The rocks and pebbles in many cases were piled along the edges of the lines. Johnson hypothesizes that in order to live in such a harsh environment, where water flows in the river only a few weeks of the year, the lives of the ancient peoples of the valley depended upon finding alternative sources of potable water. To test his theory, he brought in hydrogeologist Stephen B. Mabee and archaeologist Donald Proulx, both from the University of Massachusetts. It takes into account the lack of water, and how the ancients dealt with that, the geology of the area, and the geoglyphs. We're in the infancy of testing, but we've been able to associate many of the lines with geological faults, springs, and seeps.
Faults are commonly major conduits for water.
Two graduate students are mapping all the known springs and seeps in the valley, along with all identified faults. But the data we have so far is very promising. Fieldwork in Peru has been partially funded by a University of Massachusetts Healy grant, the National Geographic Society, and the H. John Heinz Charitable Trust. Ths website is designed and maintained in cooperation with HelpForMyWebsite.