Archeology continues to be in the news with the announcement of the discovery of a possible "Amazon Stonehenge" in Brazil.
Archeologists say it could be an observatory/temple because the blocks are arranged in alignment with the winter solstice. The path of sunlight through the rocks could have possibly been to calculate time of year. This is evidence for a calendar. Scientists say the ruins, if they are ruins, are between 500 and 2,000 years old.
As one can tell from the picture, the Indians of the Amazon were better at astronomy than architecture. The possible ruins put the Indians on the same astronomical development with whoever built Stonehenge (constructed well before the Druids) and the Egyptian Pyramid makers- both who did their work around 4,500 years ago. However, while these Indians were just learning to cut stone into pretty patterns the Inca created roads, and the Maya and Aztecs made great cities and astronomical calendars.
Category: Archaeology
5 comments:
Your stupid fascist!
These ruins are fantastic not because of its shape, but because os their archaeological significance!
Go kiss Bush Ass!
To whom it may concern in Manaus, Brazil
Maybe I was a little harsh in my description. I do think it is very neat that the Indians of the region did make a calander. I did point out how they were advancing slowly but surely.
How does this make me "facist" though? Why would I want to kiss the President of the United States' rear? I just want to do geography!
Well, if the ruins are 2000 years old, then they're a lot older than the Incas or Aztecs. Although obviously not the pyramids or stonehenge (or the Olmecs, or Tihuanacan culture in Bolivia etc.)
In fact, what's very strange about Brazil is that here you have a huge country, a range of climates including many quite hospitable ones. And yet, not much in the way of archeological ruins. And when you compare what was going on over the other side of the Andes it's even more mysterious.
Why didn't the people of ancient Peru and Bolivia, who were building cities 2000 years ago, simply flood into Brazil?
Were mountain dwellers and their plants and llamas unable to adapt to the swamps and jungles that separate the Andes from the central Brazilian highlands?
Were there actually far more indigenous groups in Brazil than generally acknowledged, and the Portuguese wiped them out more systematically than the Spanish did "their" indigenous?
The ruins are significant indeed Phil. I do wonder what happened to this group. Portuguese mostly stayed in the coastal areas at the beginning so I doubt they wiped them out.
There is a reason why the Inca and others stayed in the mountains. The jungle area was infested with diseases they had no immunity for. Spanish conquistadors wrote about Indians who were deformed with diseases from the jungle.
Post a Comment