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A small team of archaeologists at Yamagata University, working with a colleague from Université Paris, and a pair of AI researchers from the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, used an AI model to find more geoglyphs on the floor of Peru's Nazca Desert.

In their study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team developed an AI model capable of identifying faint signs of geoglyphs amid the natural landscape on the Nazca Pampa by analyzing images captured by drones.

Over the past century, archaeologists, historians and other scholars have been intrigued by the geoglyphs inscribed on the ground in a desert in Nazca, Peru, many of which can only be seen in their entirety from a great distance, such as from a mountain or airplane.

Previous research has found that they were created by the Nasca culture over the years 200 BCE to 700 CE by moving rocks or pebbles, or by scraping the ground. The resulting giant pictures are now called geoglyphs.

Prior to this new study, 430 geoglyphs were discovered and studied in Peru, though the rate at which new ones have been found has slowed. Researchers suspect that many more are yet to be discovered, but efforts to find them have been met with difficulties due to their size and clarity.

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