Culture · Early Intermediate Period

Nazca

100 BCE–800 CE, South America — Andes

The Nazca people of the south coast of Peru, about 100 BCE to 800 CE, are known for the desert geoglyphs, the ceremonial centre of Cahuachi and polychrome pottery painted in up to a dozen slip colours. They also wove extraordinary textiles and constructed underground aqueducts still in use. Collectors hold polychrome bowls, double-spout-and-bridge bottles, effigy vessels, textile fragments and trophy-head vessels, with textiles and complete vessels most subject to restriction and forgery.

Dates	100 BCE–800 CE
Period	Early Intermediate Period
Region	South America — Andes
Areas	South Coast of Peru
Typical objects	Bowl, Vessel, Bottle
Typical materials	Terracotta

Identification

Nazca pottery is thin, slip-painted before firing in red, orange, cream, black, purple and grey, then burnished; designs show the Anthropomorphic Mythical Being, killer whales, birds, fruits and trophy heads. Double-spout bottles with a bridge handle are the signature form. Later phases become abstract and proliferous.

Legality

Nazca material is Peruvian national patrimony, export is prohibited and the CPIA agreement restricts import into the United States. Textiles and vessels with no documented pre-1997 history are treated as illicit by museums and most auction houses.

Reproductions and fakes

Nazca polychrome is faked with modern slips and often shows too-bright colours, glossy surfaces and painting after firing; genuine slip is matte and integral with the body. Textiles are forged by re-weaving ancient yarn or by painting modern cotton. Restoration of Nazca vessels is routine and should be disclosed.

Photographs

Nazca — Drum — Nasca, 100–400 CE — Drum — Nasca, 100–400 CE — The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Wielgus, 1964, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Open Access, CC0

Nazca — Head jar — Nasca, 100–500 CE — Head jar — Nasca, 100–500 CE — The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Jack Davis Neal, 1970, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Open Access, CC0

Elsewhere

met: 310563
Wikidata: Q210570
Wikipedia: Nazca culture

Cite this article

Stratum Study. "Nazca" (Culture). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21. https://stratum.black/study/cultures/nazca. Accessed 2026-09-21.

BibTeX · CSL-JSON

@misc{stratum-nazca,
  title        = {Nazca},
  author       = {{Stratum Study}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/cultures/nazca}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Culture article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21; sources: stratum, wikidata, commons, met. Accessed 2026-09-21.}
}

Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.

Identification

Legality

Reproductions and fakes

Photographs

Age

Materials

Collecting rules

Sites

Typical types

Elsewhere