Some 303 previously uncharted geoglyphs made by the Nazca, a pre-Inca civilization in present-day Peru dating from 200 B.C. to 700 A.D., were identified with the help of machine learning. Image Credit: The Yamagata University Institute of Nasca
SocietyTechnology PeruHundreds of Ancient Geoglyphs Have Been Newly Found!
Archaeologists using artificial intelligence have discovered hundreds more Nazca geoglyphs—large, artificial designs produced on the ground—in Peru.
Dating back some 2,000 years, the discovery of 303 new symbols include birds, plants, spiders, and humanlike figures, among others, nearly doubles the number of Nazca lines previously known to researchers.
A group of researchers led by Japan’s Yamagata University professor of archaeology, Masato Sakai, “trained” artificial intelligence by introducing the 430 Nazca symbols that had already been mapped. Then, the AI model could suggest sites with “high potential,” of which one out of every 36 suggested were ultimately considered to be a “promising candidate” by the researchers. Of the 303 new discoveries, 178 were suggestions from the AI model, with calculations suggesting that there are at least 248 additional figurative geoglyphs in the area waiting to be found. Now, however, the main work will shift to analyzing the meaning of the symbols, as these modern-day tools allow us to understand more about civilization’s past.
