On the southern Peruvian coast, the Nazca culture developed out of the early Paracas culture in the last centuries BC.
The uniform style and iconography (religious symbolism) of Nazca material from the Chincha river in the north to the Acari valley in the south, sometimes attributed to military conquest, more probably indicates the widespread popularity of a religious cult.
Their forebears, the Paracas people, represented mainly by cemeteries, are best known for the exquisite textiles in which their mummies were wrapped, although they also produced fine pottery. Pottery became more highly developed among the Nazca people. The motifs represented on both pottery and textiles have a strong ritual content including mythological animals and god figures, severed heads and fertility symbols, although naturalistic designs also occurred.
Many of the Paracas burials belonged to high status individuals, and it is likely that the Nazca also had a hierarchical society, perhaps a confederation of small kingdoms or chiefdoms.
By AD 600 the Nazca area had expanded north and south and into the mountains but seems to have fallen under the control or influence of the militaristic Huari, who may have been responsible for the development of Nazca's underground aqueducts.
