Experts have discovered a new geoglyph 30 meters (100 feet) long among the Nazca lines on an arid plateau in Peru that experts say depicts an imaginary animal with a long tongue. Archaeologists say the rock carving may date back 2,000 years.
The ancient people created the image by removing stones and piling them up, according to Andina.com. This technique dates back 2,000 to 2,500 years, said Masato Sakai of Japan’s Yamagata University. Dr. Sakai is leading the study of the Nazca lines with a Peruvian archaeologist, Jorge Alano.
The figure’s left side shows possibly a head with the long tongue. On the right side is what the archaeologists are interpreting as a body with legs. Dr. Sakai told National Geographic magazine he thinks the design is of an imaginary creature rather than one from nature.
Dr. Sakai said two other geoglyphs from the same area found in 2011 show two human-like figures in a decapitation scene.
“Taking into account there is an ancient path, between the two geoglyphs heading to the Cahuachi ceremonial site we might say the figures are linked to a pilgrimage way to such religious place,” Dr. Sakai is quoted as saying.
Located in the arid Peruvian coastal plain, some 400 km (248 miles) south of Lima near the town of Nasca, the geoglyphs cover 450 km2 (280 square miles). They are among archaeology's greatest enigmas because of their quantity, nature, size and continuity. The geoglyphs depict living creatures, stylized plants and imaginary beings, as well as geometric figures several kilometers long. The Nazca lines number in the thousands, and the vast majority of them date from 200 BC to 500 AD, to a time when a people referred to as the Nazca inhabited the region.