Been down a rabbit hole with this one lately and honestly the water mapping theory makes more sense to me than most of the other explanations floating around.
The Nazca plateau is essentially a desert, right, so water sources would have been everything to the people living there. Some researchers have pointed out that several of the lines actually converge near or point toward underground aquifers and seasonal streams. That feels too consistent to be coincidence to me.
What I find interesting is that it doesnt have to be either/or. Could have been ceremonial AND functional. A lot of ancient cultures didnt really separate the sacred from the practical the way we do now.
Anyone done deeper reading on the Johan Reinhard work on this? He was big on the mountain worship and water deity angle which ties into the same idea. Would love to know if theres more recent archaeological work updating his findings.