AI Uncovers Hundreds of Ancient Nazca Drawings in Peru

Archaeologists have discovered over 300 ancient geoglyphs in the Peruvian desert, aided by artificial intelligence, New Scientist reported yesterday.

These figures, linked to the Nazca culture, include depictions of llamas, decapitated heads, and killer whales wielding knives. The newly found geoglyphs are smaller and older than the famous Nazca lines, averaging 9 meters in length.

Masato Sakai from Yamagata University notes that some pottery from the Nazca period features orcas associated with human sacrifice. Researchers trained an AI model on high-resolution aerial photos covering an area ten times larger than Manhattan, significantly speeding up the identification process.

The AI highlighted 303 figurative geoglyphs, with 178 directly identified and 66 found in clusters. Despite this success, nearly 1,000 potential candidates remain for future inspection. Experts emphasize the urgency of this research, as many geoglyphs face threats from agricultural expansion and urban development.