Amazon river drought reveals 2,000-year-old human faces sculpted in stone. As a result of a historic drought in the Brazilian region that has caused water levels to reach record lows, ancient human faces and other stone carvings have been discovered in the Amazon River.
At an archaeological site called Ponto das Lajes, which translates to “Place of Slabs,” rock carvings of animals and other natural forms have been discovered. The age of the markings is guessed by researchers to be between 1,000 and 2,000 years old.
“The engravings are prehistoric, or precolonial. We cannot date them exactly, but based on evidence of human occupation of the area, we believe they are about 1,000 to 2,000 years old,” archaeologist Jaime de Santana Oliveira said in an interview on Monday.
“Some rock carvings had been sighted before, but now there is a greater variety that will help researchers establish their origins,” he added.
In one location, there are smooth grooves in the rock that are thought to have once been used by Native Americans to sharpen their arrows and spears before the arrival of the Europeans.
As Amazon river drought reveals 2,000-year-old human faces sculpted in stone, the carvings were discovered there for the first time in 2010, according to Mr. Oliveira, but this year’s drought has been worse because the Rio Negro has dropped by 15 metres (49.2 feet) since July, exposing vast stretches of rocks and sand where there had previously been no beaches.
“This time we found not just more carvings but the sculpture of a human face cut into the rock,” said Oliveira, who works for the National Historic and Artistic Heritage Institute (IPHAN), which oversees the preservation of historic sites.
