A Japanese academic research team has discovered more than 300 new geoglyphs in the Nazca Desert in Peru by analyzing aerial photographs using artificial intelligence (AI).
The carvings, which average about nine metres long, are smaller than the better-known human figures in the Nazca Lines, and researchers from Yamagata University speculate they may have been created by ancient people from sparsely populated areas to share information about rituals or livestock.
The findings were published earlier this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The undated photo shows a newly discovered contour line drawing of a killer whale holding a knife by the Nazca Institute of Yamagata University. (Photo courtesy of the institute) (Kyodo News)
A total of 430 geoglyphs have been discovered in the Nazca Plateau since exploration began in the 1940s. The university’s research team worked with IBM Japan to train an AI-assisted system to learn the patterns of the geoglyphs, speeding up the search for previously undiscovered geoglyphs.
Professor Masato Sakai and his team investigated 1,309 locations on Earth where there are possibilities for geoglyphs, which are believed to have been created by removing stones and gravel along the edges of geoglyphs and piling them up about 2,000 years ago. They conducted on-site surveys in the desert from September 2022 to February 2023 and discovered lines in 303 new locations.
The smaller geoglyphs, which depict humans and animals including a knife-wielding killer whale, were found close to a winding road, the team said.
Anthropologist Sakai said the team hopes their discovery will lead to measures such as designating the area as a park, which will help conserve the area.
