In a century, the Nazca Desert in southern Peru had revealed around 430 of its famous designs or geometric shapes that are visible only from the air. In six months, archaeologists, with the help of drones and AI, identified 303 more.
We had long suspected that some of these drawings or “geoglyphs” had escaped observers because they were smaller, more difficult to spot from an airplane due to the relief, and above all partly erased due to the passage of centuries. It took months of low-flying drones and the patience of AI to distinguish artificial lines from natural lines — over an area of more than 400 square kilometers. The archaeologists then had to go to the indicated locations to confirm one by one the existence of these “new” drawings.
The results, detailed in the review Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesdo not only expand the list of works of art left by a people who lived 1500 to 2200 years ago, long before the Incas. Researchers at Yamagata University in Japan, in collaboration with a team from IBM, were also able to categorize the drawings into two types: those that rely more on relief, and those that consist of lines of rocks. The first, which are smaller, are closer to the paths, which suggests that they were intended to be seen by passing humans, perhaps in a religious context – it could have been, for example example, steps or indicators on a pilgrimage path.
Whatever the reasons, the lead author, archaeologist Masato Sakai, who has been studying the “Nazca Lines” for 30 years, now has at his disposal a sample almost twice as large as when he first began studying it. interested in it.
The new designs include human heads, plants, abstract shapes and animals — including a killer whale wielding what looks like a knife and measuring about 20 meters long.
Nazca is a desert region: it practically never rains there, which explains the excellent state of preservation of these representations, even after all this time. We know little about the culture to which we owe these drawings, which did not leave written traces, but at most an irrigation system which also survived the passage of centuries.
