Amazon drought exposes ancient rock carvings
Al JazeeraHuman faces sculpted into stone up to 2,000 years ago have appeared on a rocky outcropping along the Amazon River since water levels dropped to record lows in the region’s worst drought in more than a century. Some rock carvings had been sighted before but now there is a greater variety that will help researchers establish their origins, archaeologist Jaime de Santana Oliveira said this week. Oliveira said the carvings were first seen there in 2010, but this year’s drought has been more severe, with the Rio Negro dropping 15 metres since July, exposing vast expanses of rocks and sand where there had 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 that oversees the preservation of historic sites.
History of this topic
Giant ancient rock art reveals secrets of first Amazonian people, from mythology to diet
The Independent
Severe drought in the Amazon reveals millennia-old carvings
LA Times)
12,500-year-old Rock Art Discovered in Colombia Was Created by First Humans of the Amazon
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