In 2018, Andrea James posted about drone cameras revealing dozens of previously unobserved lines in the Nazca desert. The New York Times now reports that hundreds more geoglyphs have been found there since. Many are ghostly and indistinct—but obvious once you know exactly where to look.
Dr. Sakai is the lead author of a survey published in September in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that found 303 previously uncharted geoglyphs in only six months, almost doubling the number that had been mapped as of 2020. The researchers used artificial intelligence in tandem with low-flying drones that covered some 243 square miles. Their conclusions also provided insights into the symbols' enigmatic purpose. The newly found images — an average of 30 feet across — could have been detected in past flyovers if the pilots had known where to look. But the pampa is so immense that "finding the needle in the haystack becomes practically impossible without the help of automation," said Marcus Freitag, an IBM physicist who collaborated on the project.
Here's the paper: AI-accelerated Nazca survey nearly doubles the number of known figurative geoglyphs and sheds light on their purpose, by Sakai et al.
It took nearly a century to discover a total of 430 figurative Nazca geoglyphs, which offer significant insights into the ancient cultures at the Nazca Pampa. Here, we report the deployment of an AI system to the entire Nazca region, a UNESCO World Heritage site, leading to the discovery of 303 new figurative geoglyphs within only 6 mo of field survey, nearly doubling the number of known figurative geoglyphs. Even with limited training examples, the developed AI approach is demonstrated to be effective in detecting the smaller relief-type geoglyphs, which unlike the giant line-type geoglyphs are very difficult to discern. The improved account of figurative geoglyphs enables us to analyze their motifs and distribution across the Nazca Pampa. We find that relief-type geoglyphs depict mainly human motifs or motifs of things modified by humans, such as domesticated animals and decapitated heads (81.6%). They are typically located within viewing distance (on average 43 m) of ancient trails that crisscross the Nazca Pampa and were most likely built and viewed at the individual or small-group level. On the other hand, the giant line-type figurative geoglyphs mainly depict wild animals (64%). They are found an average of 34 m from the elaborate linear/trapezoidal network of geoglyphs, which suggests that they were probably built and used on a community level for ritual activities.
Hundreds More Nazca Lines Emerge in Peru's Desert [New York Times. Archive]
Previously: Driver trucks up Peru's ancient Nazca Lines
