(CNN) Scientists discovered more than 140 designs that were carved in the earth by an ancient people, and they're hoping they might hold clues to the ways they lived, thousands of years in the past.

Researchers from Yamagata University in Yamagata, Japan, discovered the ancient pictures, which are known as geoglyphs. They were carved out of the sand on a Peruvian coastal plain and resemble living things and other objects.

The new geoglyphs join an existing collection of mysterious drawings in Peru known as the Nazca Lines

The area was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. At the time, just 30 geoglyphs had been identified.

"These lines, which were scratched on the surface of the ground between 500 B.C. and A.D. 500, are among archaeology's greatest enigmas because of their quantity, nature, size and continuity," according to UNESCO's listing

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