A truly massive cat drawing found in Peru
October 19, 2020 12:26 PM Subscribe
This has made my day, thank you for posting
posted by Kitchen Witch at 12:37 PM on October 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Kitchen Witch at 12:37 PM on October 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
Are we absolutely sure Neil Buchanan wasn't seen in the area right before this was discovered?
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 12:43 PM on October 19, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 12:43 PM on October 19, 2020 [2 favorites]
Surprised that no one has made a long cat reference yet! Fantastic find!
posted by skye.dancer at 12:44 PM on October 19, 2020
posted by skye.dancer at 12:44 PM on October 19, 2020
I have questions: why wasn't it noticeable before? How was it discovered? How was it uncovered and preserved?
posted by latkes at 12:44 PM on October 19, 2020 [15 favorites]
posted by latkes at 12:44 PM on October 19, 2020 [15 favorites]
KITTY
posted by emjaybee at 12:45 PM on October 19, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by emjaybee at 12:45 PM on October 19, 2020 [4 favorites]
When I first saw this news headline, I thought some teenagers just did this, ruining a historical site. But now I read that it dates back to 200 to 100 BCE, and was just uncovered by removing a top layer of rocks.
Those darn 200 to 100 BCE teenagers are at it again! They probably think cats will become a meme or something.
posted by eye of newt at 12:48 PM on October 19, 2020 [9 favorites]
Those darn 200 to 100 BCE teenagers are at it again! They probably think cats will become a meme or something.
posted by eye of newt at 12:48 PM on October 19, 2020 [9 favorites]
Now the important bit will be crowdsourcing a name for this cat.
posted by heatherlogan at 12:50 PM on October 19, 2020 [7 favorites]
posted by heatherlogan at 12:50 PM on October 19, 2020 [7 favorites]
Clearly: Nazcat.
posted by progosk at 12:57 PM on October 19, 2020 [49 favorites]
posted by progosk at 12:57 PM on October 19, 2020 [49 favorites]
I went to Nazca a few decades ago, did the fly-over in a rickety propeller plane, with the instrumentation hanging by electrical tape, highly recommend.
The question in my mind was not how–it's basically surveying, lots of rope and a few tall sticks–but rather why?
posted by signal at 12:58 PM on October 19, 2020 [2 favorites]
The question in my mind was not how–it's basically surveying, lots of rope and a few tall sticks–but rather why?
posted by signal at 12:58 PM on October 19, 2020 [2 favorites]
I have no idea how these Nazca got their cats drawn onto their hills, or why.
posted by incomple at 1:01 PM on October 19, 2020 [58 favorites]
posted by incomple at 1:01 PM on October 19, 2020 [58 favorites]
Something about his has me a tiny bit dubious. Yes I know that the story is "it was faint and that's why we only found it now", but....still.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:01 PM on October 19, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:01 PM on October 19, 2020 [3 favorites]
When I look at that photo of the hill I see some vague, squiggly lines above kitty that could be used to create a host of different shapes. Sort of like looking at cloud shapes. I guess I would not be great at preserving the original art if involved in one of these digs.
posted by waving at 1:10 PM on October 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by waving at 1:10 PM on October 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
The feline figure “was barely visible” and “about to disappear”
“'You’ll see me there,' said the Cat, and vanished."
posted by doctornemo at 1:11 PM on October 19, 2020 [12 favorites]
“'You’ll see me there,' said the Cat, and vanished."
posted by doctornemo at 1:11 PM on October 19, 2020 [12 favorites]
Something about his has me a tiny bit dubious.
Same. I want to see something like contrast-enhanced photos or LIDAR scans of the hillside showing the cat before any "restoration" was done. "Hey, check it out, I found a face!" should be treated with suspicion.
posted by The Tensor at 1:16 PM on October 19, 2020 [2 favorites]
Same. I want to see something like contrast-enhanced photos or LIDAR scans of the hillside showing the cat before any "restoration" was done. "Hey, check it out, I found a face!" should be treated with suspicion.
posted by The Tensor at 1:16 PM on October 19, 2020 [2 favorites]
They never should have let that well-meaning old Spanish lady try to restore it.
posted by pracowity at 1:17 PM on October 19, 2020 [33 favorites]
posted by pracowity at 1:17 PM on October 19, 2020 [33 favorites]
ANCIENT KITTY ASTRONAUTS.
posted by bonehead at 1:21 PM on October 19, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by bonehead at 1:21 PM on October 19, 2020 [4 favorites]
S U P R E M E C H O N K
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:24 PM on October 19, 2020 [5 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:24 PM on October 19, 2020 [5 favorites]
It's sitting on a giant geoglyph of a keyboard.
posted by gimonca at 1:30 PM on October 19, 2020 [10 favorites]
posted by gimonca at 1:30 PM on October 19, 2020 [10 favorites]
What species of cat is this supposed to be? Domestic cats didn't come to the Americas until the Columbian Exchange, so I guess this could be whatever cat is native to Peru. So it could possibly be the ocelot, the puma, the jaguar or the Andean mountain cat, or maybe some other species of cat I'm missing. I'm also wondering, does this have any religious significance?
posted by suburbanbeatnik at 1:30 PM on October 19, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by suburbanbeatnik at 1:30 PM on October 19, 2020 [4 favorites]
I'm skeptical.
posted by WalkerWestridge at 2:06 PM on October 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by WalkerWestridge at 2:06 PM on October 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
I can has geoglyph?
posted by MrJM at 2:10 PM on October 19, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by MrJM at 2:10 PM on October 19, 2020 [3 favorites]
According to Wikipedia, other cats native to Peru include the pampas cat aka colocolo, the oncilla, the margay, the jagarundi. and the cougar.
(The spectacled bear is also native to Peru. While it's not a cat, it is a) the last remaining short-faced bear, and b) just adorable.)
posted by box at 2:23 PM on October 19, 2020 [4 favorites]
(The spectacled bear is also native to Peru. While it's not a cat, it is a) the last remaining short-faced bear, and b) just adorable.)
posted by box at 2:23 PM on October 19, 2020 [4 favorites]
how did I not know about the adorable Andean mountain cat before today??? so cute!!!
also, this is cool. I love old stuff.
posted by supermedusa at 2:27 PM on October 19, 2020
also, this is cool. I love old stuff.
posted by supermedusa at 2:27 PM on October 19, 2020
Archaeologists have dug down several layers and unearthed a layer of giant fossilised kibbles.
posted by carter at 2:42 PM on October 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by carter at 2:42 PM on October 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
From TFA:
The style of the drawing dates it to the Late Paracas period, from around 200 to 100 BCE. Cats were a popular motif among the Paracas people (an Andean society), as they are seen on many of their textiles and ceramics.posted by heatherlogan at 2:49 PM on October 19, 2020 [13 favorites]
This is, technically speaking, not a Nazca drawing but a Paracas drawing, as the site predates Nazca culture, according to the Ministry statement. It’s believed that the early drawings made by the Paracas culture had a big influence on the later Nazca lines.
My two thousand and five year old could draw that!
posted by freecellwizard at 3:00 PM on October 19, 2020 [11 favorites]
posted by freecellwizard at 3:00 PM on October 19, 2020 [11 favorites]
Archaeologists have dug down several layers and unearthed a a piece of paper
posted by waving at 3:08 PM on October 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by waving at 3:08 PM on October 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
Does . . . does the spectacled bear look like Henry Winkler?
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 3:15 PM on October 19, 2020
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 3:15 PM on October 19, 2020
ABC.net.au link - basically drones are the reason why more and more of these line drawings are being found, as they give the altitude needed without being too high up (light plane).
Cute kitty.
posted by freethefeet at 3:20 PM on October 19, 2020 [2 favorites]
Cute kitty.
posted by freethefeet at 3:20 PM on October 19, 2020 [2 favorites]
basically drones are the reason why more and more of these line drawings are being found, as they give the altitude needed without being too high up
OK, now I'm even more skeptical.
OK, now I'm even more skeptical.
- That "cat" is clearly visible from the ground near the hill—no drone perspective required.
- It's easy to blow up low-altitude aerial photos to give the same perspectives you'd get from drones.
Surprised that no one has made a long cat reference yet!
Long Now Cat?
posted by mhoye at 4:18 PM on October 19, 2020 [3 favorites]
Long Now Cat?
posted by mhoye at 4:18 PM on October 19, 2020 [3 favorites]
The margay is an AWESOME CAT.
It climbs trees like a champ!
I mean, it’s super good at it, being able to hang and climb upside down with ease.
I can haz rotating ankles!
posted by darkstar at 4:24 PM on October 19, 2020 [3 favorites]
It climbs trees like a champ!
I mean, it’s super good at it, being able to hang and climb upside down with ease.
I can haz rotating ankles!
posted by darkstar at 4:24 PM on October 19, 2020 [3 favorites]
the concept of a boopable snoot is the one thing that seems to transcend time and culture
posted by um at 4:28 PM on October 19, 2020 [7 favorites]
posted by um at 4:28 PM on October 19, 2020 [7 favorites]
SCENE: EARTH 2020, FIRST CONTACT
Alien: what is this device you are holding?
Human: uh, it's a kittycat
A: "kitty... cat"?
H: a small animal we like to have around mostly for companionship
A: ah! ah! like our 'ixjqtyblxub'! I understand!
ALIEN PRODUCES A SMALL MANY-TENTACLED HORROR AND GIVES IT SCRITCHES
A: may I... is it...?
H:of course! this is the snoot, should you wish to boop it
ALIEN EXTENDS A PEDIPALP TOWARDS THE KITTYCAT. THE CAT SNIFFS IT WITH INTEREST
A: adorable! here, please boop my X'lyqwug in turn
HUMAN CAUTIOUSLY TOUCHES THE MOST BOOPABLE-LOOKING PART OF THE HORROR. THE HORROR WRITHES AND CHITTERS
H: do you, uh... want to see some photos of kitty?
A: OF COURSE I WISH TO SEE ALL THE PHOTOS
posted by um at 4:52 PM on October 19, 2020 [25 favorites]
Alien: what is this device you are holding?
Human: uh, it's a kittycat
A: "kitty... cat"?
H: a small animal we like to have around mostly for companionship
A: ah! ah! like our 'ixjqtyblxub'! I understand!
ALIEN PRODUCES A SMALL MANY-TENTACLED HORROR AND GIVES IT SCRITCHES
A: may I... is it...?
H:of course! this is the snoot, should you wish to boop it
ALIEN EXTENDS A PEDIPALP TOWARDS THE KITTYCAT. THE CAT SNIFFS IT WITH INTEREST
A: adorable! here, please boop my X'lyqwug in turn
HUMAN CAUTIOUSLY TOUCHES THE MOST BOOPABLE-LOOKING PART OF THE HORROR. THE HORROR WRITHES AND CHITTERS
H: do you, uh... want to see some photos of kitty?
A: OF COURSE I WISH TO SEE ALL THE PHOTOS
posted by um at 4:52 PM on October 19, 2020 [25 favorites]
I am going to guess that archeological professionals are better able to assess whether this is a teenage prank or thousands of years old and probably checked before announcing.
posted by nakedmolerats at 4:52 PM on October 19, 2020 [13 favorites]
posted by nakedmolerats at 4:52 PM on October 19, 2020 [13 favorites]
Now the important bit will be crowdsourcing a name for this cat.
Katty McKatface.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 5:12 PM on October 19, 2020 [5 favorites]
Katty McKatface.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 5:12 PM on October 19, 2020 [5 favorites]
Alien: what is this device you are holding?
Human: uh, it's a kittycat
A: "kitty... cat"?
H: a small animal we like to have around mostly for companionship
A: ah! ah! like our 'ixjqtyblxub'! I understand!
ALIEN PRODUCES A SMALL MANY-TENTACLED HORROR AND GIVES IT SCRITCHES
So...a flerken.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:51 PM on October 19, 2020 [7 favorites]
Human: uh, it's a kittycat
A: "kitty... cat"?
H: a small animal we like to have around mostly for companionship
A: ah! ah! like our 'ixjqtyblxub'! I understand!
ALIEN PRODUCES A SMALL MANY-TENTACLED HORROR AND GIVES IT SCRITCHES
So...a flerken.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:51 PM on October 19, 2020 [7 favorites]
This page has a photo of a Paracas textile with cats. This blog post also has a Paracas textile with cats (look particularly at the detail photo).
posted by gudrun at 6:47 PM on October 19, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by gudrun at 6:47 PM on October 19, 2020 [4 favorites]
Page 10 of this pdf of a presentation by Masato Sakai, the head of this investigation, shows the cat before and after (after what exactly, I'm not sure). This paper that Sakai coauthored discusses bird geoglyphs in the Nazca desert.
posted by lukemeister at 10:15 PM on October 19, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by lukemeister at 10:15 PM on October 19, 2020 [2 favorites]
shows the cat before and after
Pretty sure that's a different cat, but those "before" pictures are pretty convincing—in most of the cases, there's clearly some raised or differently-colored landscape, and I can buy most of lines they've annotated the pictures with. The title slide mentions IBM AI, which led me to this article. It looks like they've trained a deep neural network to recognize geoglyphs, then fed it photographic data to find new ones. That technique sounds interesting, but strikes me as hard to validate—how can you tell when you've found a very eroded geoglyph vs. a spurious bit of landscape? (If I were training that system, I'd want a bunch of known-not-geoglyph structures to include in the negative training set.)
For example, in the image in the article/video, there's a central structure that looks very plausible (but !WARNING! it looks a face), surrounded by some less clear lines, which are in turn surrounded by EVEN LESS clear lines, and eventually stuff that just looks like erosion. The AI has highlighted some, but not all of those lines. How convincing is that? Do they go validate the extent of the structures on-site based on, I dunno, different types of rocks?
posted by The Tensor at 11:59 PM on October 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
Pretty sure that's a different cat, but those "before" pictures are pretty convincing—in most of the cases, there's clearly some raised or differently-colored landscape, and I can buy most of lines they've annotated the pictures with. The title slide mentions IBM AI, which led me to this article. It looks like they've trained a deep neural network to recognize geoglyphs, then fed it photographic data to find new ones. That technique sounds interesting, but strikes me as hard to validate—how can you tell when you've found a very eroded geoglyph vs. a spurious bit of landscape? (If I were training that system, I'd want a bunch of known-not-geoglyph structures to include in the negative training set.)
For example, in the image in the article/video, there's a central structure that looks very plausible (but !WARNING! it looks a face), surrounded by some less clear lines, which are in turn surrounded by EVEN LESS clear lines, and eventually stuff that just looks like erosion. The AI has highlighted some, but not all of those lines. How convincing is that? Do they go validate the extent of the structures on-site based on, I dunno, different types of rocks?
posted by The Tensor at 11:59 PM on October 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
Years ago, I stumbled on a website where they claimed that the ancients had flying machines, and that such artwork was meant to be viewed from the sky. I can never believe such nonsense, but found it an amusing thought experiment.
posted by TreeHugger at 12:43 AM on October 20, 2020
posted by TreeHugger at 12:43 AM on October 20, 2020
There are several giant hill figures in England that are "best viewed from the air", including the Uffington White Horse, the Long Man in East Sussex, and the Cerne Abbas Giant [possibly NSFW due to anatomy].
It sounds like the techniques used to create them -- i.e., removing a surface layer of earth/rocks to expose contrasting material -- were very similar to the Paracas figures.
posted by heatherlogan at 7:30 AM on October 20, 2020 [2 favorites]
It sounds like the techniques used to create them -- i.e., removing a surface layer of earth/rocks to expose contrasting material -- were very similar to the Paracas figures.
posted by heatherlogan at 7:30 AM on October 20, 2020 [2 favorites]
In my newspaper, the headline omitted the word "drawing", and I was very disappointed to find out that there was not a real, gigantic, 2000-year-old cat roaming around Peru.
posted by martinrebas at 8:22 AM on October 20, 2020 [6 favorites]
posted by martinrebas at 8:22 AM on October 20, 2020 [6 favorites]
I went down this rabbit hole the other day. The textiles woven/embroidered by the people who made the Nazca figure are just astounding. Check them out. The only reason we know of them is because the conditions in Peru were optimum for their preservation. It makes me wonder how many other early civilizations had fabulous art that there is no longer any trace of and that we'll never know about.
posted by Transl3y at 10:34 AM on October 20, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by Transl3y at 10:34 AM on October 20, 2020 [2 favorites]
Is it me or does this look like kind of a practice sketch?
posted by gottabefunky at 10:54 AM on October 20, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by gottabefunky at 10:54 AM on October 20, 2020 [1 favorite]
I am going to guess that archeological professionals are better able to assess whether this is a teenage prank or thousands of years old and probably checked before announcing.
What if it's a teenage prank from thousands of years ago?
posted by pracowity at 11:26 AM on October 20, 2020 [3 favorites]
What if it's a teenage prank from thousands of years ago?
posted by pracowity at 11:26 AM on October 20, 2020 [3 favorites]
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