The severe drought that the Brazilian Amazon is suffering, with the rivers having the lowest flow in the last 121 years, causes incalculable environmental and social damage, but has simultaneously brought to light important archaeological remains. At least four sites were unknown to date. In the surroundings of Manaus, in the Ponta das Lajes, the lowering of the level of the Negro River has revealed numerous engravings in the rock in the shape of human faces, something unusual in the Amazon region, where geometric or of animals. Some of these masks, as the residents of the area call them, were already known since the last great drought, in 2010, but now, with the river drier than ever, many more can be seen, according to archaeologist Jaime Oliveira by telephone. , who works for the Government. Dating them is very difficult, because there are no remains of pigments that can be analyzed, but it is estimated that they are around 2,000 years old and were made by the native peoples of the region.
In recent days, Oliveira’s cell phone has not stopped receiving notices from colleagues and neighbors who suspect they are facing some discovery. He receives the alerts with mixed feelings: small joys in the midst of the drama of the drought, which has left thousands of people who depend on river transportation to move and obtain supplies cut off. At the moment, remains of ceramic funerary urns have also appeared in the municipality of Anamã, and more anthropomorphic engravings in Urucará and São Sebastião de Uatumã, less than 300 kilometers from Manaus.
For the archaeologist, the abundant sites in such a small radius considering the size of the Amazon (similar to the European Union) are proof that the central region of the jungle was densely populated. “Due to the environmental characteristics here, it is not common to find rock shelters, caverns or monumental sites. We do not have that type of settlements, but that does not mean that there were not groups with very complex social organizations and a good knowledge of the territory,” he points out.
For a long time, it was thought that the Amazon was a green desert with little human presence, a place “without history,” says Oliveira, referring to an idea already discarded. Today, in the academic world it is a consensus that before the arrival of the colonizers, between nine and ten million people lived in this immense tropical jungle. 90% of the indigenous people perished, especially due to fighting and diseases that arrived from Europe, at the end of the 16th and 17th centuries. Here there were no large metropolises like the Inca or Aztec empires, but rather important concentrations of villages made from straw and wood. The use of organic material in constructions due to the scarcity of stone in the Amazon usually makes it difficult for archaeologists.
Apart from the pre-Columbian remains, remains that are easier to date have also appeared: a 17th century fort in Tabatinga, on the triple border between Brazil, Colombia and Peru. Historians knew that the fort of São Francisco Xavier once stood there, but its humble remains have now surfaced for the first time. It was a wooden fort with some mud brick bases, and it was the last stop for those who climbed the Solimões River towards the Andes during the colonial period. More than a defensive role, it had a symbolic role, to mark the limit of the domains of the Portuguese crown, explains the archaeologist.
For the president of the National Institute of Historical and National Heritage (IPHAN) of the Brazilian Government, Leonardo Grass, the most urgent thing now is to register all the sites and advance awareness-raising tasks so that they are not vandalized or looted. When the engravings appeared on the rocks of Ponta das Lajes, videos of curious onlookers handling stones went viral and alarm bells went off. The heritage protection body asked the police to strengthen surveillance. “It is a piece of work in the territories, which our archaeologists and technicians basically do with the local communities. We are going to continue investing in heritage education, an agenda that was buried by the Government [de Jair] Bolsonaro,” criticizes the manager.
Beyond the new sites that are now coming to light, excavating in a region covered with dense vegetation and where the majority of vestiges are tiny pieces of ceramic or engravings in the rock does not leave much room for spectacular discoveries, but it feeds the imagination and urban legends.
Archaeologist Eduardo Goés Neves, from the Center for Amerindian Studies at the University of São Paulo (USP), one of the country’s leading specialists, takes a breath every time he has to refute conspiracy theories that speak of enormous lost cities that still exist. They are yet to be discovered among the thickets of the Amazon, a kind of myth of El Dorado version 2.0.
Still, he says there is plenty of room to move toward compelling findings. In Brazil, for example, important lines have already been discovered in the jungle, like trenches with geometric shapes. An important milestone occurred last year, when German researchers discovered pyramid-shaped mounds in the Bolivian Amazon built by the Casarabe culture, between 500 and 1,400 AD. They did not do it with a pick and shovel, but thanks to an aerial laser that fires infrared rays from an aircraft or drone.
“We are going through a moment of very important changes, with tracking technologies that allow us to identify structures that are under the canopy of trees,” says the archaeologist from the Center for Amerindian Studies about this technology, which at the moment is not very widespread. in Brazil. For now, the hardworking archaeologists working in the Brazilian Amazon will continue cataloging the finds as quickly as possible, before the rainy season begins in December and these mysterious vestiges of the past are once again hidden under water.
Subscribe here to the EL PAÍS América newsletter and receive all the key information on current events in the region.
#mysterious #archeology #Brazilian #Amazon #emerges #rivers #midst #historic #drought