AI- accelerated Nazca survey nearly doubles the number of known figurative geoglyphs and sheds light on their purpose

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Sakai, Masato; Sakurai, Akihisa; Lu, Siyuan; Olano, Jorge; Albrecht, Conrad M.; Hamann, Hendrik F.; Freitag, Marcus
• 署名单位: Yamagata University; Helmholtz Association; German Aerospace Centre (DLR); International Business Machines (IBM); IBM USA
• 刊物名称: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0027-15349
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2407652121
• 发表日期: 2024-10-01

摘要

It took nearly a century to discover a total of 430 figurative Nazca geoglyphs, which offer significant insights into the ancient cultures at the Nazca Pampa. Here, we report site, leading to the discovery of 303 new figurative geoglyphs within only 6 mo of field survey, nearly doubling the number of known figurative geoglyphs. Even with limited training examples, the developed AI approach is demonstrated to be effective in detecting the smaller relief- type geoglyphs, which unlike the giant line- type geoglyphs are very difficult to discern. The improved account of figurative geoglyphs enables us to analyze their motifs and distribution across the Nazca Pampa. We find that relief- type geoglyphs depict mainly human motifs or motifs of things modified by humans, such as domesticated animals and decapitated heads (81.6%). They are typically located within viewing distance (on average 43 m) of ancient trails that crisscross the Nazca Pampa and were most likely built and viewed at the individual or small- group level. On the They are found an average of 34 m from the elaborate linear/trapezoidal network of geoglyphs, which suggests that they were probably built and used on a community level for ritual activities.