Artificial intelligence researchers have discovered hundreds of mysterious ancient symbols in Peru

Geoglyph (Geoglyph) or the mysterious hillscapes of the Nazca desert in Peru have puzzled archaeologists for years. Since the discovery of these reliefs in the 1940s, about 430 have been discovered on the arid plateau known as the Nazca Pampa. Now using drones and artificial intelligence, archaeologists in just 6 months 303 Another geoglyph has been discovered.

According to CNN, the massive Nazca glyphs, located 50 kilometers off the southern coast of Peru and only visible by aerial observation, were discovered in the early 20th century. These geoglyphs have survived the passage of time; Because this dry desert area has a small population, it is not affected by floods and is not suitable for growing crops.

In recent years, new discoveries have increased by high-resolution remote sensing, with an average of 19 geoglyphs found annually from 2000 to 2020. However, according to new research, the use of artificial intelligence to narrow down the options has increased the speed of discovery and promises a revolution in archeology.

Discover hundreds of mysterious symbols of the Nazca desert in Peru with artificial intelligence

A group of researchers led by Masato Sakai, a professor of archeology at Yamagata University in Japan, obtained new symbols by training an artificial intelligence model with images of the 430 Nazca glyphs discovered by 2020.

Glyphs have been difficult to discover for various reasons; including that they were carved in this plateau between 500 BC and 500 AD. Over the centuries, weathering has made them difficult to identify. On the other hand, according to Sakai, the Nazca Pampa desert is very vast, at 400 square kilometers, it would be very time-consuming to conduct research using conventional archaeological methods.

So Sakai and his colleagues collaborated with the IBM Research Center to design an algorithm to identify missing glyphs among the debris. Now, of the 303 newly discovered glyphs, the AI ​​has identified 178 (more than half of them). Meanwhile, these new glyphs belong to a category called “embossed geoglyphs”, which are harder to identify than “linear geoglyphs”.

Deciphering the designs of these geoglyphs has not yet been possible, however, researchers say that the purpose of creating these designs was a “sacred” religious ceremony.

The findings of the current research have been published in the journal PNAS.