Paul Kosok

Paul August Kosok (21 April 1896 – 1959), an American professor in history and government, is credited with being the first serious researcher of the Nazca Lines in Peru. His work on the lines started in 1939, when he was doing field study related to the irrigation systems of ancient cultures. This was his main research and, by the 1950s, he had done extensive mapping of ancient canals in Peru. He demonstrated the culture's sophisticated management of water to support their settlement patterns.

Observing the Nazca Lines, he recognized that some patterns represented living creatures, and some lines related to astronomical events. His study of archeo-astronomy aspects contributed to the recognition of the lines as an important archeological resource, which Peru has protected. The Nazca Lines were designated in 1994 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Kosok was born in Long Island City, New York, the son of August and Maria Kosok, immigrants from Germany. He attended public schools before going to college. He earned a doctorate in history.

Kosok began as an assistant professor of history at Long Island University (LIU) in Brooklyn, where he taught several courses in history. His work, Modern Germany: A Study of Conflicting Loyalties, (1933), was written before the Nazis came to power and published by the University of Chicago Press as part of its "Studies of the Making of Citizens." One reviewer describe this as a "series on civic training in various countries and systems." Kosok's book was used by the State Department and others in training and preparing individuals for foreign service. It was reprinted in 1969.

As part of his education, Kosok studied and traveled in Europe in 1928 and in 1937. His early teaching at LIU included classes in the history of science.

In the 1930s, Kosok became interested in irrigation systems of ancient cultures, and their relation to patterns of settlement. He devoted most of the next twenty years of research to that topic, during which he collaborated with the archeologist Richard P. Schaedel. For instance, together they identified and mapped more than 300 ancient canals of prehistoric Peru, and found that the people had built highly sophisticated means of shifting water from one valley to another.

...
Wikipedia