Hundreds of mysterious Stonehenge like structures found in Amazon

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Researchers have discovered over 450 earthworks in the western Brazilian Amazon after flying drones over the area. The large geometrical geoglyphs in Acre, a state in northwestern Brazil within the Amazon rainforest, were built by indigenous people more than 2,000 years ago before the arrival of the Europeans.

Geoglyphs are large designs produced on the ground and are often formed by rocks or similarly durable elements of the landscape such as trees, gravel, earth, and stones.

The geoglyphs were hidden by trees for most of their history, but deforestation has eventually helped reveal their presence. The discovery provided evidence how the ancient people lived in the region prior to the arrival of European people.

Study researcher Jennifer Watling, from the University of Sao Paolo's Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography, said that the fact the sites were hidden beneath mature rainforest for centuries challenges the notion that the Amazonian forests are pristine ecosystems.

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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.

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