Archaeologist Johnny Isla from the Peruvian Ministry of Culture in the province of Ica has rediscovered the geoglyph in the Pulp Valley, lost to science about half a century ago, which is supposedly the oldest of such objects. Live Science told about the history of re-discovery.
Several years ago, Isla discovered in the archives of the German Archaeological Institute in Bonn a catalog published in the 1970s with a photograph of an unknown geoglyph. The picture was taken in the 1960s in the Pulp Valley, adjacent to the famous Nazca plateau. Since then, it has not been explored and has been forgotten.
Even the locals were unable to help the archaeologist. Isla walked around the valley. In 2015, he managed to find the lost image. It is located on a hillside about 400 kilometers south of Lima. It took two years to restore the object damaged by erosion, the length of which is about 70 meters.
He depicts a killer whale. The authors created the drawing by removing the top layer of stones. A similar technique was used by the people of the Nazca culture in the period from 100 BC. until 800 AD The found geoglyph was even older. Soil analysis showed that it was created no later than 200 BC.
Denis Peredelsky