AI Helps Discover Huge Ancient Drawings In Peru

nightqueen

Nov 23, 2019 9:08 PM EST

Scientists have just discovered 143 new ancient geoglyphs (drawings) carved into the soil of the Peru, with the help of artificial intelligence. This time, they found something never seen before: a humanoid figure.

via Fox News

Around 2000 years ago, the people of south Peru created enormous drawings in the soil of the Peruvian desert which are now called the Nazca Lines. Unsurprisingly, time has obscured many of these drawings - some of which span up to 3600 feet in length. 143 new drawings were discovered (in addition to the already existing geoglyphs) using new techniques including artificial intelligence. Incredibly, the researchers found a humanoid figure - the first to be found in the Nazca Lines, giving archaeologists a lot to think about.
via Business Insider

The first discovery of the Nazca Lines was in 1553 when someone mistook them for trail markers. Since then, with the help of aerial and satellite photography, they have been given credit for what they really are: gigantic drawings in the soil that are usually made with one continuous line, and can't be seen except from above, and that speak of ancient mysteries.
The Nazca Lines have been studied throughout recent history, with the most recent findings discovered out by Masato Sakai, a cultural anthropologist at Yamagata University in Japan, and his team.
Sakai used many methods that hadn't been used yet, such as taking high-resolution images of the Nazca Lines taken from space, and using the IBM Watson Machine Learning Community Edition, a deep learning system. The team trained the AI to scan satellite imagery of the region and flag any areas that had the potential to contain unfound geoglyphs.
via Fox News

These methods helped the team to find over a hundred new figures, which generally depict living things such as fish, monkeys, reptiles, birds, people and other more abstract designs.
The larger geoglyphs, labelled Type A, usually represented animals, were at least 50 meters large, and were generally made between 100 and 300 CE. On the other hand, the smaller geoglyphs, called Type B, tended to be a few centuries older and were often made on slopes and paths, suggesting that they were designed to be landmarks to guide people. Type A geoglyphs were often littered with shards of pottery, indicating that they could have been sites of ceremonies or rituals.
via Fox News

The humanoid figure, which is the first to be found in the Nazca Lines, was discovered by the artificial intelligence the team used. As you can see in the photo above, the outlines of the figure are difficult to make out, but the AI pinpointed the location of the geoglyph and led the researchers to it.
The effort to find existing Nazca Lines is not only important for discovering more about the ancient peoples of Peru, but also for preservation so that future generations can witness the incredible creativity of our ancestors.