Archaeologist Jaime Oliveira next to cave paintings at the Ponta das Lajes archaeological site in the rural area of Manaus, Brazil, on October 28, 2023. Edmar Barros (AP)
The severe drought affecting the Brazilian Amazon, whose rivers are at their lowest flow in 121 years, is causing incalculable environmental and social damage, but has also revealed important archaeological remains. At least four locations were previously unknown. In the surroundings of Manaus, in the Ponta das Lajes, the lowering of the Negro River has revealed numerous engravings on the rock in the shape of human faces, something unusual in the Amazon, where geometric or animal faces occur. Some of these masks, as area residents call them, have been known since the last major drought in 2010, but now that the river is drier than ever, many more can be seen, according to archaeologist Jaime Oliveira on the phone. , who works for the government. Dating them is very difficult as there are no pigment remains to analyze, but they are estimated to be around 2,000 years old and were made by the region’s indigenous people.
Over the past few days, Oliveira’s cell phone has repeatedly received messages from colleagues and neighbors who suspected they were about to be discovered. He greets the warnings with mixed emotions: small joys amid the drama of the drought, which has left thousands of people who rely on river transport displaced and unable to receive supplies cut off. Currently, remains of ceramic urns have also appeared in the municipality of Anamã, as well as other anthropomorphic engravings in Urucará and São Sebastião de Uatumã, less than 300 kilometers from Manaus.
For the archaeologist, given the size of the Amazon (similar to the European Union), the numerous sites in such a small radius are evidence that the central region of the jungle was densely populated. “Due to environmental characteristics, it is not common to find rock shelters, caves or monumental sites here. We do not have such settlements, but that does not mean that there were not groups with very complex social organizations and good knowledge of the territory,” he emphasizes.
For a long time it was believed that the Amazon was a green desert with little human presence, a place “without history,” says Oliveira, pointing to an idea that had already been rejected. Today, the consensus in the academic world is that between nine and ten million people lived in this vast tropical forest before the colonizers arrived. 90% of the indigenous people died at the end of the 16th and 17th centuries, mainly due to fighting and disease from Europe. Here there were no large metropolises like the Inca or Aztec empires, but rather significant clusters of villages made of straw and wood. The use of organic material in structures is typically difficult for archaeologists due to the scarcity of stone in the Amazon.
Archaeologists and local residents gather around cave paintings at the archaeological site of Ponta das Lajes.Edmar Barros (AP)
In addition to the pre-Columbian remains, more easily dated remains have also emerged: a 17th-century fortress in Tabatinga, on the tri-border border between Brazil, Colombia and Peru. Historians knew that the fortress of São Francisco Xavier once stood there, but its humble remains have now come to the surface for the first time. It was a wooden fortress with some mud-brick bases and during the colonial period was the last stop for those ascending the Solimões River towards the Andes. It had more than a defensive function, it had a symbolic function to mark the boundaries of the Portuguese Crown’s domains, explains the archaeologist.
For the president of the Brazilian government’s National Institute of Historical and National Heritage (IPHAN), Leonardo Grass, the most urgent thing now is To all sites and promote awareness measures so that they are not destroyed or looted. When the engravings appeared on the rocks of Ponta das Lajes, videos of curious onlookers handling stones went viral and alarm bells rang. The monument protection authority asked the police to increase surveillance. “It is work in the territories that our archaeologists and technicians essentially do with local communities. We will continue to invest in heritage education, an agenda that has been abandoned by the government [de Jair] “Bolsonaro,” criticizes the manager.
Aside from the new sites now coming to light, excavations in a region of dense vegetation where most of the remains are tiny pieces of pottery or engravings in the rock do not leave much room for spectacular discoveries, but they do stimulate the imagination Urban legends.
An archaeologist measures cave paintings at the archaeological site of Ponta das Lajes.Edmar Barros (AP)
Archaeologist Eduardo Goés Neves from the Center for Amerindian Studies at the University of São Paulo (USP), one of the country’s leading specialists, breathes a sigh of relief every time he has to refute conspiracy theories that speak of vast lost cities that still exist. They can still be discovered in the thickets of the Amazon, a kind of myth of El Dorado version 2.0.
Nevertheless, in his opinion there is still a lot of scope for convincing results. In Brazil, for example, important lines have already been discovered in the jungle, such as trenches with geometric shapes. A major milestone occurred last year when German researchers discovered pyramid-shaped mounds built by the Casarabe culture in the Bolivian Amazon between 500 and 1,400 AD. They did this not with picks and shovels, but infrared beams from an airplane or drone thanks to a firing air laser.
“We are experiencing a moment of very important change, 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 is currently not very popular is widespread. in Brasil. For now, the hard-working archaeologists in the Brazilian Amazon will continue cataloging the finds as quickly as possible, before the rainy season begins in December and these mysterious remnants of the past are once again hidden underwater.
Residents take selfies with cave paintings at the archaeological site of Ponta das Lajes.Edmar Barros (AP)