Ancient Peru pyramid spotted by satellite

[The Spartan]

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Ancient Peru pyramid spotted by satellite
New remote-sensing technology reveals huge structure beneath surface
By Rossella Lorenzi
Discovery Channel
updated 12:33 a.m. CT, Mon., Oct. 6, 2008
A new remote sensing technology has peeled away layers of mud and rock near Peru's Cahuachi desert to reveal an ancient adobe pyramid, Italian researchers announced on Friday at a satellite imagery conference in Rome.

Nicola Masini and Rosa Lasaponara of Italy's National Research Council (CNR) discovered the pyramid by analyzing images from the satellite Quickbird, which they used to penetrate the Peruvian soil.

The researchers investigated a test area along the river Nazca. Covered by plants and grass, it was about a mile away from Cahuachi's archaeological site, which contains the remains of what is believed to be the world's biggest mud city.

Via Quickbird, Masini and colleagues collected high-resolution infrared and multispectral images. After the researchers optimized the data with special algorithms, the result was a detailed visualization of a pyramid that could not be spotted using conventional imagery.

The discovery doesn't come as a surprise to archaeologists, since some 40 mounds at Cahuachi are believed to contain the remains of important structures.

"We know that many buildings are still buried under Cahuachi's sands, but until now, it was almost impossible to exactly locate them and detect their shape from an aerial view," Masini told Discovery News. "The biggest problem was the very low contrast between adobe, which is sun-dried earth, and the background subsoil."

Cahuachi is the best-known site of the Nazca civilization, which flourished in Peru between the first century B.C. and the fifth century A.D. and slid into oblivion by the time the Inca Empire rose to dominate the Andes.

Famous for carving in the Peruvian desert hundreds of geometric lines and images of animals and birds that are best viewed from the air, the Nazca people built Cahuachi as a ceremonial center, molding pyramids, temples and plazas from the desert itself.

There, priests led ceremonies including human sacrifices, drawing people from across the region.

Between the year 300 and 350, two natural disasters — a powerful flood and a devastating earthquake — hit Cahuachi. The site lost its sacred power to the Nazca, who then abandoned the area.

But before leaving, they sealed all monuments and buried them under the desert sand.

"Up to now, we have completely unearthed and restored a huge asymmetrical pyramid, known as the Grand Pyramid. A terraced temple and a smaller pyramid are in an advanced state of excavation," Giuseppe Orefici, an archaeologist who has spent decades excavating Cahuachi and has also worked with the CNR researchers, wrote in the conference paper.

Featuring a 300-by-328-foot base, the newly discovered pyramid consists of at least "four degrading terraces which suggest a truncated pyramid similar to the Grand Pyramid." With seven levels, this imposing monument was sculpted from the landscape and enhanced by large adobe walls.

"This is an interesting finding. As with the Grand Pyramid, it is likely that also this pyramid contains the remains of human sacrifices," Andrea Drusini, an anthropologist at Padova University, told Discovery News.

In previous excavations at Cahuachi, Drusini found some 20 severed "offering heads" at various locations inside the Grand Pyramid.


"They have circular holes cut into the forehead and were perfectly prepared from an anatomical point of view," Drusini said.

The researchers are now investigating other buried structures next to the newly discovered pyramid.

"This innovative technology opens up new perspectives for the detection of buried adobe monuments in Cahuachi and elsewhere," said Masini. "Once we have more information about the size and shape of the structures, we might turn to virtual archaeology to bring the pyramid and its nearby structures back to life."

I know we've had this sort of satellite discovery before, but what makes this really cool is they've figured out how to spot these things even when they're very similar to the material they're encased in.

[Solauren]

Wow, that's cool.

I wonder if they can adapt it to work to find Egyptian pyramids and structures?

[Wyrm]

Satellites are used to find Mayan pyramids because they can cut through the hundreds of years of rainforest overgrowth. That's what makes discovering Mayan ruins so hard, see.

Egyptian pyramids, by contrast, would be covered by sand (if they're covered at all — the usual examples stick out like sore thumbs). You'd have a hard time telling sand covering a (small) pyramid from sand covering granite. They also didn't build very many of them, as they are a very specialist structure (tombs of pharaohs). Contrast this with Mayan pyramids, which are more like temples, and so you can expect every settlement to have one. Also, the Egyptians figured out rather quickly that pyramids are a rather obvious "Dig Here for Treasure" markers for any tomb-robbers, plus the pharaohs after Khufu didn't have enough power to build grand pyramids. After the Giza necropolis, pyramids got progressively wimpy and shoddy, and finally dropped altogether.

[General Zod]

Satellites are used to find Mayan pyramids because they can cut through the hundreds of years of rainforest overgrowth. That's what makes discovering Mayan ruins so hard, see.

Egyptian pyramids, by contrast, would be covered by sand (if they're covered at all — the usual examples stick out like sore thumbs). You'd have a hard time telling sand covering a (small) pyramid from sand covering granite. They also didn't build very many of them, as they are a very specialist structure (tombs of pharaohs).

Except that sounds precisely like what the tech in the article is doing? Using special algorithms and satellite advances to distinguish the buildings from the soil?

[Wyrm]

Except that sounds precisely like what the tech in the article is doing? Using special algorithms and satellite advances to distinguish the buildings from the soil?

Not quite. The tech distinguishes between adobe and background subsoil — the adobe is soil modified in bulk and has subtly different characteristics. The core blocks of an Egyptian pyramid is mined as near to the site as possible, and are cut roughly at best. It would be virtually identical to a natural granite stone sitting under sand, and it would be nearly identical to the granite it sits on due to the fact that it was mined nearby. Only the casing stones could be detected, and they're unlikely to still be there.

Besides, any pyramid small enough to be covered by the sands would probably be the size of a typical Egyptian hut.

[Singular Intellect]

Did they happen to discover a heat bloom emanating from underneath the pyramid by chance?