GIS-based visib~lity studies of the Nasca geoglyphs at Palpa, Peru

The Nasca lines or geoglyphs in southern Peru are known as one of archaeology's greatest mysteries. Since the 1980s, however, new approaches have helped to better understand their function and meaning. The recent photogrammetric recording of 1 500 geoglyphs in the vicinity ofPalpa enabled for the first time a GIS-based analysis. Geoglyph visibility is one of their most discussed traits. While modern observers tend to view the geoglyphs from the air, their creators viewed and perceived them from the ground. The Palpa dataset allowed us to quantify geoglyph visibility and intervisibility by applying viewshed analysis and the Kolmogorov-Smirnov goodness-of-fit test. This investigation has shed new light on the cultural role of the geoglyphs in ancient Nasca society. In this paper we present some recent results ofthe GIS-based analysis of the Palpa geoglyphs, which is still underway. Furthermore, we discuss some general methodological issues of GIS applications in archaeology.