The goal of the researchers is to preserve these amazing forms, whose function and meaning remain the subject of dispute.
Japanese scientists discovered on the southern coast of Peru 168 new geoglyphs near the Nazca linesconsidered since 1994 by Unesco Cultural Heritage of Humanity, as confirmed today to EFE by the University of Yamagata (western Japan).
This team of academics from Yamagata University, led by Masato Sakai, made the discovery with the help of local archaeologists, aerial images and drones, where they discovered 168 new geoglyphs or large figures drawn on slopes or hills.
“In total we have found 168 figures: about 50 humans, as well as birds, cats, snakes and also many linear and trapezoidal figures,” Sakai told EFE, noting that ceramics had also been found.
Since the beginning of the research project in 2004 -and since 2010 on the ground-, Japanese scientists have already found 358 figures (including those of the new discovery), with which seek to protect these depositsbut also understand the purpose with which they were created.
“To protect the lines we need to know their exact location so they don’t become homes or local people use the area for agriculture,” says Sakai, who believes that these were used for the purpose of marking trails and paths.
The researcher explains that now they also use artificial intelligence in order to find patterns and see what exactly you wanted to communicate with these shapes, something that with traditional research methods would take a long time due to the extensive terrain to be investigated.
“We can find these shapes on roads and paths, so we want to understand the combinations to know what they wanted to express,” says Sakai.
Traditionally it has been considered that the Nazca lines they were a great astronomical calendarother experts believe that they are religious figures and some ufologists maintain that they were landing strips for alien spacecraft.
The most representative figures are known as the spider, the monkey and the hummingbirdin addition to the condor, the pelican, the seagull, the snail, the whale, the snake and the llama, among others.
The Nazca Lines are a set of hundreds of geometric figures, animals or plants located in an immense desert in the Ica region, south of Lima, made by the Nazca culture (1st-7th century) and whose function and meaning are not clearNeither is the way in which they were made, since some exceed 100 meters and can only be seen from the air.
Despite their age, these famous and enigmatic figures they were not discovered until 1930 because the flatness of the desert surface only allowed the designs to be seen in their entirety from the air or from some surrounding hills.