Hundreds of years before the people of ancient Peru etched the giant designs known as Nasca lines in the country's high desert, another group of expansive markings along the coast were crafted from the region -- not to send messages to gods or alien spacecraft, but advertise community get-togethers.

That's the conclusion of a new study co-authored by Charles Stanish of the University of California, Los Angeles which asserts the recently-found markings, laid down around 300 B.C. by the Paracas of southern Peru, some of the earliest settled villagers on the Andean coast, pointed the way to regional trade fairs.

"If you want people to come to your trade fair, you have to point the way," Stanish said in a story by National Geographic. "These lines point straight to the ceremonial mounds on the coast where people could trade."

Indeed, the Paracas are known for building ceremonial mounds near their homes along the coast, as well as long lines of piled rock in the overlooking highlands that stretch sup to more than 1.9 miles.

Findings of the new research have been published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Instead of furthering notions of mystical ancient cultures, the study, which was funded in part by the National Geographic Society, offers more substantive explanations for great rock lines in the seeming middle of nowhere.

The lines were announcing the coastal ceremonial sites to traders or pilgrims from Peru's highlands, researchers believe. Furthermore, the Paracas people built ever-longer lines as a competitive way to show how to get to the biggest market.

Discovering such a straightforward explanation for the lines, or geoglyphs, dismisses the "esoteric aura" that has "surrounded the 'Nasca Lines' in public perception during much of the last century," environmental historian Ingmar Unkel of Germany's Kiel University told National Geographic.

The study researchers mapped 71 lines in a 15-square-mile, or 40-square-kilometer, area, located more than 12 miles (about 20 kilometers) from the coast of southern Peru's Chincha Valley.

As it turns out, the marks are situated about midway between coastal and highland communities.

The lines, which Stanish said were were "meant to be seen from above," point to five ceremonial mounds that appear to have been oriented to what is the winter solstice for areas in the Southern Hemisphere in June, which was probably a festival time.

Excavated pottery and radiocarbon dating from three of those coastal mounds indicate the sites were actively used at least 2,300 years ago -- meaning the Paracas lines apparently pre-date the more famous and much more detailed Nasca lines.

Then again, Unkel also believes it's possible "the Chinca Valley lines are younger and were constructed after" the ceremonial platforms. There is also evidence over an overlap of the periods the Nazca and Paracas lines were constructed.

And, despite the fact the the researchers have "little doubt" the June solstice was looked to a festive time for Peru's early cultures, Unkel considers the fact "leaders of all ancient societies that I know have put their efforts on predicting the arrival of the rain."

Therefore, "I would assume that the determination of the summer solstice [during December in the Southern Hemisphere] would be of higher importance, announcing the arrival of new water," he said.

Research shows the Paracas culture collapsed around 100 B.C., while the Nasca flourished from about 100 to 600 A.D.