Megalithic Marvels - Archaeologists use AI to Discover 303 unknown Nazca Geoglyphs

Episode Date: October 4, 2024

In this episode, I break down the exciting news of newly discovered geoglyphs in Peru that date back to 200 B.C., and that nearly double the number of known geoglyphs around the mysterious Nazca region. I then share some of my research regarding the infamous Nazca lines that were discovered in the 1930s. After Machu Picchu, the Nazca Lines consistently rank as one of the top ancient Peruvian sites that attract tens of thousands of tourists each year. Estimated to have been created as early as 500 B.C., the Nazca Lines cover hundreds of square miles are the most mysterious geoglyphs known to man. I think I came to the same conclusion that so many others have when I first flew over the Nazca lines years ago... it seems as if these anomalous works of art were tailor made to be viewed from thousands of feet up in the air. In this episode, I attempt to answer the questions: How were they made? Why were they made? Who made them? SHOW NOTES 2025 Peru &/or Easter Island Tours Nazca Geoglyph article

Stargate Voyager. Archaeologists use AI to discover 300 plus unknown geoglyphs near the NASCAR lions. In this episode, I'm going to break down all the exciting details about this new and exciting discovery, as well as go back to the original NASCAR lions that were discovered sometime around the 1930s, and we're going to kind of do a deep dive on those and discuss all of the mysterious anomalies. But first, I'm excited to announce for the first time on an episode like this that registration is now live for our 2025 Peru and or Easter Island combo tour. And for a limited time only, you can get $500 off this incredible tour by using code Stargate, one word, all caps. I want to personally invite you to join me in renowned Peruvian tour guide Rumi Allegria on a captivating journey.

journey that delves into the intriguing mysteries of some of the world's most enigmatic and iconic sites. So this competitively priced and thoughtfully designed tour includes a pre-tour of Paracas and the Nazca Lines, a main tour focusing on Kusko and Machu Picchu, and then an optional extension to mysterious Easter Island. So you can choose to participate in the whole tour together, or you can choose just one or two segments of the tour if you want. This will be a South American tour like no other. So to read the detailed itinerary and to register, simply click the link in the show notes of this podcast or go to Stargatevoyager.com slash tours. So the UK Guardian publication and many other media outlets not too long ago broke the news of these exciting new discoveries near the

Nazca Lions. Archaeologists used AI to discover 300 plus geoglyphs. And these newly discovered figures date back to at least 200 BC, and they nearly double the number of known geoglyphs in the region. And if you're watching this episode by video on Spotify or YouTube, you're going to see some of the images of these exciting new discoveries that include these geoglyphs of zoomorphic animal figures that include parrots, cats, monkeys, even killer whales. There's even decapitated heads, which are very strange. So it was a team of Japanese archaeologists in collaboration with what's

called the IBM Research Team, discovered these 303 previously unknown geoglyphs of all these figures. Now, most of these new geoglyphs they discovered are smaller in size than the ones that were discovered in the 1930s that are known as the Nazca Lines. And the ones that are older, the Nazca Lines are much larger, some stretch as big as multiple football fields. These ones are a bit smaller, but still very enigmatic. What's important about these new geoglyph discoveries is that they seem to provide a new understanding of the transition from the older paracus culture, many of them, many of whom had elongated skulls and whom I believe created the oldest lines near NASCA to the transition of the later NASCAR culture who created the iconic hummingbird

and monkey figures that you see when you Google the NASCAR lions. Archaeologist Masato Saki said, quote, the use of AI and research has allowed us to map out the distribution of geoglyphs more quickly and accurately. According to a research paper published just a couple weeks ago by the National Academy of Sciences, they state that the use of this AI technology combined with the low-flying drones has revolutionized the speed and rate at which these geoglyphs are being discovered and were just discovered. This paper points out that while it took nearly a century to discover a total of 400 plus

NASCAR lines and figures, using the AI system they now have, and covering the entire NASCAR region, it took just six months to discover these 303 new geoglyphs. The AI model efficiently spotted many of the smaller relief type geoglyphs, which were harder to see with a naked eye. It was also able to analyze vast quantities of geospatial data generated by drones to identify areas where more geoglyphs might be found. John Isla, Peru's chief archaeologist for the NASCAR lines, said the use of drones and AI represented a quantum leap for archaeological study in the area.

He stated, quote, what used to take three or four years can now be done in two or three days, end quote. He made the point also that these newly discovered geoglyphs, some of which are so small, just between three to seven meters across, that they would never have been detected even by flyovers of the past, which discovered the giant Nazca Lines and geoglyphs. Well, this is an exciting discovery, and I guess this is one area where AI is being used for good, and that is to help us find new ancient discoveries that we might not see with our naked eyes. So when it comes to Peru, did you know that after Machu Picchu, the Nazca Lines are considered the most popular tourist attraction or ancient site that people want to see?

The Nazca Lines literally draw tens of thousands of visitors every year. And so another shameless plug for our 2025 Peru tour in May, you have the option to see the Nazca Lines with me. This is part of our pre-tour. It's just like a three or four-day little extension right before the main tour of the Kusko region in Machu Picchu. We will then also visit the Oasis of Ica, where there's an amazing museum with elongated skulls. We're going to try to find some other museums off the beaten path that house other strange elongated skulls. So it's going to be an amazing three or four-day pre-tour of seeing the Nazca Lines. and looking at elongated schools and just enjoying the region of western Peru along the coast. It's so beautiful, and it's going to be a beautiful time of year.

So like I mentioned at the outset of this episode, being that we're talking about these new discoveries near the Nazca Lines, we've got to take some time to talk about the Nazca Lines, the infamous ones, that were discovered in the 1930s. So imagine with me for a minute that it's circa 1930s. You are a pilot, you're flying your airplane over one of the most vast, dry and desolate locations on earth, the Nazca Desert of southern Peru. Time seems to stand still as you saw high above this vast, barren landscape that stretches mile after mile. Suddenly, something out of the corner of your eye catches your attention. what looks like hundreds and hundreds of thick, trapezoidal triangular lines, some that look like giant runways and huge geometric figures depicting animals and birds.

You wonder to yourself, what am I looking at? You don't know it, but you just happen to be one of the first humans of the modern era to have discovered what has come to be known as the NASCAR lines. And that's literally how these NASCAR lines were discovered in the 1930s. Until then, in the modern era, nobody even knew they were lying there. Now, some of these NASCAR lions have been estimated to have been created as early as 500 BC, and then some as recent as 500 AD. So they were not all created at the same time.

The NASCAR lions cover hundreds of square miles and are, again, the most mysterious geoglyphs known to man. And I think I came to the same conclusion that many others before me came to when I first saw the Nazca Lines and flew over them years ago. It seemed as if these anomalous works of art were tailor-made to be viewed from thousands of feet up in the air. These geoglyphs feature over 800 straight lines, 150 geometric figures, and about 70 plant or zoomorphic shapes. However, over a thousand more geoglyphs can be found about 30 miles north of NASCA near Palpa, Peru. And even more can be found all the way to the coast near Paracas. So we have the Nazca lines in geoglyphs. We have the Palpa geoglyphs, and then we have the Paracas geoglyphs.

They're all kind of in the same area, but they're uniquely different. And the palpa and parochus geoglyphs seem to be more three-dimensional and feature more humanoid and strange insectoid-looking figures. Now, some of the largest Nazca geoglyphs are just massive. They're nearly three football fields in length. And some of the longest of the straight lines extend for many miles. The most striking of which is the six-mile-long triangle geoglyph, which appears to almost almost. be laser accurate in shape when you look at it from the air or photos. And the crazy part is the ground underneath this one has been tamped down or stamped down about two feet throughout its entirety.

So it's not just a line drawn in the sand. It is stamped down. It's incredible. Scientists from the University of Dresden measured the magnetic field and found that it changes eight feet below the surface of many of the lines and also discovered that the ability to conduct electrical currency was 8,000 times higher on the lines. Upon close observation, it is evident that the designs were created by making shallow lines in the ground. By removing the small red iron oxide pebbles upon the surface, the white lime-enriched ground beneath became exposed and hardened thus making it resistant to erosion. And because of its isolation and dry stable climate,

there receives less than one inch of rain per year, the lines have been naturally preserved for around 2,000 years. Now, German mathematician and archaeologist Maria Risch, or Risch, can't remember how that's pronounced, studied the lines for over 50 years and believed that the NASCAR artists prepared preliminary drawings on small, small, six-foot square plots. And apparently some of these plots are still visible near some of the

larger figures. Many researchers theorized that some of the lines were created to track the course of underground water flowing down from the Andes Mountains. One of these is Anthony F. Avini, author of The Lines of Nazca. And he affirms this and suggests that the 800 miles worth of straight lines map the direction of water sources and a highly advanced irrigation system which the NASCAR had produced. Other researchers believe that some of the lines were created for solar and lunar alignment purposes. A senior astronomer at the Adler Planetarium named Phyllis Pitlugland performed computer-aided studies of star alignments and asserted that the giant spider figure is an anamorphic diagram of the constellation Orion. Some of the geoglyphs appear to even feature intricate mathematical diagrams.

Still other researchers believe that many of the lions were created for a more ceremonial or spiritual purpose and wonder if the Nazcan lines weren't made so as to communicate with what the ancient artists believed were the gods. Now, to substantiate this theory, some researchers point to one of the strangest of all these geoglyphs known as El Astronado, or the astronaut whom I previously mentioned, which almost appears to be some sort of humanoid-looking figure. And it's also worth noting that ancient petroglyphs depicting three-fingered humanoids have been discovered in the Nazca Desert. So while most scholars attribute the NASCAR culture alone to making the lines somewhere between 500 BC to 580, others like author and researcher Brian Forster, who has written the book NASCA decoding the riddle of the lines and who lives near NASCAR, believes that not all the lines and figures were made at the same time by the NASCAR culture. Brian believes and writes that the NASCA were the last.

last of the line in geoglyph builders, but not the first, that they were created by two cultures. One, the Nazca people, but prior to the Nazca, as I hinted at earlier, the Paracus people, who lived in the region approximately 800 BC to 100 AD, and who possessed strange, elongated skulls. Brian has stated that the lines were made over the course of approximately 1,000 years, starting at the Pacific coast of Paracas, where we find that big Candle-Abra Geoglyph, which we're going to see on our Peru tour in May of 2025. And then going down through Palpa and then finally here to the Nazca Plateau.

I personally find it very fascinating how Brian makes the connection between the Nazca Lines and the elongated skull culture of Paracas. Now, Brian is not the first to come to this understanding. Even the Inca oral tradition state in places that the supreme deity Veracocha commissioned the Nazca Lines in ages past. I personally find it a likely theory that the Nazca Lines, including the geoglyphs of Palpa and Paracas, and now these new 300 plus geoglyphs that have been discovered

were created by at least two or three different cultures again spanning over a thousand years. I also see credibility with a hypothesis that there could be more than one reason for why these geoglyphs and lines were made. I do believe some were made to track the course of water, some for astronomical alignment purposes, but also, yes, 100%, I believe,

some were made to commemorate and even communicate with what the builders believed were their gods. Man, despite all the craziness of the world we are living in these days, at least there are some exciting new discoveries still being made in Peru, in Egypt, at Gobeckli-Tepa. And I hope you enjoyed this episode. And until next time, keep exploring.