tails only occur in hermits (Fig. 3d), whereas the tails of typical hummingbirds are forked or fanshaped. We, therefore, consider that geoglyph BG-3a depicts hermits.” (Masaki et. al. 2019:2)

If this identification is correct it leaves us with an interesting question to answer. Why, of all the varieties of hummingbird to be found in the same area as Phaethornithidae, would the ancient Nazcans  choose to portray the drab hermit instead of one of the brightly colored “flying jewels” that hummingbirds are usually considered to be? A question of the habitat that this bird is found in will be brought up in Part 2.


NOTE: One image in this posting was retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If this image is not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on this subject you should read the original reports listed below.

REFERENCES:

Lumbreras, L. G.,
2000 Contexto Arqueologico de las Lineas y Geoglifos de Nasca, UNESCO-INC.

Masaki Eda, Takeshi Yamasaki and Masato Sakai,
2019 Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, Identifying the Bird Figures of the Nasca Pampas: An Ornithological Perspective, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2019.101875