Artificial intelligence is transforming archaeology in places where human exploration has long struggled to reach. In two of the world’s most unforgiving environments, the Empty Quarter of the Arabian Peninsula and the Nazca Desert of Peru, researchers are using AI to reveal traces of civilizations that vanished thousands of years ago.
In the Rub’ al Khali, one of the largest continuous sand deserts on Earth, scientists have identified extensive ancient settlement patterns dating back roughly 5,000 years, according to newly-published study. The region’s extreme heat, shifting dunes, and sheer size have historically made large-scale archaeological surveys nearly impossible. That barrier is now falling thanks to a combination of satellite radar imaging and machine learning.
Researchers analyzed data from Japan’s ALOS-2 satellite, which uses synthetic aperture radar capable of penetrating dry sand. Unlike traditional optical imagery, this radar can detect subtle subsurface anomalies. AI models were trained to recognize patterns associated with human activity, such as linear formations, clustered structures, and soil disturbances linked to long-term settlement. Around sites like Saruq Al-Hadid near Dubai, the system revealed far more extensive human activity than previously documented, suggesting complex communities tied to ancient trade networks, possibly including early routes of the incense trade that connected Arabia with the Mediterranean world.
On the other side of the planet, AI is also rewriting the story of the Nazca civilization in southern Peru. Researchers from Yamagata University, working with IBM scientists, trained image recognition algorithms on known Nazca geoglyphs. The system then scanned hundreds of square kilometers of aerial and drone imagery. From tens of thousands of possible targets flagged by the AI, archaeologists confirmed 303 previously unknown geoglyphs.
Many of these newly identified figures are small, faint, and nearly invisible from the ground. They include animals such as birds, cats, monkeys, and marine creatures, along with human-like shapes. Some are only a few meters wide, explaining why they escaped notice for centuries. The discoveries significantly expand the known scale of Nazca symbolic activity and suggest these markings played a more diverse role in ritual, communication, or landscape use than once believed.
Despite its power, AI is not replacing archaeologists. Radar signals can be distorted, and natural formations sometimes mimic human-made structures. Every major find still requires human verification and, where possible, ground investigation. What AI changes is speed and scope. Areas that once took decades to study can now be mapped in months.
As these tools mature, AI-assisted archaeology is opening a new era of discovery, revealing that vast chapters of human history are still hidden beneath sand, waiting for the right technology to bring them to light.
