A ‘Stonehenge,’ and a Mystery, in the Amazon

[rangerrebew]

A ‘Stonehenge,’ and a Mystery, in the Amazon

By SIMON ROMERODEC. 14, 2016
 
A ‘Stonehenge’ in Brazil’s Jungle
 

Visit 1,000-year-old megaliths discovered on a cattle ranch in Brazil. The site sheds new light on how indigenous people of the Amazon may have lived. By MIGUEL GUTIÉRREZ, VEDA SHASTRI and SAMANTHA QUICK on Publish Date December 14, 2016. Photo by Dado Galdieri for The New York Times. Technology by Samsung.. Watch in Times Video »

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CALÇOENE, Brazil — As the foreman for a cattle ranch in the far reaches of the Brazilian Amazon, Lailson Camelo da Silva was razing trees to convert rain forest into pasture when he stumbled across a bizarre arrangement of towering granite blocks.

“I had no idea that I was discovering the Amazon’s own Stonehenge,” said Mr. da Silva, 65, on a scorching October day as he gazed at the archaeological site located just north of the Equator. “It makes me wonder: What other secrets about our past are still hidden in Brazil’s jungles?”

After conducting radiocarbon testing and carrying out measurements during the winter solstice, scholars in the field of archaeoastronomy determined that an indigenous culture arranged the megaliths into an astronomical observatory about 1,000 years ago, or five centuries before the European conquest of the Americas began.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/14/world/americas/brazil-amazon-megaliths-stonehenge.html?_r=1

[r9etb]

“I had no idea that I was discovering the Amazon’s own Stonehenge,” said Mr. da Silva, 65, on a scorching October day as he gazed at the archaeological site located just north of the Equator. “It makes me wonder: What other secrets about our past are still hidden in Brazil’s jungles?”

There are apparently a lot of such structures in the Brazilian rain forest, indicating the presence of widespread civilization.  It's quite likely that the rain forest in its current form is actually a relatively recent thing.

[rangerrebew]

There are apparently a lot of such structures in the Brazilian rain forest, indicating the presence of widespread civilization.   

Could it be they all had liberal leaders who devastated their cultures?

[r9etb]

Could it be they all had liberal leaders who devastated their cultures?

More like the introduction of diseases for which they had no immunity.  Ghastly.

[uglybiker]

Here's hoping it doesn't get trampled by dwarves.

[Cripplecreek]

There are apparently a lot of such structures in the Brazilian rain forest, indicating the presence of widespread civilization.  It's quite likely that the rain forest in its current form is actually a relatively recent thing.

North America was much more heavily populated by more advanced people than what we found with the arrival of Columbus. Mounds all across the midwest into the south are too big to have been built by roving tribes of a couple dozen people. The planning and execution of these projects indicates a fairly high level of society producing excess foods and goods to be able to afford the kind of workforce they would need.  Something killed them off and it wasn't whitey.

[Free Vulcan]

There are apparently a lot of such structures in the Brazilian rain forest, indicating the presence of widespread civilization.  It's quite likely that the rain forest in its current form is actually a relatively recent thing.

It is. A PBS show a few years back documented that the Amazon is made possible by the dust and sand from the Sahara desert traveling around the globe and forming clouds over the region.

Of course we know that 5K years ago, the Sahara was a grass steppe, so there would have been no dust, and no jungle. Which is very interesting and raises alot of questions.

[Free Vulcan]

North America was much more heavily populated by more advanced people than what we found with the arrival of Columbus. Mounds all across the midwest into the south are too big to have been built by roving tribes of a couple dozen people. The planning and execution of these projects indicates a fairly high level of society producing excess foods and goods to be able to afford the kind of workforce they would need.  Something killed them off and it wasn't whitey.

It was pigs. The pigs of the Spanish explorers carried the diseases. When De Soto or Cortez, I forget which, landed in Florida and tramped thru the SW, they reported well populated, well defended settlements on the order of every 10 miles. The pigs got loose and spread smallpox and a bunch of others to everyone via trade routes and such.

When the English arrived nearly decades later, all that was gone. They did find many skeletons and bones on the beaches and other places though.