18:10 | Lima, Dec. 26 (ANDINA).
A five-year investigation carried out by Nicholas Saunders of the University of Bristol's Department of Archaeology and Anthropology and Clive Ruggles of the University of Leicester, has confirmed the discovery of a new Nazca line.
The pattern, which is described as having “labyrinth complexity,” is not visible to the naked eye and is only discoverable by walking its 4.4 km length.
The specialists said the lines were likely between 1,500 and 2,000 years old, Peruthisweek.com reported, citing an article from La Republica.
As part of the study, the two researchers carefully walked the Nazca lines, studied layers of superimposed designs, photographed Nazca pottery, and used satellite digital mapping.
"Meandering and well-worn trans-desert pathways served such functional purposes but they are quite different from the arrow-straight lines and geometric shapes which seem more likely to have had a spiritual and ritual purpose,” Saunders said, in a press release.
“It may be, we suggest, that the real importance of some of these desert drawings was in their creation rather than any subsequent physical use," he added.
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Published: 12/26/2012