geoglyph

plural geoglyphs

1. archaeologyA large-scale drawing or image made on the ground by arranging lines of stones, scratching the earth, etc., and often only fully visible from a distance or the air.

   Two of the prehistoric sites, a quarry and a special task area, are common in the region, but the other site, a geoglyph, is rare and unique.

   1989 May, “Affected Environment”, in Proposed 1988 Plan Amendments to the California Desert Conservation Area Plan of 1980: Environmental Assessment, Riverside, Calif.: California Desert District, Bureau of Land Management, United States Department of the Interior, →OCLC, page 3-3

   5 more examples

   These, and almost 100 others stretched along the Colorado River in the California and Arizona deserts, are called geoglyphs or earth carvings by scientists. [...] Although their exact purpose and meaning are still a mystery, we do know these large and delicate geoglyphs are easily damaged by vehicles breaking through the desert surface and obliterating the figures.

   1982, “6,000 Years Ago: Blythe, California: Giants of the Desert”, in Your Fragile Legacy: Cultural and Fossil Resources on the Public Lands, [Washington, D.C.]: Bureau of Land Management, United States Department of the Interior, →OCLC, columns 2–3

   Geoglyphs usually are found on fans sparse of rock, but what seems the oldest of the scraped designs are on cobbled terraces at Denning Springs, Ocotillo, Death Valley, and above the Mojave River.

   1987, Ken Hedges, editor, Rock Art Papers (San Diego Museum Papers; number 23), volume 5, San Diego, Calif.: San Diego Museum of Man, →ISBN, page 38

   Another important form of artistic expression during the ERD period, particularly on the south coast of Peru, was gigantic geoglyphs or man-made desert markings. The idea is ancient. [...] Large geoglyphs are found as far south as the far north coast of Chile. However, by far the largest and best-known concentration occur on the stony desert plains around the Río Grande de Nazca drainage (in a roughly 200-km² area). They are popularly known as the "Nazca Lines."

   1999, Izumi Shimada, “The Evolution of Andean Diversity: Regional Formations (500 b.c.e.–c.e. 600)”, in Frank Salomon, Stuart B. Schwartz, editors, The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, volume III (South America, Part 1), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 421–422

   What a wonderful adventure, the making of a geoglyph. Geoglyphs include the largest images ever produced by prehistoric man. [...] A geoglyph [To Life (1999), a sculpture by Andrew Rogers] is unusual in the world and even more unusual in Israel where it is located in the wonderful and spectacular desert wilderness near the Dead Sea next to the Jordanian border.

   2003, Andrew Rogers, “The Making of a Geoglyph”, in Ken Scarlett, Rhythms of Life: The Art of Andrew Rogers, South Yarra, Vic.: Macmillan Art Publishing, →ISBN, page 226

   Initially crop circles were just that, circles. However, over the years they have evolved into complex and elaborate pictograms – such as the recent ‘Mayan’ circle at West Kennet Long Barrow. Hence, some prefer to speak of them as ‘geoglyphs’. This shift from ‘crop circle’ to ‘geoglyph’ follows a change in their interpretation. Whereas the circle was understood simply to indicate alien presence, the pictogram has led to a belief in explicit communication.

   2005, Christopher Partridge, “The Sacralization of the Extraterrestrial”, in The Re-enchantment of the West, volumes II (Alternative Spiritualities, Sacralization, Popular Culture, and Occulture), London; New York, N.Y.: T&T Clark International, →ISBN, page 203