# Is this Nazca cat a hoax?



## Hugh (Oct 19, 2020)

You've probably seen the news of this new Nazca Lines discovery:







I just find it hard to believe.









						Huge cat found etched into desert among Nazca Lines in Peru
					

Feline geoglyph from 200-100BC emerges during work at Unesco world heritage site




					www.theguardian.com
				




but all the news stories seem to be accepting it as genuine.


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## Alex The G and T (Oct 19, 2020)

Hmmm.  The style does look more like Felix the Cat, or My little Kitty, than the style of its ancient neighbors.

And it's tiny compared to the others.


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## CupofJoe (Oct 19, 2020)

Some of the other newly discovered earlier made shapes and lines are far less descriptive and more abstract. I'd be more concerned about the amount of "interpretation" when on during the "restoration". The "air quotes" may be a bit much, but humans are great at working out patterns from random noise.


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## Hugh (Oct 20, 2020)

CupofJoe said:


> . I'd be more concerned about the amount of "interpretation" when on during the "restoration".



This may be the issue...


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## Montero (Oct 20, 2020)

It's the face I find unbelievable - looks a bit modern and smiley. Body is plausible (ish).


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## Hugh (Oct 20, 2020)

It’s as if a crop circle hoaxer has had a go at the Nazca.


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## Dragonlady (Oct 20, 2020)

if you search 'paracas cat' they did have some pretty groovy cat art


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## Pyan (Oct 20, 2020)

If it’s just been found , why does the path and railings (which don’t look at all new) carefully avoid the area where it was ‘discovered’?


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## Parson (Oct 21, 2020)

It's probably legit. Here's an article from the New York Times.

2000 year old cat

There are many other such things in the area and it has been a UNESCO world heritage site for a while now. The Photo was just released by the Mexican government.


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## paranoid marvin (Oct 25, 2020)

I must admit that as soon as I saw it I immediately raised an eyebrow. Having said that, they surely wouldn't claim a drawing like that to be genuine unless they were 100% certain.


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## BAYLOR (Oct 25, 2020)

Were it real , it would have documented long ago.


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## Ursa major (Oct 25, 2020)

It looks more like the efforts of one of those picture "restorers" they seem to have in Spain (much to Spain's regret...).


Was one of them in the area on holiday?


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## RJM Corbet (Oct 28, 2020)

A cat is actually quite a difficult thing to draw and imo the artist has pretty much got it down -- the main essentials of a cat?


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## CupofJoe (Oct 28, 2020)

BAYLOR said:


> Were it real , it would have documented long ago.


I'm not so sure. You are looking for a brownish grey that is slightly different from another brownish grey, in a location where the lines aren't usually seen and in styles that are unusual. Apparently they have found many of these new shapes, or the remaining fragments of them, with the use of drones where they can overfly an area at different times of the day and in several different directions to try and pick out the features.


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## RJM Corbet (Oct 28, 2020)

What if it IS a cat? What would be the great significance?


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## paranoid marvin (Oct 28, 2020)

I'm guessing that there has to be a little guesswork involved? Join the dots, interpret the configuration of the lines and hey presto... a cat. As I said earlier it looks a bit _too_ fake to _be _a fake if you know what I mean.


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## paranoid marvin (Oct 28, 2020)

RJM Corbet said:


> What if it IS a cat? What would be the great significance?




I love my cats. In fact I love all the cats I've ever owned (or who have allowed me to serve them). I have photos to remind me, perhaps someone etched an enormous picture on the side of the hill in his back garden 2000 years ago to remind him?


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## wtw1947 (Nov 28, 2020)

Domestic cats did not exist in the Americas before the arrival of Europeans Tt o the pot at the Met looks nothing like this and I likely a jaguar motif  tsimilar o that used by other cultures. Good luck getting a cute jaguar or ocelot kitty to sit still for a portrait.


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## wtw1947 (Nov 29, 2020)

Forgot to mention that the so-called stripes on the tail are actually a genuine motif that can be found on petroglyphs as far away as here in Pennsylvania. Thought to be anything from a bird wing to the fingers of a hand.


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## Danny McG (Nov 29, 2020)

Hugh said:


> It’s as if a crop circle hoaxer has had a go at the Nazca.


What?
Some of those are faked?


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## Matchu (Nov 29, 2020)

_I did my research, and it does appear thoroughly authentic.  [Nice cat though, and some books.]  As for day-tripping, that is one most dispiriting slog up a lump of desert. Divorce-worthy.  Those poor walkers._

As an archaeologist, and expert on Peruvian pre-Mayan/post Martian cultures, one disregards the layman's cartoon perceptions.  Furrowing the brow we place human sacrifice upon those cat's eyes, a babbling priest eating heart, and the flaming pyre of natives surround the ears, some wearing hats, anything deemed culturally appropriate, and scientifically/anthropologicallyally rigorous.


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## wtw1947 (Nov 29, 2020)

OK, I looked up pampas cats. Very interesting. I had never heard of them. Makes the design more plausible, so I will reserve judgement.


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## BAYLOR (Nov 29, 2020)

Danny McG said:


> What?
> Some of those are faked?



Why is the cat wearing contact lenses  ?


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## BAYLOR (Nov 29, 2020)

Hugh said:


> You've probably seen the news of this new Nazca Lines discovery:
> 
> 
> View attachment 71005
> ...



It looks like Officer Barbrady on South Park, as a cat.


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