Reiche, Maria (1903-1998), was a German archaeologist and mathematician. She is known mainly for her research into the ancient ground etchings of the Nazca plateau in southern Peru. These etchings, called the Nazca lines, are enormous markings in the surface of the desert, some of which stretch for miles. Reiche, using a broom, uncovered many of the markings. Some of them represent animals, and others are geometric designs. Scientists disagree over why ancient people made the lines, whose exact age is unknown. Reiche supported the theory that they were an enormous astronomical calendar and that they had a religious significance. The profits from her book about the lines, Mystery of the Desert (also translated as Mystery of the Pampas, 1949), supported her research and efforts to protect the lines from destruction.
Maria Reiche was born on May 15, 1903, in Dresden, Germany. She studied geography and mathematics at the universities of Dresden and Hamburg and taught in German schools until 1932, when she moved to Peru. There, she began a career as a translator and language instructor at the University of San Marcos, Lima, where she first met archaeologists who were studying the Nazca lines. From 1946, she lived near the lines at Nazca, where she surveyed and studied them for the rest of her life. The Peruvian government awarded her the Order of the Sun, Peru’s highest civilian honor, in 1993. She died on June 8, 1998.
See also Nazca .
