A data model for a GIS-based analysis of the Nasca lines at Palpa (Peru)

Abstract

The famous Nasca lines and geoglyphs in the desert on the south coast of Peru are a constitutive part of the Nasca cultural landscape of the Early Intermediate Period (approx. 200 BC – AD 600). Vast desert zones, largely uninhabited and unused in other epochs, were marked and altered on a large scale according to the cultural concepts, needs and beliefs of the Nasca people. A study of the geoglyphs thus is expected to provide important insights into Nasca culture. Such an investigation requires a regional approach considering the geoglyphs and the landscape they are found in. Since 1997, in close cooperation between geodesists and archaeologists from Switzerland, Germany and Peru, a working scheme was devised and realized that allows for the first time the photogrammetric recording, 3D modeling, and GIS-based archaeological analysis of the geoglyphs of Palpa, in the northern part of the Nasca region, where more than 1 500 geoglyphs cover the ridges and plateaus of the desert. The characteristics and the amount of data obtained during our archaeological and photogrammetric work requires an efficient approach for data storage and analysis. As an important step on the way to a GIS, in this paper we present the central part of our data model, designed in the Unified Modeling Language (UML), that shows how we organize and integrate our geoglyph data following an object-oriented approach.