Ancient Giant Cat Geoglyph Unearthed in Peru: What Secrets Does This 2000-Year-Old Mystery Hold?
“Representations of this type of feline are frequently found in the iconography of ceramics and textiles in the Paracas society,” the country’s Ministry of Culture wrote in a statement, a reference to the ancient South American culture that once dominated the region.
The newly found cat carving was created sometime between 200 B.C. to 100 B.C. during the late Paracas period in what is modern-day southern Peru.
Jhony Islas/APThe massive geoglyph was unearthed during maintenance work at the Nazca Lines, which is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The cat carving is believed to be older than any of the prehistoric geoglyphs previously unearthed at the site. It is also the largest animal depiction unearthed there so far.
The Nazca Lines were created by ancient Peruvians, scraping the top layer of black rock and gravel from the ground to reveal a bed of rock that was much lighter in color.
This resulted in hundreds of giant carvings which, when observed from above, clearly form depictions of various animals, plants, birds, and intricate abstract designs.
The ancient geoglyphs of the Nazca Lines cover roughly 174 square miles of land and are believed to have been created between 100 BC to 700 AD.
They were finally brought to light thousands of years later during the 1920s when Peruvian archaeologist Toribio Mejia Xesspe uncovered the striking depictions carved into the rocky landscape of the region. As air travel became more prevalent in the 1930s, even more lines were discovered.
In recent years, scientists began to use new technology to uncover a trove of ancient etchings throughout the landscape. In 2019, a group of Japanese researchers successfully identified more than 140 new designs among the Nazca Lines using high-resolution 3D data to uncover etchings that were still hidden.
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