Nasca Geoglyphs Chinampas and Pochteca

Pochteca, Chinampas and Nasca Geoglyphs

Since the Spanish discovered and conquered Mexico, the Aztec culture has piqued people's interest. The Aztecs founded Tenochtitlan in approximately 1325 A.D (Price & Feinman,361). However, the island lacked basic building supplies, was prone to floods, and was overrun with bugs. The island ran out of space and was forced to relocate to the lake areas to meet the city's agricultural demands. The Aztecs created chinampas, or floating gardens, by draining standing water and elevating the swamp's surface with soil and vegetation mats, which formed the farm plots (Price & Feinman, 361). Water and the residences of the owners separate the chinampas. For the Aztecs, they became a key source of food production.

The Aztecs used long-distance trade, market trading, and tribute to exchange products and services. They supplied luxurious and exotic things to the city-states. They also served as Aztech empire intelligence operatives, closely monitoring their much further client nations and wary neighbors. The Pochteca carried out long-distance trade between the Aztech heartland and remote locations, a privileged, historical organization of long-distance traders (Price & Feinman, 364).

Around 200 B.C., the Nazca style evolved from the previous Paracas art on Peru's south coast (Price& Feinman,392). The Nazca geoglyphs were created about 1000 years ago to eliminate dark stone pieces from the desert environment to uncover a speck of light-colored subsurface dirt and create lines, geometrical designs, and various figures. The geometric shapes are predominantly triangles and trapezoids, and they are found in the desert between the Ingenio and Nazca River basins, covering several hundred square kilometers (Price& Feinman,392). Living creatures, stylized vegetation, and fictional beings are depicted in the geoglyphs. The Nazca geoglyphs, which were related to water and fertility ceremonies, were part of a ceremony for the gods. According to Markus Reindel, the Nazca people wandered through the desert, leaving little offerings in specific spots.