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. A geoglyph is a large design or motif – generally longer than 4 metres (13 ft) – produced on the ground by durable landscape elements, such as stones, stone fragments, gravel, or earth. They are generally a type of land art and sometimes rock art. 

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.

Finding geoglyphs

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 these can only be seen in their entirety from a great distance, such as from a mountain or aeroplane.

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

Before 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.

Using AI

For this new study, the team in Japan turned to IBM's artificial intelligence experts for help with the search. Together, they created an AI application capable of identifying geoglyphs from aerial pictures of the desert floor, no matter how faint.

After training the model on images of existing geoglyphs, the research team used it to look for more. They found 303, which they could confirm through site visits by human experts.

As expected, many of the lines comprising the newly found geoglyphs were faint. Still, the researchers could discern what they depicted, mainly humans and domesticated animals, though some were abstract, such as a knife-wielding killer whale. The team plans to use the AI app to search for more examples of ancient art.

Phys Org