Randy Olson, Melissa Farlow Photography

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  • Mysterious Nazca lines form animal and geometric figures seen from the air.  A hummingbird shape as well as perfect geometric designs like triangles, rectangles and straight lines run for several kilometers across the desert. The desert floor is covered in a layer of iron oxide-coated pebbles of a deep rust color. Anthropologists believe the Nazca culture that created them began around 100 B.C. and flourished from A.D. 1 to 700. The ancient peoples created their designs by removing the top 12 to 15 inches of rock, revealing the lighter-colored sand below.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187620.jpg
  • Three tourists walk toward the staircase that leads to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun and Moon at Teotihuacán Aztec site. Teotihuacán was Mexico's biggest ancient city, pre-Columbian and pre-Hispanic empire with perhaps 200,000 people at its peak. <br />
Centuries after its fall, it was still a pilgrimage site for Aztec royalty who believed the gods had sacrificed themselves here to start the sun moving. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the most visited archeological site in Mexico.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187470.jpg
  • A tourist walk on top of a worn pyramid above a tomb and archeological site.<br />
The Huaca Rajada, of Sipán, Peru, is a Moche Pyramid near Chiclayo, Peru in the Lambayeque Valley, famous for the tomb of the Lord of Sipán, Peru, excavated in 1987. The ruins of Sipán are dated from 50–700 AD, during the Moche culture.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187659.jpg
  • Archeologists view returned artifacts at Iraq Museum
    RANDY OLSON_MM7129_735399.JPG
  • A moai and dog at Plaza Hatumatua in downtown Hanga Roa.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493979.JPG
  • A native dancer, a tourist and a dog at Ahu Tahia.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493965.JPG
  • Ancient Moai statues and wild horses on Anakena Beach.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493959.JPG
  • An ancient Moai statue and wild horses on Rano Raraku crater.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493936.JPG
  • A 1750-1550 BC settlement and fort of the earliest Nubian civilization
    RANDY OLSON_MM6998_718211.JPG
  • Winged bulls and lions with human faces stand guard at the Gates of Nimrud.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7129_735403.JPG
  • The vandalized and eroded Assyrian carvings of King Sennacherib palace
    RANDY OLSON_MM7129_735401.JPG
  • A seal with tokens that people of ancient Harappa used as form of paying for go ods and services.
    RANDY OLSON_06569_654894.JPG
  • This seal made of clay depicting a bull would have been used like a credit card .  In the streets of the excavation site broken ones are found (like a cut-up c ard and whole ones are found in houses.
    RANDY OLSON_06569_653339.JPG
  • A clay seal with images of zebu and characters as of yet undeciphered. Acording to archeologist Mark Kenoyer, seals such as this one were used somewhat like m odern credit cards.
    RANDY OLSON_06569_654867.JPG
  • A 5000-year-old pottery vessel, with the image of a waterbird and a net painted on it, shows that people of the ancient Indus civilization hunted birds.
    RANDY OLSON_06569_653329.TIF
  • A bust statue of a priest king wearing a decorative tunic and headgear recovered at Mohenjo Daro.
    RANDY OLSON_06569_654869.JPG
  • Lord of Sipan, important Moche burial site in Peru. The site was being looted but it was stopped and some tombs are restored with replicas to show what the graves looked like 1500 years ago. The treasure trove discovered included gold, silver, copper and semi-precious stones as well as hundreds of ceramic pots which contained food and drink for journey in the after life..  The Mochica leader was buried in all of this finery along with a warrior guard buried alive (with his feet cut off), three women, two assistants and a servant.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187667-1.JPG
  • Lord of Sipan, important Moche burial site in Peru. The site was being looted but it was stopped and some tombs are restored with replicas to show what the graves looked like 1500 years ago. The treasure trove discovered included gold, silver, copper and semi-precious stones as well as hundreds of ceramic pots which contained food and drink for journey in the after life..  The Mochica leader was buried in all of this finery along with a warrior guard buried alive (with his feet cut off), three women, two assistants and a servant.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187667.jpg
  • Skeletons bleach in the desert sun Chauchilla Cemetery, a burial ground dating from the late Nazca Period from A.D. 500-700. Grave robbers have looted most of the tombs in this  remote spot of southern Peru, scattering bones, garments and pottery shards across the blistering sands. Tourists pay to see some skulls that have been re-arranged. Mummies with hair, teeth and clothing sit in rock walled tomb-like graves facing east.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187496-1.JPG
  • The mysterious Nazca lines form a spider, one of many animal and geometric shapes best seen in the air in Peru's southern desert.  Anthropologists believe the Nazca culture that created them began around 100 B.C. and flourished from A.D. 1 to 700. They were made with light-colored sand when the top foot of rock was removed by an ancient culture.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187631.jpg
  • Mysterious Nazca lines form strange two-footed animal figures in the desert of Peru. Many creatures as well as geometric shapes run for miles and are best seen from the air. They were made by exposing lighter colored soil when sun-baked stones were moved and piled up. Anthropologists believe the Nazca culture that created them began around 100 B.C. and flourished from A.D. 1 to 700
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187625.jpg
  • The mysterious Nazca lines form a monkey in the desert of southern Peru. Other animals and geometric shapes are best seen from the air. Anthropologists believe the Nazca culture that created them began around 100 B.C. and flourished from A.D. 1 to 700. They were made with light-colored sand when the top foot of rock was removed by an ancient culture.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187627.jpg
  • Animal figures as well as geometric shapes are part of the mysterious Nazca lines best seen from the air in the Peruvian desert.  The figures--as well as triangles, rectangles and straight lines--run for several kilometers across the dry barren land. The desert floor is covered in a layer of iron oxide-coated pebbles of a deep rust color. The ancient peoples created their designs by removing the top 12 to 15 inches of rock, revealing the lighter-colored sand below. Anthropologists believe the Nazca culture that created them began around 100 B.C. and flourished from A.D. 1 to 700
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187622.jpg
  • Tourists stand on the ruins of Monte Alban, a Zapotec capital. It is a large pre-Columbian archeological site including pyramids and terraces in the Mexican state of Oaxaca.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187608.jpg
  • Skeletons bleach in the desert sun Chauchilla Cemetery, a burial ground dating from the late Nazca Period from A.D. 500-700. Grave robbers have looted most of the tombs in this  remote spot of southern Peru, scattering bones, garments and pottery shards across the blistering sands. Tourists pay to see some skulls that have been re-arranged. Mummies with hair, teeth and clothing sit in rock walled tomb-like graves facing east.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187496.jpg
  • Clay pots piled on a tomb of the Lord of Sipan archeological site near Chiclayo, Peru in the Lambayeque Valley.<br />
Archaeologists uncovered burial places of several lesser important figures besides royalty at Sipan. One, a high priest, had a tomb almost as impressive as the royal ones. Another burial contained 1,137 pots shaped into warriors, priests, prisoners, musicians, and anthropomorphic deities.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187664.jpg
  • Mysterious Nazca lines form geometric shapes in the desert that are best seen from the air. Besides animals forms, there are more than 800 straight lines on the coastal plain, some of which are 30 miles Anthropologists believe the Nazca culture, which began around 100 B.C. and flourished from A.D. 1 to 700.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187616.jpg
  • Tourists walk through the ruins of Monte Alban, a Zapotec capital in the Valley of Oaxaca. Inhabited over a period of 1,500 years by a succession of peoples – Olmecs, Zapotecs and Mixtecs – the terraces, dams, canals, pyramids and artificial mounds of Monte Albán were literally carved out of the mountain and are the symbols of a sacred topography. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with unique architecture.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187614.jpg
  • Tourists climb down steep steps the ruins of Monte Alban, a Zapotec capital with impressive architectural remains in the Oaxaca Valley in Mexico. <br />
It was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Inhabited over a period of 1,500 years by a succession of peoples – Olmecs, Zapotecs and Mixtecs – the terraces, dams, canals, pyramids and artificial mounds of Monte Albán were literally carved out of the mountain and are the symbols of a sacred topography.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187612.jpg
  • Pre-Columbian reliefs in stone at the Sechin ruins near Casma dating 1600 B.C.<br />
They are well-preserved among the Peru's coastal ruins. Three outside walls of the main temple are covered with relief carvings of warriors and of captives being eviscerated.  The gruesomely realistic stone carvings are up to four meters high.  Little is known about the warlike people who are responsible which is one of the site's main points of interest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187643.jpg
  • Ahu Akahanga – This small Moai in the blue light of late evening shows the early style for crafting Moais – he has really big eyes – shorter proportions - and it may have been associated with the Ahu behind it at this place over the ocean.  This area on the south coast had a higher population density and had more Moai.  The early statues were more variable in form… later they started to look more alike.<br />
<br />
Easter Island is the most remote inhabited island in the world.  The nearest population center is Chile (2300 miles) and the nearest Polynesian center in the opposite direction is Tahiti (2600 miles).  Easter Island, (Rapa Nui, Isla de Pascua) is famous for Moai everywhere along the coast toppled on their Ahu’s and littered abandoned in the center along the Moai roads used to transport them.  Polynesians had a knack for colonizing even the most inhospitable oceanic rock.  They were adept sailors, explorers, colonizers and their experience taught them the best way to escape war or famine was to sail east, to windward in search of new islands.  There is no evidence that a 2nd group reached the island in early history as Heyerdall alledges – in fact it points to the opposite.  Easter Island had military rule until 1965 and had cashless societies of fishing and farming that have since been broken apart by independence and a dependence on tourism.  Rapanui incest laws are strict with everybody tracing roots to 30 or so couples who survived 19th century Peruvian slave raiding and epidemics.
    MM8059_20110522_05453.tif
  • Pre-Columbian reliefs in stone at the Sechin ruins near Casma dating 1600 B.C.<br />
They are well-preserved among the Peru's coastal ruins. Three outside walls of the main temple are covered with relief carvings of warriors and of captives being eviscerated. The gruesomely realistic stone carvings are up to four meters high. Little is known about the warlike people who are responsible which is one of the site's main points of interest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187646.jpg
  • Parched and windswept, a cactus stands at the top of Cerro la Raya and the overlook of the ancient city of Túcume in northern Peru. A significant Inca shrine, Túcume actually predates the Inca, its mud-brick pre columbian architectural ruins constructed some 900 years ago. At least 28 pyramids, plazas and crumbling walls made up the ceremonial center of the Lambayeque people (1000-1400 AD).
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187494.jpg
  • Crumbling walls of Chanquillo dated archeological site 350 BC. that is located just off the Pan American highway north of Lima and just south of Casma.  Several towers surrounded by concentric walls make up the remnants of the fortress. Surrounded by a parched landscape of sand dunes, little is known about the crumbled structure.  <br />
 Lack of funds have kept the archeological site from being excavated but it is believed that the stone walls may have been used for ritual battles rather than real ones.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187579.jpg
  • School children explore a worn pyramid on an archeological site. The Huaca Rajada, of Sipán, Peru, is a Moche Pyramid near Chiclayo, Peru in the Lambayeque Valley, famous for the tomb of the Lord of Sipán, Peru excavated in 1987. The ruins of Sipán are dated from 50–700 AD, during the Moche culture.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187661.jpg
  • Mexican schoolchildren walk in pairs holding hands through the ruins of Teotihuacan. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is the most visited site in Mexico. <br />
Teotihuacan is known for having the most architecturally significant Mesoamerican pyramids built in the pre-Columbian Americas.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187487.jpg
  • Tourists walk through the ruins of Monte Alban, a Zapotec capital that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Located in the Oaxaca Valley, it is an important archeological site founded in 6th century B.C.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187610.jpg
  • Spectators at a canoe race in Hanga Roa.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493962.JPG
  • A couple stroll beneath power lines toward moai statues at Ahu Tahai.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493938.JPG
  • Restored moai stand watch at Ahu Tongariki.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493990.JPG
  • Maoi replicas near a hotel.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493980.JPG
  • A moai at Plaza Hatumatua in downtown Hanga Roa.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493931.JPG
  • Tourists photograph a native dancer in body paint.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1477351.JPG
  • Tourists diving on Easter Island's reef encounter a fake moai.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1477347.JPG
  • A mourning daughter leans on a pukumani pole at her father's grave.
    RANDY OLSON_04319_972092.JPG
  • Ancient Moai statues dot a hillside on Rano Raraku crater.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493998.JPG
  • Restored moai with topknots on Akakena Beach.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493996.JPG
  • Restored moai with topknots on Akakena Beach.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493995.JPG
  • A petroglyph with a birdman motif.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493993.JPG
  • Ancient Moai statues dot a hillside on Rano Raraku crater.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493992.JPG
  • A moai statue at Ahu Akahanga.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493989.JPG
  • Restored moai with topknots on Akakena Beach.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493973.JPG
  • Ancient Moai statues dot a hillside on Rano Raraku crater.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493964.JPG
  • Ancient Moai statues dot a hillside on Rano Raraku crater.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493963.JPG
  • Preparation for a canoe race in Hanga Roa.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493961.JPG
  • The Ahu Tautira statue looms behind a girl in a swimsuit.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493940.JPG
  • Restored moai stand watch over landscapers mowing grass.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493930.JPG
  • Ancient Moai statues dot a hillside on Rano Raraku crater.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1494003.JPG
  • A restored moai at Ahu Tongariki.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1494002.JPG
  • A restored Maoi at Ahu Nau Nau.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493999.JPG
  • Restored moai stand watch at Ahu Tongariki.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493988.JPG
  • An ancient Moai statue dots a hillside on Rano Raraku crater.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493968.JPG
  • Restored moai stand watch at Ahu Tongariki.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493967.JPG
  • Restored moai stand watch at Ahu Tongariki.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493966.JPG
  • A tour bus passes a parked motorcycle.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493943.JPG
  • A petroglyph of a face at Ahu Tongariki.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493932.JPG
  • Restored moai stand watch at Ahu Tongariki.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1477348.JPG
  • Australian Aboriginal rock art on a rock in Kakadu National Park.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112_763245.JPG
  • A 6th-7th century Kushite pyramid, one of the best preserved.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6998_718212.JPG
  • Ancient Moai statues dot a hillside on Rano Raraku crater.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493935.JPG
  • An ancient Moai statue on a hillside at night.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1477353.JPG
  • A moai statue at Ahu Akahanga.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1493991.JPG
  • A military guard sleeping in the Parthian ruins of Hatra.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7129_743046.JPG
  • View from the Medieval towers of the Ushguli settlement in the highlands of Svaneti looking towards another Svan rural village.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6689_702588_2.tif
  • Medieval towers of the Ushguli settlement in the highlands of Svaneti.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6879_708203_2.tif
  • Medieval towers of the Ushguli settlement in the highlands of Svaneti.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6879_708203_3.tif
  • A man writes standing near the massive walls of Nineveh.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7129_735400.JPG
  • Bronze Age war ax adorned with a horse from the Black Sea region.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6879_708198.JPG
  • Medieval towers of the Ushguli settlement in the highlands of Svaneti.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6879_708203_5.tif
  • The massive walls of Nineveh.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7129_743044.JPG
  • Relief sculpture of Assyrian king at Nimrud.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7129_735407.JPG
  • A carved figure decorates one of the many arches at Hatra.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7129_735404.JPG
  • In the ancient Tombos quarry villagers skirt a statue from the seventh century B.C.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6998_714565.TIF
  • Prayer candles put on one of the Medieval towers of the Ushguli settlement in the highlands of Svaneti
    RANDY OLSON_MM6689_702588_3.tif
  • Medieval towers of the Ushguli settlement in the highlands of Svaneti.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6879_708203_7.tif
  • Medieval towers of the Ushguli settlement in the highlands of Svaneti. Locals gather around a campfire in Tusheti.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6879_708203_6.TIF
  • Animal sacrifice under the medieval towers of the Ushguli settlement in the highlands of Svaneti.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6879_708203_4.TIF
  • Medieval towers of the Ushguli settlement in the highlands of Svaneti.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6879_708203.TIF
  • This small clay figurine, with a snake-like face, may have been used as an offe ring.
    RANDY OLSON_06569_653333.JPG
  • Pukamani poles mark Australian Aborigine grave sites.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112_763264.JPG
  • An Aborigine family placing pukamani poles at a gravesite.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112_763246.JPG
  • A close view of a Bronze Age mother-goddess figurine made of clay.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6689_679161.JPG
  • The sieve-like vessel in the foreground of this picture is believed to have bee n used in the brewing of alcoholic beverages for festivals.  The vessel was ent ombed as a provision for the afterlife.  The pottery in the background is a col lection of everyday vessels.
    RANDY OLSON_06569_653341.JPG
  • Aboriginal pictographs on rock. "Lightning man" at upper right.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7112_763258.JPG
  • Archaeologists reach a Bronze Age layer at a Sinop dig.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6689_679162.JPG
  • An oil lamp of an African head comes from Roman times, perhaps the second centu ry, A.D.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6689_679159.JPG
  • Disposable cups excavated in Harappa.
    RANDY OLSON_06569_654852.JPG
  • An ancient Byzantine coin with a depiction of a ruler.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6689_691823.JPG
  • Easter Island is the most remote inhabited island in the world.  The nearest population center is Chile (2300 miles) and the nearest Polynesian center in the opposite direction is Tahiti (2600 miles).  Easter Island, (Rapa Nui, Isla de Pascua) is famous for Moai everywhere along the coast and littered abandoned in the center along the Moai roads used to transport them.  Polynesians had a knack for colonizing even the most inhospitable oceanic rock.  They were adept sailors, explorers, colonizers and their experience taught them the best way to escape war or famine was to sail east - to go windward in search of new islands.  There is no evidence that a 2nd group reached the island in early history as Heyerdall alledges – in fact it points to the opposite.  Easter Island had military rule until 1965 and had cashless societies of fishing and farming that have since been broken apart by independence and a dependence on tourism.  Rapa Nui are strict with marriage records and it is possible to trace this culture's roots to 30 or so couples who survived 19th century.
    MM8059_20110616_10548.tif
  • A seal representing the last phase at Harappa.
    RANDY OLSON_06569_1071245.JPG