AI-accelerated Nazca survey nearly doubles the number of known figurative geoglyphs and sheds light on their purpose

This paper demonstrates how AI accelerates discoveries in archaeology, even in a region as well known as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage site of Nazca. Our vastly improved account of relief-type figurative geoglyphs reveals that they differ from line-type figurative geoglyphs beyond their style and size. The line type and relief type also differ in the motifs they depict, their distribution, and their relation to the meshwork of winding trails and the ceremonial network of linear/trapezoidal geoglyphs. Taken together, this makes a compelling case for different nature and purposes of relief-type and line-type figurative geoglyphs: the former sharing information about human activities with individuals or small groups and the latter built and used by the community for ceremonial purposes.