LIMA, PERU—Archaeologists are using drones to help locate sites in Peru, many of which predate the rise of the Inca civilization in the 15th century. Over the hundreds of years since the pre-Inca societies existed, their adobe brick structures have fallen apart and been obscured by the landscape. Sites dating back 1,300 years and inhabited by people of the Moche culture are currently being identified by drones in a region north of the capital city of Lima. "We can convert the images that the drones provide into topographical and photogrammetry data to build three-dimensional models," says Luis Jaime Castillo Butters, the archaeologist leading the San José de Moro Archaeological Program. "By using the pictures taken by drones we can see walls, patios, the fabric of the city."
