Chop-happy Nazca learned hard lesson

摘要

It was a case of shooting themselves in the root for the ancient Nazca people of Peru. A pollen study shows they may have brought about their own demise by cutting down trees that protected the land they lived on.rnA huge flood is generally blamed for the end of the Nazca culture, best known for creating giant line drawings in the plateaux of Peru. But a new study of pollen remains in the Ica river valley in southern Peru, where the civilisation thrived for 500 years until 500 AD, suggests otherwise. It still seems that the well-documented flood finished off the Nazca, but they might have survived if they hadn't cleared native huarango trees to make way for maize, cotton and beans.