A research team led by Professor Masato Sakai(Cultural anthropology, Andean archeology) at Yamagata University discovered 142 new geoglyphs, which depict people, animals and other strange beings, like a drawing what looks like an reptilian, etched into the desert in southern Peru around the enigmatic Nazca Lines.
The geoglyphs include humans, many different animals (including birds, monkeys, fish, snakes, foxes, felines, and camelids) and strange beings.. All of these figures were created by removing the black stones that cover the land, thereby exposing the white sand beneath and were found between 2016 and 2018.
They were identified through fieldwork and analysing high-resolution 3D data and aerial photography. Incredibly, one geoglyph in particular was solely discovered with AI technology, without the aid of humans, making it the first geoglyph discovered by an AI.
It is yet another example of how technology is assisting archaeology because a number of images were found using state-of-the-art AI technology developed by IBM, finds that were then confirmed with an on-site investigations.
The biomorphic geoglyphs are thought to date back to at least 100 BC to AD 300.
The geoglyphs include humans, many different animals (including birds, monkeys, fish, snakes, foxes, felines, and camelids) and strange beings.. All of these figures were created by removing the black stones that cover the land, thereby exposing the white sand beneath and were found between 2016 and 2018.
They were identified through fieldwork and analysing high-resolution 3D data and aerial photography. Incredibly, one geoglyph in particular was solely discovered with AI technology, without the aid of humans, making it the first geoglyph discovered by an AI.
It is yet another example of how technology is assisting archaeology because a number of images were found using state-of-the-art AI technology developed by IBM, finds that were then confirmed with an on-site investigations.
The biomorphic geoglyphs are thought to date back to at least 100 BC to AD 300.