Nazca Lines : Study
Artificial intelligence was used by the researchers to discover more mysterious Nazca geoglyphs in Peru.
- Nazca Lines are a group of geoglyphs, or large designs made on the ground by creators using elements of the landscape such as stones, gravel, dirt or lumber.
- These are located in the arid Peruvian coastal plain, some 400 km south of Lima.
- The Nazca Lines were discovered by hikers in the mid 1920s and later on Peruvian archaeologist Toribio Mejia Xesspe studied them systematically in 1926.
- These are believed to be the greatest known archaeological enigma, owing to their size, continuity, nature and quality.
- They depict creatures from both the natural world and the human imagination.
- They include animals such as the spider, hummingbird, monkey, lizard, pelican and even a killer whale. Ancient artisans also depicted plants, trees, flowers and oddly shaped fantastic figures, as well as geometric motifs, such as wavy lines, triangles, spirals and rectangles.
- The vast majority of the lines date from 200 B.C. to A.D. 500, to a time when a people referred to as the Nazca inhabited the region.
- The earliest lines, created with piled up stones, date as far back as 500 B.C.
- The Lines were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1994.
