Thursday, September 26

The amazing discovery in Nazca of more than 300 geoglyphs revealed with the help of artificial intelligence

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By BBC News World

Sep 26, 2024, 10:11 AM EDT

A team of researchers has discovered 303 new geoglyphs in Peru’s Nazca Desert, nearly doubling the known total of these mysterious creations that are more than 2,000 years old.

“Using artificial intelligence in research has allowed us to map the distribution of the geoglyphs in a faster and more precise way,” said Japanese archaeologist Masato Sakai of Yamagata University, presenting the results of the findings this week in Lima.

The Yamagata University Institute of Nasca: Artificial intelligence made it possible to detect figurative relief geoglyphs, which, unlike giant line-based geoglyphs, are very difficult to detect.

Among the figures discovered are relief-type geoglyphs depicting humanoids, decapitated heads and domestic animals, unlike the traditional geoglyphs created with large-scale lines that usually represent wild animals.

The Yamagata University Institute of Nasca: The first geoglyphs in Nazca were found at the beginning of the 20th century.

To discover these 303 formations, the scientists explained, a vast amount of geospatial image data produced from aircraft was analyzed to identify priority areas with probable geoglyphs for field studies.

The Yamagata University Institute of Nasca: The geoglyphs are divided between geometric and figurative.

The discovery of the new drawings took just six months, while previous discoveries took several decades.

The Yamagata University Institute of Nasca: There are at least five hypotheses about the purpose of the geoglyphs: astronomical, geometric, agricultural, communicational or artistic expression.

The research was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States.

The Yamagata University Institute of Nasca: Relief-type geoglyphs, like this one, tend to be distributed on the slopes of hills so that they can be seen from a distance.

The famous Nazca Lines, recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, are shaped like geometric figures and animals, which can only be appreciated from the sky.

The Yamagata University Institute of Nasca: Artificial intelligence tools have been key in archaeological research where the objects of study are blurry, partially obscured or even buried under the ground.

The first geoglyphs were found in 1927 in this mysterious area located about 400 kilometers south of Lima.

The Yamagata University Institute of Nasca: Of the 303 newly discovered figurative geoglyphs, 178 were suggested individually by artificial intelligence, while the rest were detected as part of a group.

Scientists estimate that the inhabitants of the Nazca civilization occupied the area from 200 (BC) to 700 (AD).

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