Líneas de Nazca: las 168 nuevas figuras descubiertas junto a este patrimonio de la humanidad / Scientists Discover 168 Mysterious Nazca Geoglyphs in The Desert Sands of Peru

Gracias a un trabajo de campo que duró ocho meses, arqueólogos de la Universidad japonesa de Yamagata descubrieron 168 figuras de gran tamaño cerca de la ciudad de Nazca en Perú.

“Se cree que los geoglifos datan de entre el año 100 a.C. y el 300 d.C.”, según informaron los investigadores en un comunicado de prensa, y corresponden a figuras humanas y de animales como orcas, felinos, aves, camellos y serpientes.

La investigación, que empleó fotografías aéreas de alta resolución e imágenes de drones, fue liderada por el académico Masato Sakai en colaboración con el arqueólogo peruano Jorge Olano.

Los 168 geoglifos recién descubiertos se suman a otros 190 que fueron hallados hasta 2018, teniendo así un total de 358 geoglifos descubiertos cerca a las líneas de Nazca (también escrito como Nasca), declaradas patrimonio de la humanidad por la Unesco en 1994.

Estos geoglifos fueron creados en la antigüedad quitando piedras negras de la superficie de la tierra para exponer una capa de arena blanca más profunda.

Los investigadores han explicado que hay dos tipos de geoglifos: los de tipo lineal y los de tipo relieve. Cinco de los hallazgos recientes son lineales, mientras que los 163 restantes son de relieve.

El estudio es producto de una alianza entre el Ministerio de Cultura de Perú y la Universidad de Yamagata para la conservación e investigación científica de los geoglifos, gracias a la cual se estableció un parque arqueológico en 2017 con el fin de proteger los geoglifos descubiertos por la universidad en el área de Aja, cerca del centro de la ciudad de Nazca.

Ahora, los arqueólogos están utilizando inteligencia artificial para aclarar los patrones de distribución de los geoglifos y aportar así a su conservación.

Redacción – BBC News Mundo

MÁS AQUÍ https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-63965513

Scientists Discover 168 Mysterious Nazca Geoglyphs in The Desert Sands of Peru

The Nazca desert in Peru is like an art gallery for the gods above. Yet even with decades of surveyance from the skies, we’ve barely explored a small wing of this fading collection of giants among the stones.

Last year, an archaeologist in Peru told The Guardian he thought scientists had found only 5 percent of all the Nazca lines out there in the desert. Researchers at Yamagata University in Japan are now working with local archaeologists to change that, and their latest haul of ancient lines nearly doubles the previous number of known designs.

Drone surveys and aerial images in southern Peru have now identified 168 new geoglyphs in the Nazca Lines World Heritage Site, with roughly 50 of these large-scale geographical drawings depicting human-like figures.

One of the humanoid illustrations even appears to be sporting a bit of facial hair, Homer Simpson-style.

Some of the other designs etched into the landscape feature birds, orcas, cats, and snakes. A few are just simple lines or trapezoidal patterns.

It’s hard to say when the designs were made, but clay pots found near the lines date back to a time between 100 BCE and 300 CE.

Many of the ancient illustrations are scratched into flat terrain, making them difficult to see from nearby vantage points. Because the lines were constructed through the removal of rocks and debris to reveal contrasting-colored soil beneath, erosion has only contributed to difficulties in their discovery.

Drones have become our celestial eyes in the skies. These flying devices have allowed experts to glimpse the Nazca Lines with more clarity than ever before.

Some of the information they are gathering is even being analyzed by artificial intelligence programs, which can pick out different patterns faster and more reliably than the human eye. In 2019, a new Nazca line design was actually discovered by AI.

The Nazca lines are one of history’s most intriguing mysteries, and even if archaeologists find more, it might not bring us any closer to understanding their purpose.

For some inexplicable reason, between 500 BCE and 500 CE, societies in southern Peru constructed simple lines, shapes, and figures across the landscape, many of which can only be seen in their entirety from directly above.

The lines have been interpreted in numerous ways over the decades, but the most common explanation is that they were meant for gods in the sky who were looking down on humans. Another popular theory suggests these figures and patterns were drawn for ritualistic astronomical purposes and were meant to somehow reflect the stars.

In 1994, when a part of the Nazca desert was designated a World Heritage Site, only about 30 ‘geoglyphs’ had been found, and they were mostly of plants and animals.

As it turns out, that was just the tip of the iceberg. By 2019, archaeologists had found nearly 200 geoglyphs in total, several of which depicted humanoid figures.

With these latest additions uncovered by researchers from Yamagata University, the official number of known Nazca lines is now 358.

In all likelihood, there are still many more ancient artworks hiding out there in the desert.

With permission from the Peruvian Ministry of Culture, scientists at Yamagata have made it their mission to tally as many of these mysterious designs as they can. The team plans on mapping out the full length and width of the desert canvas along with the help of local archaeologists.

By CARLY CASSELLA