MARIA REICHE

        Mathematician guarded Nazca Lines

             By MONTE HAYES
             Associated Press

             LIMA, Peru -- Maria Reiche, the German mathematician who spent more than half
             a century studying and protecting Peru's enigmatic Nazca Lines, died Monday of
             cancer at the age of 95.

             Like an invincible guardian spirit, she had watched over the stunning drawings,
             which cover a 35-mile stretch of high desert plain and are Peru's major tourist
             attraction after Machu Picchu.

             ``This precious thing should be treated like a very fragile manuscript that is guarded
             in a special room in a library,'' Reiche once said.

             Threats to the lines have included vandalism, a government project to ``reconstruct''
             the drawings, acid rain from mining operations in nearby mountains and and even a
             plan to flood the plains for agriculture.

             Reiche fought them all, without help.

             Her death left many Peruvians wondering about the fate of the lines, which she
             protected by paying guards with money she earned from the sale of her book about
             the drawings.

             ``Maria Reiche's death saddens all Peruvians, particularly archaeologists, because
             with her we had the certainty that this ancient legacy of Peru would be preserved,''
             said Federico Kauffmann-Doig, one of Peru's leading archaeologists. ``And now that
             she is dead, all this work is in danger.''

             Reiche was diagnosed with ovarian cancer on May 8 and given only a few months
             to live.

             Tough as nails to the end, she had said in recent years that she would die ``when I
             feel like it.''

             ``When I do die, I want to be buried in this fascinating place, which I love so much,''
             she said, referring to the Nazca plains.

             After years of study, Reiche concluded that the designs represented a giant calendar
             keyed to the movements of the sun and the moon and the constellations, which told
             ancient desert dwellers when to plant and irrigate their crops.

             The shallow lines were made well over a thousand years ago, hundreds of years
             before the Inca empire, by clearing the stony surface of the plains and exposing the
             whitish soil underneath.

             Townspeople in Nazca, the small town on the edge of the lines 250 miles south of
             Lima, initially thought she was crazy, she liked to recall with a chuckle.

             But in time they came to revere her for putting their town on the world tourist map
             and bringing in badly needed dollars.