The secret of the Amazon: ancient faces carved in stone have baffled scientists

Researchers Can’t Date Amazing Stone Carving

An ancient carving with the image of human faces was found in Brazil when the water level in the Amazon fell to a record low level.

Human faces, carved from stone some 2,000 years ago, have appeared on a rocky outcrop along the Amazon River after water levels dropped to record lows during the region’s worst drought in more than a century, Reuters reports.

Some cave paintings had been seen before, but now their diversity has increased, which will help researchers determine their origin, archaeologist Jaime de Santana Oliveira said Monday.

In one area, smooth indentations in the rock are visible, which are believed to be where indigenous people once sharpened their arrows and spears long before Europeans arrived, Reuters notes.

“These images are prehistoric or pre-colonial. We can’t date them exactly, but based on evidence of human settlement in the area, we believe they are about 1,000 to 2,000 years old,” Oliveira said in an interview.

The rocky cape is called Ponto das Lajes on the northern shore of the Amazon, near the confluence of the Rio Negro and Solimões rivers.

Oliveira said the ancient carvings were first seen in the area in 2010, but this year’s drought has been more severe, with Rio Negro levels dropping 15 meters since July, exposing vast expanses of rock and sand where there were previously no beaches.

The climate phenomenon El Niño – a cyclical warming of the world’s oceans and weather that fuels tropical cyclones in the Pacific Ocean, increasing rainfall and flood risk in the region – is also believed to have affected water levels.

“This time we found not just more carvings, but also a sculpture of a human face carved into the rock,” said Oliveira, who works for the National Institute of Historical and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN), which oversees the preservation of historical sites.

In addition to the edges, the stones are also marked with markings in a way that suggests they were used by indigenous warriors to sharpen tools or weapons.