Peru /
A team of researchers discovered 303 geoglyphs in the Nazca desertlocated on the south coast of Peruwhich almost double the total known number of these cempowering, impressive and enigmatic creations that They date back more than 2 thousand years.
The use of artificial intelligence has been keyand in the discovery of these ancient figures carved into the stony ground of Peru, further older than the famous Nazca Linesas reported by the Peruvian Ministry of Culture.
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 developed AI approach has been shown to be effective in detecting the smaller relief-type geoglyphs, which unlike the giant line-type geoglyphs are very difficult to discern,” the PNAS paper reads.
The Nazca culture occupied this area around the year 200 to 700 AD, They left a record of them by means of lines drawn on the groundwhich are actually colossal geometric figures, including zoomorphic ones and anthropomorphic.
Artificial intelligence has helped not only to locate hundreds of these, but also to give us a foothold on its meaning and function in culture.
Japanese research
Specialists from the ministry and the Yamagata University of Japan has studied the Nazca desert for months through artificial intelligence, like the IBM Research Watson System.
New #Nazca Lines Discovered in Peru
Researchers at Yamagata University in Japan identified 4 new figures using an AI-driven technology that detected the lines from satellite images. These geoglyphs depict a man holding a sledgehammer, a pair of legs or hands, a fish & a bird. pic.twitter.com/cgBuFn6nO7
— La Gazette Drouot – International (@Gazette_Inter) June 7, 2023
“Using artificial intelligence in the 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.
Scientists analyzed a vast amount of geo-image dataspatial produced from airplanes to identify priority areas with probable geoglyphs for field studies.
The work was done in just six months.which is quite remarkable since previous geoglyphs took decades to be fully discovered. With this discovery, added to the discovered by archaeologist Maria Reiche in 1940, sA total of have been discovered 683 geoglyphs of relief and 50 linear.
They are distinguished in two types: some giants, called linearand others in reliefand which are smaller. The relief type They represent humanoids, decapitated heads and domestic animals, while the linear ones usually represent wild animals.
What do they represent?
The Nazca culture flourished in this desert thanks to the construction of water channels used for agriculture. Their political organization was based on a group of local lords who did not have a single government. bonding through religion and customs.
The figures, for their part, could be related con daily life activities, such as wayfinding, representing kinship groups and rituals at the level of small groups.
While the Nazca Lines, more than 450 kilometers south of Lima, had a religious purpose related to rituals linked to water and fertility.
YRH
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