Newly discovered Nazca glyph depicts mythical beast

Preceding the Inca Empire in Peru, the Nazca people are probably best known for leaving behind massive line drawings known as geoglyphs.

While geoglyphs are usually best seen from the sky, researchers have announced the discovery of a new geoglyph that can easily be seen from the ground because it is located on a series of slopes.

Standing 98 feet tall with numerous legs, the geoglyph appears to be a drawing of a creature from Nazca mythology.

“It certainly represents an imaginary or mythical creature,” Masato Sakai, from the Yamagata University in Japan, told Discovery News.

The new geoglyph is just the latest discovered by a team led by Sakai. Last year, the team found numerous geoglyphs using 3-D scanner technology.

Pre-Incas civilization with established mythological customs

Renowned for their immense desert pictures of animals, the Nazca prospered in Peru between the first century B.C. and the seventh century A.D. Their civilization declined just as the Inca Empire began to take control of the Andes.

The new geoglyph is believed to come from the Late Paracas Period, between 400 B.C. and 200 B.C. The estimate is based on earlier variations of the motifs earlier found nearby that which are thought to have been produced at the Late Paracas period.

The geoglyph was made by a different method than most famous Nazca lines. Standard for the period, the method relies upon the white ground which sits beneath the black oxidized pebbles of the area.

“This new animal drawing was created by removing dark surface stones and exposing the underlying whitish ground,” Sakai said. ”The removed stones were then piled up to shape the animal image like a relief.”

The Japanese researcher said the geoglyph may be connected to the massive nearby ceremonial center of Cahuachi, which includes approximately 40 mounds topped with adobe structures.

“We discovered another geoglyph in 2011, not far from the newly found one,” Sakai said. “It was created using the same technique and showed a pair of anthropomorphic figures in a scene of decapitation.”

The Nazca appear to have prized trophy heads, and decapitation appears to have been common in the society. Human heads were probably used for ceremonial purposes.

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Image credit: Masato Sakai

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