2,000-year-old desert carvings captured in drone photos

Some new Nazca lines have been discovered on a mountainside in Peru. These special lines have been restored by archaeologists. "It was almost invisible before that," said archaeologist Charles Stanish, who visited the newly discovered line last week. (Image: Charles Stanish) 'KDSPs' drones hovering and darting over the mountains of Peru have uncovered some stunning ancient 'artwork': previously unknown and scattered patches of land known as the Nazca geoglyphs , most likely made by the Nazca people and their predecessors, some 2,500 years ago. "KDSPE" "KDSPS" Approximately 50 new discoveries. Topography (Greek for "carving of the earth") provides further evidence that these giant designs have a long history in the region and are not simply a product of the Nazca culture, which developed in AD 200 It flourished between 1900 and 700.

"[This discovery] is really exciting," said Charles Stanish, executive director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Culture and Environment at USF. "I've been working there for more than 30 years, so it's interesting to see new things," said Stanish, who visited the newly discovered line last week but was not involved in the new research. [Amazing Nazka Lines Photos]

The newly discovered ground markings are long and thin - just a few inches wide and as long as a football field - and National Geographic reports that they are likely Created by the Paracas and Topara cultures, which flourished from 500 BC to 200 AD. (The National Geographic Society funded the research.) Ancient Lines

Modern researchers have discovered Peru's Nazca Lines (also spelled This has been known since the Nazca Lines). Before long, the area became a tourist hotspot, as pilots began flying purposefully over the notch, giving passengers a bird's-eye view of geometric shapes and ancient figures, including spiders, hummingbirds, monkeys, lizards and even pelicans, Live Science previously reported, < /p>

is a previously discovered Nazca Line that forms the outline of a hummingbird. The newly discovered Nazca lines mostly depict people, including warriors.

It is unclear why the Nazca people drew these lines, but some theories proposed by archaeologists suggest that the lines may represent constellations in the night sky, and perhaps they played a role in pilgrimage, Or the lines are part of a water-based ritual by the Nazka people, who already know how to irrigate the dry desert, Live Science reports.

Archaeologists have discovered a "new" line in the Peruvian province of Palpa. According to National Geographic, the seeds for this discovery were planted in December 2014, when environmental group Greenpeace placed a giant sign next to a Nazca hummingbird design calling for the use of renewable energy. Greenpeace did not have permission to enter the World Heritage site and ended up destroying it.

After the incident (for which Greenpeace later apologized), Peru received a grant from the United States to help restore its archeology by hiring Peruvian archaeologist Johnny Isla, and the country Geographical magazine says it is the chief restorer and preserver of the Nazca system. Given that not all archaeological sites in Peru were mapped from the air, Isla and Luis Jaime Castillo Butters, an archaeologist at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, discovered these new hieroglyphs together with Sarah Parcak, a space archaeologist. and the founder of the Global Observation Laboratory at the University of Alabama at Birmingham did so.

Parcak uses aerial photography from drones and satellites to discover and inspect archaeological sites. For example, satellite imagery helped Parcak and her colleagues discover potential pirate sites in Newfoundland, Canada, in 2016, and in Peru, Parcak's team used drones to detect potential pirate sites in 2017, Live Science previously reported. Images taken in 2011 help archaeologists uncover humanoid forms

Many of the newly discovered markings depict humanoid forms, including warriors, and are smaller than other Nazca Lines, Stanish told LiveScience. "Aerial photos reveal mysterious stone structures," Stanish said.

In addition, "the Nazca Lines are all on flat ground, and most of Paracas appears to be in hilly terrain." Perhaps, he said, people in these towns below the mountains could see them.

The Paracas culture emerged around 800 BC and was ruled by the priest Johny Isla, who also The head of the Peruvian Ministry of Culture in Ica province previously told Live Science. The Paracas also built the pyramids and made significant advances in the production of ceramics and textiles.

In 2015, Isla rediscovered a killer whale Paracas landform, originally discovered in the 1960s but not rediscovered until Isla began studying it.

Archaeologists hope to preserve all Peruvian topography, including newly discovered topography, as more people move to Peru.

"Those threads are being broken," Stanish said of Peru's booming economy.

Original article about life sciences.