Nazca Redux

Cutting down a mythical tree, the people of Peru taunt history to repeat

Almost 2,000 years ago, in the green river valleys along the southern coast of Peru, the Nazca people thrived.

They are probably most known for creating impressive geoglyphs known as the Nazca Lines -- hundreds of individual images of fish, spiders, monkeys and other animals composed of shallow lines drawn in the ground, the largest of which is over 660 feet (200 meters) across.

But between 500 and 700 AD, the Nazca culture collapsed.

According to a new study led by Dr. David Beresford-Jones from the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at Cambridge University and the Museo Regional de Ica, one of the main reasons for their catastrophic demise was the deforestation of the huarango tree.

A giant species of mesquite tree common to the American Southwest, the huarango (Prosopis pallida) is prized for its ability to burn long as well as its teak-like durability. Its pods can be used to make flour, molasses and beer. Low and wide, it has been an important source of shade for people and animals over the centuries.

And it is very resilient. With roots that are longer than those of most other trees, the huarango can locate deep sources of groundwater. It also has the ability to capture water mist carried by the wind from the ocean. It can live for more than 1,000 years.

For the Nazca, the widespread clearing of this amazing tree led to flooding, erosion and desertification following an El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event, a periodic atmospheric and oceanic change in tropical Pacific region every three to eight years that creates weather disturbances around the world, the cause of which is not completely known.

"In the absence of huarango cover, when El Niño did strike, the river down-cut into its floodplain, Nasca irrigation systems were damaged and the area became unworkable for agriculture," according to the Cambridge University press release about the study.

Today, Peruvians may be tempting history to repeat. Villagers in the Ica region of southern Peru are threatening the survival of this ancient tree, cutting it down for firewood and charcoal, according to a recent New York Times story by Simon Romero.

"It takes centuries for the huarango to be of substantial size, and only a few hours to fell it with a chainsaw,” Mr. Beresford-Jones said in the New York Times article. "The tragedy is that this remnant is being chain-sawed by charcoal burners as we speak."

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image: Huarango tree (credit: PDH, Wikimedia Commons)