Mysterious lines and figures on the Nazca plateau in southern Peru were discovered in the middle of the XVI century by Spanish conquistadors, who considered them "travel signs".
Next time they were noticed only in 1939, when the Peruvian archaeologist Toribio Xesspé declared their existence. In the same year, the American historian Paul Kosok took the first photos from the plane.
How representatives of Nazca culture, who lived on the plateau in the middle of the first millennium AD, were able to "draw out" the giant drawings of archaeologists have not yet decided. Also scientists argue and about what role played geoglyphs in the life of Indians: whether it was a kind of "observatory", or images of constellations.
Now researchers from University of Yamagata (Japan) on this plateau in southern Peru are found out 143 new geoglyphs!
Among them: animals and other creatures, as well as mysterious "monsters" with square heads.
New geoglyphs were discovered during fieldwork in the western plateau. One of the geoglyphs was first identified by artificial intelligence, the others by fieldwork and 3D data analysis.
Some of the drawings show unusual "monsters", reminiscent of people, but with square heads, as well as two-headed snakes.
Giant drawings date back to the period from 100 B.C. to 300 B.C.
