A drop in water level in the Amazon River has revealed rock carvings that had been mostly submerged since they were carved more than a thousand years ago.
A severe drought made it possible to now easily see the human faces carved into the rocks on the shore.
Some had been spotted during a previous drought, but archaeologists say they have been able to locate a greater variety of carvings this time.
The discovery was made in the city of Manaus, in northern Brazil.
The ancient faces appeared on a stretch of coast known as Ponta das Lajes, near where the Negro River and the Solimões River flow into the Amazon.
Archaeologist Jaime Oliveira told local media that they were carved by people who lived in the area in pre-Columbian times.
“This region is a pre-colonial site that has evidence of occupation dating back to between 1,000 and 2,000 years ago“, he noted. “What we are seeing here are representations of anthropomorphic figures.”
Another rock has grooves that are believed to have been used by the indigenous people of the area to sharpen their arrows.
The carvings were last seen in 2010, when the water level of the Río Negro dropped to 13.63 meters.
On Sunday the river level dropped below 13 meters for the first time and on Monday it fell even further, to 12.89 meters.
The Brazilian government attributes the drought to climate change and the El Niño phenomenon, which has caused the volume of precipitation in the northern Amazon to fall below the historical average and river water to fall to near record levels.
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BBC-NEWS-SRC: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/articles/c88e2j4y2qpo, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-10-24 18:10:07
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