Nazca (tribe)

The Nazca were believed to have lived for around a thousand before being wiped but they survived in some form as a small tribe eventually encountered by Indiana Jones who considered them to at least be the Nazca people's descendents if not the Nazca themselves.

History
In 1546, Francisco de Orellana was killed by the Nazca in Peru after he murdered his fellow conquistadors when they tried to relieve him of the crystal skull in his possession. Dressed like skeletons, Orellana thought he was being attacked by the living dead.

The tribe buried the seven men at Chauchilla Cemetery, overlooking the Nazca Lines. Orellana's body was wrapped with the crystal skull and a golden death mask.

Over four hundred years later, in 1957, the tribe was protecting Orellana's Tomb and the cemetery from grave robbers. However, Harold Oxley bypassed them simply by journeying to the graveyard during the daytime. He found the skull and attempted to return it to its resting place in Akator but found he couldn't access the Temple of Akator so he placed it back with Orellana's body.

While following Oxley's trail, Indiana Jones and Mutt Williams were attacked by two of the Nazca's skeletal guard who wielded blowguns but were capable martial artists. Though one of the cemetery warriors was killed by his own poison dart, the other was chased away when Jones cocked his pistol. Though others were present in the shadows, they simply slipped away in the darkness.

Behind the scenes
Nito Larioza and Ernie Reyes, Jr. played the Cemetery Warriors in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The Cemetery Warrior action figure claims that there were three present in the fight. In LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues, the warriors are led by a Cemetery Warrior King.

While James Luceno's adaptation states that the warriors are the Nazca's descendents, James Rollins' novelization leaves it ambiguous whether the tribe is made up of the Nazca themselves.

Appearances

 * Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
 * Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull novel
 * Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull junior novel
 * Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull comic
 * LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues