Scientists have solved the mystery equivalent of Stonehenge.
Apparently, the huge geometric patterns in the soil – geoglyphs – served ritual purposes, reminiscent of Stonehenge in Britain.
New data show that the indigenous peoples of South America have changed the landscape of the Amazon for hundreds of years before the arrival of Europeans to the continent.
In 1980 many of the geoglyphs with a width of 11 meters and a depth of from 1 to 4 meters was discovered at cutting down tropical forests. Pictures of the mysterious signs was done from the satellite and the aircraft. They were rectangles, six and octagons, and concentric circles. Today there are 450 geoglyphs scattered across an area of 13 thousand square kilometers.
“The fact that these lots were hidden for many centuries under the canopy of tropical forests really casts doubt on the idea that Amazonian forests are the ecosystems intact,” says archaeologist Jennifer Watling from the University of são Paulo in Brazil.
Most likely, they were not dwellings or fortifications. The builders of the Nazca lines lived in small, relatively Autonomous communities, and the buildings were used for General meetings and for ceremonial purposes – as the European Stonehenge.
“It is interesting to note that the format of the geoglyphs, with the outer ditch and the inner wall of the body, reminiscent of the classic format of Stonehenge,” adds Jennifer Watling.
According to scientists, the charcoal appeared in these places approximately 4 thousand years ago, and it means that already at that time to cleanse the land of the ancient builders burned forest areas. However, the assurances of researchers, the ancient man’s activity had little impact on the ecosystem of the Amazon forest.
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