{"it":{"id":"SAM-011","kind":"site","sub":"South America","name":"Nazca lines","place":"Peru","lat":-14.697,"lon":-75.135,"date":"They were created between 500 BC and 500 AD by people making depressions or shallow…","mat":"clay;earth;limestone","nfacts":35,"tags":["Andes"],"sum":"In six months of fieldwork, a team from Yamagata University and IBM Research found 303 new figurative geoglyphs on the Nazca pampa in Peru, nearly doubling the number known. An AI model flagged 1,309 likely sites, and the team checked about a quarter of them on foot.\n\nUNESCO places the lines about 400 km south of Lima, in a property of 75,358 ha. They were drawn over nearly 2,000 years by societies of the south coast, from the 8th century BC to the 8th century AD; the Nasca phase ran from 200 BC to 500 AD. Some are figures, others straight lines several kilometres long.\n\nBefore the survey, 430 figurative geoglyphs were known, 318 of them found by Yamagata's own institute. The team led by Masato Sakai, vice director of the university's Institute of Nasca, sees two kinds. Large line-type figures, mostly wild animals, sit on the network of lines and trapezoids and suited community ritual. Small relief-type figures, showing people and domestic animals, line footpaths and could be seen by travellers, like billboards.\n\nThat reading puts the figures on the ground, for walkers, not for viewers in the sky. Erich von Däniken saw it the other way. In Chariots of the Gods he wrote that, seen from the air, the plain of Nazca gave him the clear-cut impression of an airfield, and he asked what was wrong with the idea that the lines told the \"gods\" to land here. The Yamagata survey answers from the ground: the small figures face the footpaths, and the giant ones sit along the network of lines where communities gathered for ritual.\n\nHow many more figures are still waiting beside the trails?","why":"New figures found with AI suggest the Nazca drawings were made for people walking past them.","src":[361],"nsrc":10,"yt":"Why draw what you cannot see from the ground?","rel":["SAM-001"],"hook":"In six months, a survey found 303 new Nazca figures, nearly doubling the known total."},"S":{"361":["Wikipedia: Nazca lines","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazca_lines"]},"rec":{"id":"SAM-011","alias":[],"ms":[{"f":"length of all the lines is more than","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"1300","u":"km","o":"The combined length of all the lines is more than 1300 km, and the group covers an area of about 50 km2.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nazca_lines&oldid=1382732546","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1382732546 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2355"},{"f":"and the group covers an area of about","a":"area","v":"50","u":"km2","o":"The combined length of all the lines is more than 1300 km, and the group covers an area of about 50 km2.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nazca_lines&oldid=1382732546","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1382732546 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2356"},{"f":"but more than half are slightly more than","a":"width","v":"33","u":"cm","o":"REF5 The width of the lines varies considerably, but more than half are slightly more than 33 cm wide.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nazca_lines&oldid=1382732546","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1382732546 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2357"},{"f":"REF7 In some places they may be only","a":"width","v":"30","u":"cm","o":"REF6 REF7 In some places they may be only 30 cm wide, and in others reach 1.8 m wide.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nazca_lines&oldid=1382732546","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1382732546 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2358"},{"f":"only 30 cm wide and in others reach","a":"width","v":"1.8","u":"m","o":"REF6 REF7 In some places they may be only 30 cm wide, and in others reach 1.8 m wide.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nazca_lines&oldid=1382732546","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1382732546 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2359"},{"f":"are best seen from the air at around","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"500","u":"m","o":"Some of the Nazca lines form shapes that are best seen from the air (at around 500 m), although they are also visible from the surrounding foothills and other high places.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nazca_lines&oldid=1382732546","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1382732546 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2360"},{"f":"The largest ones are about","a":"length","v":"370","u":"m","o":"The largest ones are about 370 m long.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nazca_lines&oldid=1382732546","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1382732546 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2361"},{"f":"The high arid plateau stretches more than","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"80","u":"km","o":"The high, arid plateau stretches more than 80 km between the towns of Nazca and Palpa on the Pampas de Jumana, approximately 400 km south of Lima.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nazca_lines&oldid=1382732546","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1382732546 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2362"},{"f":"and Palpa on the Pampas de Jumana approximately","a":"distance (not a site dimension)","v":"400","u":"km","o":"The high, arid plateau stretches more than 80 km between the towns of Nazca and Palpa on the Pampas de Jumana, approximately 400 km south of Lima.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nazca_lines&oldid=1382732546","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1382732546 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2363"},{"f":"complex the area encompassing the lines is nearly","a":"area","v":"450","u":"km2","o":"In total, the earthwork project is huge and complex: the area encompassing the lines is nearly 450 km2, and the largest figures can span nearly 370 m (1,200 ft).","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nazca_lines&oldid=1382732546","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1382732546 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2364"},{"f":"km2 and the largest figures can span nearly","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"370","u":"m","o":"In total, the earthwork project is huge and complex: the area encompassing the lines is nearly 450 km2, and the largest figures can span nearly 370 m (1,200 ft).","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nazca_lines&oldid=1382732546","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1382732546 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2365"},{"f":"the largest figures can span nearly 370 m","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"1200","u":"ft","o":"In total, the earthwork project is huge and complex: the area encompassing the lines is nearly 450 km2, and the largest figures can span nearly 370 m (1,200 ft).","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nazca_lines&oldid=1382732546","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1382732546 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2366"},{"f":"Some figures have been measured the hummingbird is","a":"length","v":"93","u":"m","o":"Some figures have been measured: the hummingbird is 93 m long, the condor is 134 m, the monkey is 93 by, and the spider is 47 m.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nazca_lines&oldid=1382732546","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1382732546 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2367"},{"f":"hummingbird is 93 m long the condor is","a":"length","v":"134","u":"m","o":"Some figures have been measured: the hummingbird is 93 m long, the condor is 134 m, the monkey is 93 by, and the spider is 47 m.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nazca_lines&oldid=1382732546","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1382732546 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2368"},{"f":"monkey is 93 by and the spider is","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"47","u":"m","o":"Some figures have been measured: the hummingbird is 93 m long, the condor is 134 m, the monkey is 93 by, and the spider is 47 m.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nazca_lines&oldid=1382732546","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1382732546 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2369"},{"f":"have conducted research in Pampa de Atarco about","a":"distance (not a site dimension)","v":"10","u":"km","o":"Nicola Masini and Giuseppe Orefici have conducted research in Pampa de Atarco, about 10 km (6 mi) south of Pampa de Nasca, which they believe reveals a spatial, functional and religious relationship between these geoglyphs and the temples of Cahuachi.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nazca_lines&oldid=1382732546","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1382732546 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2370"},{"f":"substantial tire marks across an area of approximately","a":"plan dimension (pair)","v":"46","u":"m","o":"He had damaged three of the geoglyphs by leaving substantial tire marks across an area of approximately 46 m by 107 m (150 by 350 feet).","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nazca_lines&oldid=1382732546","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1382732546 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2371"},{"f":"across an area of approximately 46 m by","a":"plan dimension (pair)","v":"107","u":"m","o":"He had damaged three of the geoglyphs by leaving substantial tire marks across an area of approximately 46 m by 107 m (150 by 350 feet).","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nazca_lines&oldid=1382732546","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1382732546 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2372"},{"f":"approximately 46 m by 107 m 150 by","a":"plan dimension (pair)","v":"350","u":"feet","o":"He had damaged three of the geoglyphs by leaving substantial tire marks across an area of approximately 46 m by 107 m (150 by 350 feet).","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nazca_lines&oldid=1382732546","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1382732546 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M2373"},{"f":"Nazca lines (W11A15)","a":"property_area","v":"75358.47","u":"ha","o":"","unc":"","by":"UNESCO","yr":"1994","m":"as stated","c":"UNESCO","pg":"","url":"https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/700/","b":"S","bb":"wave11 staging","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"UNESCO inscription [W11M033]","id":"M3251"},{"f":"Nazca lines (W11A15)","a":"geoglyph_zone_area","v":"450","u":"km2","o":"","unc":"","by":"UNESCO","yr":"1994","m":"as stated","c":"UNESCO","pg":"","url":"https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/700/","b":"S","bb":"wave11 staging","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"about [W11M034]","id":"M3252"},{"f":"Nazca lines (W11A15)","a":"centre_lat","v":"-14.7258","u":"deg","o":"","unc":"","by":"UNESCO","yr":"","m":"as stated","c":"UNESCO","pg":"","url":"https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/700/","b":"S","bb":"wave11 staging","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"S14 43 32.988 WHC listing [W11M035]","id":"M3253"},{"f":"Nazca lines (W11A15)","a":"centre_lon","v":"-75.1486","u":"deg","o":"","unc":"","by":"UNESCO","yr":"","m":"as stated","c":"UNESCO","pg":"","url":"https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/700/","b":"S","bb":"wave11 staging","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"W75 8 54.996 WHC listing [W11M036]","id":"M3254"},{"f":"Nazca lines (W11A15)","a":"distance_south_of_Lima","v":"400","u":"km","o":"","unc":"","by":"see source","yr":"","m":"as stated","c":"see source","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nazca_lines&oldid=1382732546 ; https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/700/","b":"V","bb":"wave11 staging","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"approx [W11M037]","id":"M3255"},{"f":"Nazca lines (W11A15)","a":"combined_line_length","v":">1300","u":"km","o":"","unc":"","by":"see source","yr":"","m":"as stated","c":"see source","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nazca_lines&oldid=1382732546","b":"S","bb":"wave11 staging","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":" [W11M038]","id":"M3256"},{"f":"Nazca lines (W11A15)","a":"line_depth","v":"10-15","u":"cm","o":"","unc":"","by":"see source","yr":"","m":"as stated","c":"see source","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nazca_lines&oldid=1382732546","b":"S","bb":"wave11 staging","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":" [W11M039]","id":"M3257"},{"f":"Nazca lines (W11A15)","a":"typical_line_width","v":">0.33","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"see source","yr":"","m":"as stated","c":"see source","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nazca_lines&oldid=1382732546","b":"S","bb":"wave11 staging","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"range 0.30-1.8 [W11M040]","id":"M3258"},{"f":"Nazca lines (W11A15)","a":"largest_figure_length","v":"370","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"see source","yr":"","m":"as stated","c":"see source","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nazca_lines&oldid=1382732546","b":"S","bb":"wave11 staging","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"approx [W11M041]","id":"M3259"},{"f":"Nazca lines (W11A15)","a":"zoomorphic_line_designs","v":">70","u":"count","o":"","unc":"","by":"see source","yr":"","m":"as stated","c":"see source","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nazca_lines&oldid=1382732546","b":"S","bb":"wave11 staging","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":" [W11M042]","id":"M3260"},{"f":"Nazca lines (W11A15)","a":"figurative_known_pre2022","v":"430","u":"count","o":"","unc":"","by":"Sakai et al","yr":"2024","m":"as stated","c":"Sakai et al","pg":"","url":"https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2407652121","b":"S","bb":"wave11 staging","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"survey [W11M043]","id":"M3261"},{"f":"Nazca lines (W11A15)","a":"new_figurative_AI_survey","v":"303","u":"count","o":"","unc":"","by":"Sakai et al","yr":"2024","m":"as stated","c":"Sakai et al","pg":"","url":"https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2407652121","b":"S","bb":"wave11 staging","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"AI+field 2022-23 [W11M044]","id":"M3262"},{"f":"Nazca lines (W11A15)","a":"new_geometric_AI_survey","v":"42","u":"count","o":"","unc":"","by":"Sakai et al","yr":"2024","m":"as stated","c":"Sakai et al","pg":"","url":"https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2407652121","b":"S","bb":"wave11 staging","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"field [W11M045]","id":"M3263"},{"f":"Nazca lines (W11A15)","a":"relief_human_motif_share","v":"81.6","u":"%","o":"","unc":"","by":"Sakai et al","yr":"2024","m":"as stated","c":"Sakai et al","pg":"","url":"https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2407652121","b":"S","bb":"wave11 staging","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":" [W11M046]","id":"M3264"},{"f":"Nazca lines (W11A15)","a":"relief_mean_distance_to_trail","v":"43","u":"m","o":"","unc":"","by":"Sakai et al","yr":"2024","m":"as stated","c":"Sakai et al","pg":"","url":"https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2407652121","b":"S","bb":"wave11 staging","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"GIS [W11M047]","id":"M3265"},{"f":"Nazca lines (W11A15)","a":"line_type_wild_animal_share","v":"64","u":"%","o":"","unc":"","by":"Sakai et al","yr":"2024","m":"as stated","c":"Sakai et al","pg":"","url":"https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2407652121","b":"S","bb":"wave11 staging","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":" [W11M048]","id":"M3266"}],"lab":[{"k":"Materials","mat":"site material (as stated in article)","m":"documentary mention (Wikipedia, auto-extracted)","v":"In 2013, machinery used in a limestone quarry was reported to have destroyed a small section of a line, and caused damage to another.","by":"no inline ref in article","b":"S","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nazca_lines&oldid=1382732546"}],"eng":[],"ori":[],"gaps":[],"dat":[],"aa":[{"id":"AA022","a":"landing strips / visible only from air","who":"see anomaly_claims","main":"ritual pathways; visible from hills","ms":"","st":"contradicted","n":"","nl":22},{"id":"AA168","a":"Alien landing strips","who":"Erich von Daniken 1968","main":"Nazca culture ritual geoglyphs; trails & ritual networks (Sakai 2024)","ms":"W11S18;W11S19;W11S20","st":"contradicted","n":"","nl":"1"}],"ac":[],"me":[],"ci":[{"who":"Erich von Daniken","med":"book","ep":"Chariots of the Gods? (von Daniken, 1968)","v":"Replicas of alien structures / signals to aliens","b":"S","s":["W11S117"]},{"who":"Ancient Aliens","med":"TV","ep":"Ancient Aliens #49 \"Beyond Nazca\" (aired 2013-02-15)","v":"Episode title only; claim content not in source","b":"S","s":["W11S116"]},{"who":"Erich von Daniken","med":"book","ep":"Chariots of the Gods? (1968)","v":"Built by humans directed by/for aliens (landing strips)","b":"S","s":["W16S04"]},{"who":"Erich von Daniken","med":"book","ep":"Chariots of the Gods? (Eng. pb, IA scan), ch.3 (TOC p.13)","v":"Plain of Nazca gave impression of an airfield","b":"S","s":["W17S17"]},{"who":"Erich von Daniken","med":"book","ep":"Return to the Stars / Gods from Outer Space (IA scan), ch.8 \"Ancient Sites that Deserve Investigation\"","v":"Lines look \"just like an airport lay-out\"","b":"S","s":["W18S13"]}],"cq":[],"sd":[],"sub":[],"site":{"age":"They were created between 500 BC and 500 AD by people making depressions or shallow incisions in the desert floor, removing pebbles and leaving different-colored dirt exposed.","dm":"[see dating_excerpt; method not extracted]","lab":"NO: inference only (style/context/king list/textual)","weak":"no direct lab result on the structure in our records; date from stylistic, contextual or textual inference","unesco":"https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/700","dens":"CENSUS"},"co":{"lat":"-14.6975","lon":"-75.135","src":"Wikidata P625 + UNESCO WHC list XML (agree ≤0.05°)","agree":"agree (inside OSM feature extent)","b":"V","note":"two independent sources agree; max delta 0.0285 deg (~3.16 km)","osm":"https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/116025973"},"src":[{"id":"S0352","t":"no inline ref in article","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nazca_lines&oldid=1382732546"},{"id":"W11S19","t":"UNESCO","u":"https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/700/"},{"id":null,"t":"see source","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nazca_lines&oldid=1382732546 ; https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/700/"},{"id":"S0058","t":"Sakai et al","u":"https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2407652121"},{"id":"W11S117","t":"Wikipedia: Chariots of the Gods?","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chariots_of_the_Gods%3F&oldid=1379551837"},{"id":"W11S116","t":"Wikipedia: List of Ancient Aliens episodes","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_Ancient_Aliens_episodes&oldid=1378379851"},{"id":"W16S04","t":"Wikipedia Chariots of the Gods?","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chariots_of_the_Gods?&oldid=1379551837"},{"id":"W17S17","t":"von Daniken, Chariots of the Gods? English pb (Internet Archive OCR full text; saved prim/chariots_ia.txt)","u":"https://archive.org/download/chariots_of_the_gods/chariots_of_the_gods1_djvu.txt"},{"id":"W18S13","t":"von Daniken, Return to the Stars / Gods from Outer Space (IA OCR; saved prim/godsfromouterspace...txt)","u":"https://archive.org/download/godsfromouterspacereturntothestarsorevidencefortheimpossiblebyvondanikenerich/Gods%20From%20Outer%20Space%2C%20Return%20to%20the%20Stars%20or%20Evidence%20for%20the%20Impossible%20by%20von%20Daniken%20Erich_djvu.txt"},{"id":"S0555","t":"Wikipedia: Nazca lines","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazca_lines"},{"id":"VSAM-011-11","t":"von Däniken, Chariots of the Gods: Unsolved Mysteries of the Past (Internet Archive)","u":"https://archive.org/details/erich-von-daniken-chariots-of-the-gods-unsolved-mysteries-of-the-past-pdfdrive"},{"id":"VSAM-011-12","t":"Yamagata University (2024): AI-accelerated Nazca survey nearly doubles known figurative geoglyphs","u":"https://www.yamagata-u.ac.jp/en/information/info/20240924/"},{"id":"VSAM-011-13","t":"Yamagata University (2024): press conference held in Peru","u":"https://www.yamagata-u.ac.jp/en/information/info/20241018/"},{"id":null,"t":"TIME, “Science: Mystery on the Mesa”, 25 March 1974 (on von Däniken’s Chariots of the Gods? and Maria Reiche’s reply).","u":"https://time.com/archive/6875951/science-mystery-on-the-mesa/"}],"qs":["If the small figures were billboards, what were they advertising?","Should AI be used to find sites before looters do?","How many figures are still unfound?"],"gal":[{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f7/L%C3%ADneas_de_Nazca%2C_Nazca%2C_Per%C3%BA%2C_2015-07-29%2C_DD_49.JPG/1280px-L%C3%ADneas_de_Nazca%2C_Nazca%2C_Per%C3%BA%2C_2015-07-29%2C_DD_49.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:L%C3%ADneas_de_Nazca,_Nazca,_Per%C3%BA,_2015-07-29,_DD_49.JPG","title":"Líneas de Nazca, Nazca, Perú, 2015-07-29, DD 49.JPG","lic":"CC BY-SA 4.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0","by":"Diego Delso","cap":"Aerial view of the \"Monkey\", one of the most popular geoglyphs of the Nazca Lines, which are located in the Nazca Desert in southern Peru. The geoglyphs of this"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/04-Nazca_Lines-nX-36.jpg/1280px-04-Nazca_Lines-nX-36.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:04-Nazca_Lines-nX-36.jpg","title":"04-Nazca Lines-nX-36.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 4.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0","by":"PsamatheM","cap":"The Parrot (Nazca Lines)"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/26/04-Nazca_Lines-nX-54.jpg/1280px-04-Nazca_Lines-nX-54.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:04-Nazca_Lines-nX-54.jpg","title":"04-Nazca Lines-nX-54.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 4.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0","by":"PsamatheM","cap":"The Tree, The Lizard and Viewing Tower & Pan-American Highway (Nazca Lines)"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5d/04-Nazca_Lines-nX-58.jpg/1280px-04-Nazca_Lines-nX-58.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:04-Nazca_Lines-nX-58.jpg","title":"04-Nazca Lines-nX-58.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 4.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0","by":"PsamatheM","cap":"The Spiral (Nazca Lines)"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cd/L%C3%ADneas_de_Nazca%2C_Nazca%2C_Per%C3%BA%2C_2015-07-29%2C_DD_39.JPG/1280px-L%C3%ADneas_de_Nazca%2C_Nazca%2C_Per%C3%BA%2C_2015-07-29%2C_DD_39.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:L%C3%ADneas_de_Nazca,_Nazca,_Per%C3%BA,_2015-07-29,_DD_39.JPG","title":"Líneas de Nazca, Nazca, Perú, 2015-07-29, DD 39.JPG","lic":"CC BY-SA 4.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0","by":"Diego Delso","cap":"Aerial view of the \"Whale\", one of the geoglyphs of the Nazca Lines, which are located in the Nazca Desert in southern Peru. The geoglyphs of this UNESCO World ","alt":"Aerial view of the \"Whale\", one of the geoglyphs of the Nazca Lines, which are located in the Nazca Desert in southern Peru. The geoglyphs of this UNESCO World"}],"sum":"Picture a traveller on a winding footpath across a stony desert in southern Peru, two thousand years ago. The ground is dark with weathered gravel, and the trail bends around a low slope. On that slope, within easy view of the path, is a figure: a human shape, or a llama, or a severed head, outlined in pale earth where someone has cleared the dark stones away. It was made to be seen from where the traveller stands. That small encounter, repeated along more than a hundred trails, is changing how archaeologists read the most famous drawings on the face of the Earth.\n\nThe Nazca lines are geoglyphs, designs drawn on the ground, spread across the desert plains of the Río Grande de Nasca basin, some 400 km south of Lima. The protected area covers about 75,358 hectares, and the lines themselves spread over nearly 450 square kilometres. UNESCO calls them the most outstanding group of geoglyphs anywhere in the world and inscribed them in 1994. Hundreds are simple lines and geometric shapes, some straight lines running for several kilometres, along with triangles, trapezoids and spirals. More than 70 are animals and plants: a hummingbird 93 m long, a condor of 134 m, a monkey 93 by 58 m, a spider 47 m, and the largest figures span about 370 m. Most were drawn as a single continuous line.\n\nThe method is not in doubt. The makers removed the dark, weathered surface gravel to expose the lighter ground beneath, cutting shallow lines about 10 to 15 cm deep. The region has some of the lowest rainfall on Earth, with real rain only in El Niño years, and its dry, windless climate has kept the marks for two millennia. Wooden stakes found at the ends of some lines suggest simple surveying, and one stake was radiocarbon dated. The American investigator Joe Nickell later recreated a full-size figure with tools available to the Nazca and showed that a small team could lay out even the largest in days, with no view from above.\n\nThe dates are less settled than the method. UNESCO places the societies that made the lines between the eighth century BC and the eighth century AD, including the Paracas phase, about 400 to 200 BC, and the Nasca phase, about 200 BC to AD 500. In the same text it dates the drawings themselves from roughly 500 BC to AD 500, by comparison with other art of the period. The wider range covers the cultures; the narrower covers the lines. In 2018 drones found 25 geoglyphs in nearby Palpa assigned to the Paracas, many of them on hillsides and many perhaps a thousand years older than the Nazca lines. These were societies without writing, which put socially important information into images on pottery, walls and cloth.\n\nFor most of history the lines were simply part of the land, partly visible from the hills. Peruvian pilots reported them in the twentieth century, and the archaeologist Toribio Mejía Xesspe noticed them while hiking the foothills in 1927. The American historian Paul Kosok, studying ancient irrigation in 1940 and 1941, flew over and recognised a bird. He, Richard Schaedel and the German mathematician Maria Reiche proposed that the lines marked where the sun and stars rose and set on important dates. Others have tied them to water: in 1985 Johan Reinhard argued that worship of mountains and water sources lay at the heart of Nazca religion, and that the lines belonged to it. Most scholars, in one form or another, read them as religious.\n\nIn 2024 a team from Yamagata University's Institute of Nasca and IBM Research sharpened that reading. Until then, 430 figurative geoglyphs were known, 318 of them found by the Yamagata institute itself. The team trained an AI model on aerial images of the 400 km² pampa. It flagged 1,309 likely sites, and in six months of fieldwork on about a quarter of them the team confirmed 303 new figures, nearly doubling the count. The results, led by Masato Sakai, the institute's vice director, appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.\n\nThe new figures fall into two kinds. Large line-type figures, mostly wild animals, sit along the network of straight lines and trapezoids, and were probably made and used by whole communities for ritual. Small relief-type figures show mainly people, domesticated llamas and alpacas, and severed heads, and sit within viewing distance of the winding trails, where individuals or small groups would pass. The team calls them billboards. It estimates that more than 1,000 relief figures line more than 100 trails, and 968 of its flagged candidates have not yet been checked.\n\nThat matters because of the best-known alternative. In Chariots of the Gods?, published in 1968, Erich von Däniken wrote that seen from the air the plain of Nazca gave him the clear-cut impression of an airfield, and asked what was wrong with the idea that the lines told the \"gods\" to land there. Reiche and other scholars dismissed the idea, but the book drew thousands of visitors to the pampa. Its premise was that the figures make sense only from the sky. Many of them, it now turns out, were drawn for people walking past on the ground.\n\nAnd yet the larger puzzle has not gone away. The giant figures are best seen from about 500 m up, though they can be glimpsed from the foothills, and nobody knows for whom their full shapes were intended. Which purpose each figure served, and what the whole network says, is still open. The Yamagata team believes the distribution of these images holds information that mattered to Nasca society, and plans to try to decipher it. Meanwhile the Pan-American Highway runs straight through the site, a truck tore across three geoglyphs in 2018, and floods from rains in the mountains threaten more.\n\nA people with no writing spent centuries putting messages on the ground, some for the passer-by and some on a scale no passer-by could take in at once. If the small figures spoke to the people on the trails, who was meant to read the giant ones?"},"img":null,"md":null,"hh":[{"v":"1,300+","u":"km","h":"Combined length of all the lines","s":[106]},{"v":"370","u":"m","h":"Length of the largest figures, best seen from the air","s":[106]},{"v":"500 BC–500 AD","h":"Period in which the lines were made","s":[106]},{"v":"303","u":"new","h":"Geoglyphs found in 2024 with AI by Yamagata University and IBM","s":[106]}],"hs":{"106":["Wikipedia: Nazca lines (and sources cited there)","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazca_lines"]},"lh":{"s":"img/h/SAM-011.webp","w":1280,"h":852,"o":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f7/L%C3%ADneas_de_Nazca%2C_Nazca%2C_Per%C3%BA%2C_2015-07-29%2C_DD_49.JPG/1280px-L%C3%ADneas_de_Nazca%2C_Nazca%2C_Per%C3%BA%2C_2015-07-29%2C_DD_49.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail"}}