The Nasca lines: a date cannot explain their purpose
The vast drawings at Nasca and Palpa were made over centuries. A date places each one in history, but does not explain by itself why it was made.
What the ground drawings show
UNESCO lists the Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Palpa across about 75,000 hectares of arid coastal plain. It dates the figures to between 500 BCE and 500 CE, describes animals, plants, and geometric designs several kilometres long, and reports that they are believed to have had ritual and astronomical functions. UNESCO World Heritage Centre ↗
Belief is a labelled claim
The research record keeps function as an open dispute: what did distinct classes of geoglyphs do? It also notes that the date range does not imply one function or one production episode. Figures made across a thousand years by different communities can have different purposes.
Date, method, and purpose are different questions
Separate three questions: when were they made, how were they made, and what were they for. The first two have physical evidence; the third needs an argument that connects the figures to something else, such as water, routes, or the sky.
One line faces sunrise. Was that deliberate?
If you measured one line's alignment with a sunrise, what else would you need before calling the alignment intentional?