人工智能幫助科學家在納斯卡線條中發現新的人形地畫大綱

AI helps discover new geoglyph in the Nazca Lines

人工智能幫助科學家在納斯卡線條中發現新的人形地畫

Scientists from Japan have used machine learning for the first time to identify a new figure among the ancient motifs of Peru's Nazca Lines.

日本的科學家首次使用機器學習在祕魯的納斯卡線條的古代圖案中發現了一幅新的人形地畫。

The illustration, known as a geoglyph, is thought to date to between 100 BC and 500 AD, and was made by removing the dark stones of the Nazca Desert to reveal the white sand beneath. It's small, just five meters in height, and it shows a humanoid figure grasping a cane or club. Like the other drawings in the Nazca Desert, its exact function is unknown, but its discovery next to an ancient path suggests it might have been used as a waypoint.

據稱，這一人形地畫可以追溯到公元前100年至公元500年間。因爲納斯卡沙漠的深色石頭被移開，露出了下面的白色沙子，纔有了這一人形地畫。該畫很小，只有五米高，上面是一個抓着柺杖或棍棒的人形形象。與納斯卡沙漠中的其它地畫一樣，目前尚不清楚該人形地畫所起的確切作用。但科學家是在一條古老的小徑旁發現的這一人形地畫，這意味着它可能是一個路標。

"It's a large achievement."

“這是一項重大進展。”

"It is in an area that we often investigated, but we did not know the geoglyph existed," Professor Makato Sakai, the leader of a team from Yamagata University that conducted the research, told The Verge over email. "It's a large achievement."

日本山形大學的一個教授團隊開展了這項研究，研究團隊的負責人馬凱特·酒井（Makato Sakai）教授在寫給The Verge期刊的郵件中寫道：“我們經常在該地區進行調查，但此前卻並不知道它的存在。”

The geoglyph was discovered during a larger research project by Yamagata University. Over a decade, using a combination of on-site surveying and aerial imagery, archeologists from the university manually identified 142 new designs in the desert. Then, working with researchers from IBM Japan, they used machine learning to scan the data for designs missed in earlier studies. This revealed geoglyph number 143, our fellow with the cane. It's the first design to be discovered with the help of artificial intelligence.

在山形大學開展的另一個較大的研究項目中，該人形地畫得以發現。十多年來，該大學的考古學家結合現場勘測和航拍圖像，在沙漠中識別了142種新設計。然後，他們與日本IBM公司的研究人員合作，使用機器學習掃描數據，以查找早期研究中遺漏的設計。因此就有了第143幅納斯卡線條人形地畫（也就是拄着柺杖的人形），這是研究人員在人工智能的幫助下發現的第一個設計。

The Nazca Lines occupy an area of roughly 19 square miles, and they are thought to have been made over many centuries starting around 100 BC by the Nazca people of modern-day Peru. They were first studied in detail in the 1940s, and by the time they were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994, around 30 were identified. They're remarkably well-preserved considering their age, helped by the desert's dry climate and winds that sweep away the sand.

納斯卡線條佔地約19平方英里，據認爲，它們是由生於現代祕魯的納斯卡人在公元前100年左右開始製作的。在20世紀40年代，研究員首次對它們進行了詳細的研究。1994年被指定爲聯合國教科文組織世界遺產時，已確定了約30幅人形地畫。雖年份久遠，但這些線條保存良好，這主要得益於沙漠的乾旱氣候和吹走沙塵的風。