A Sacred LandscapeThe Search for Ancient Peru - Softcover

Thomson, Hugh

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1590200586 ISBN 13: 9781590200582

Publisher: Overlook Books, 2008

Synopsis

A follow-up to The White Rock brings readers to remote sites in the central highlands of ancient Incan Peru to trace the rise and fall of pre-Inca civilization through the story of the author's family's relocation to a Yucay valley farm. Reprint.

About this title

About the Author:

Hugh Thomson traveled extensively in Latin America before becoming a filmmaker. He has since directed many documentaries, including the Out of India series and Great Journeys: Mexico and has led filming expeditions to Mexico and the Himalayas. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and lives in Bristol.

From Booklist:

After traveling across Peru for more than two decades, writer and documentary filmmaker Thomson (The White Rock, 2003) began discerning unexpected connections between distant monumental ruins. An amiable and erudite guide, he provides a clarifying overview of Andean scholarship much as Wade Davis did for the Amazon in One River (1996), along with vivid descriptions of astronomically oriented buildings and powerful artworks, some sexually explicit, others grotesque depictions of human sacrifice. Always looking to the landscape for clues, Thomson theorizes that these bloody rites were aimed at deflecting natural disasters, especially a lack of freshwater and radical climate change, predicaments sadly relevant to our time. His feet-on-the-ground approach and alertness to the significance of textiles and pilgrim routes in decoding the purpose of ancient constructions also yield a fresh take on the famous geoglyphs of Nasca, the immense line drawings of birds and animals viewable only from the air. Anecdotal and instructive as he weaves together lively profiles, tales from arduous explorations, and carefully weighted insights, Thomson creates an encompassing vision of the complex cosmologies of pre-Columbian Andean civilizations. Seaman, Donna

About this edition

• Publisher: Overlook Books
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1590200586
• ISBN 13: 9781590200582
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416