A Japanese scientific study made possible by Artificial Intelligence has led to the discovery of 300 new geoglyphs in the Nazca Desert in southern Peru, doubling the number of these mysterious linear patterns known to date back 2,000 years.

The use of Artificial Intelligence in the research allowed us to map the distribution of these geoglyphs with greater speed and accuracy,” said archaeologist Masato Sakai, of Yamagata University, presenting the results of the research during a press conference at the Japanese embassy in Lima.

The research results are a product of collaboration between the University, the Nazca Institute and IBM Research.

The research was validated by the scientific community and published on Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) of the United States.

“The traditional method, namely the visual recognition of geoglyphs from high-resolution photographs of this vast area, was slow and carried the risk of missing some,” explains the scientist. While “accelerated research through Artificial Intelligence enabled the identification of 303 new geoglyphs within six months of field work,” according to the article published in PNAS.

The discovery of the 303 shapes required the analysis of a large number of geospatial photographs from airplanes and the participation of Artificial Intelligence multiplied the rate 16 times. This shows the extent to which this technology is accelerating discoveries in fields such as archaeology.

The article recalls that the discovery of the 430 already known Nazca geoglyphs took about a century.

The 303 new geoglyphs include “giant line drawings representing wild animals, but also small shapes with patterns associated with human activity and include humans and domestic camels.

The famous Nazca lines date back 2,000 years and are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. They depict geometric shapes and silhouettes of animals that are only visible from the sky.

The real meaning of the Nazca geoglyphs remains a mystery: some researchers see in them an astronomical observatory, others a diary.

The Nazca Lines area is located 400 kilometers south of Lima in the desert. The first geoglyphs were discovered in 1927.

The inhabitants of the Nazca culture occupied the area from 200 to 700 AD