Archaeologists discovered 450 earthworks in the Amazon, which has the same distinctions in Stonehenge, after flying a drone in an attempt to survey their surroundings. Known as geoglyphs, these great markings on the ground have scientists guessed that it could date about 2,000 years ago.
Jennifer Watling of the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography, University of São Paulo told the Telegraph, "It is likely that the geoglyphs were used for similar functions to the Neolithic causewayed enclosures, i.e. public gathering, ritual sites." She even mentioned that how the geoglyphs were formed with outer and inner walls are considered as typical features of henges.
The expedition team uncovered that though the Stonehenge is 2,500 years older than, the Amazonian glyphs were probably in the same period with similar developments. This has led to the conclusion that the Amazon forest indeed is a virgin forest.
Moreover, the team wanted to explore the possibilities of whether the region was already forested when the geoglyphs were built, and to what extent people impacted the landscape of constructing these earthworks, according to Mirror UK.
"The fact that these sites lay hidden for centuries beneath mature rainforest really challenges the idea that Amazonian forests are 'pristine ecosystems'," said Watling. "Our evidence that Amazonian forests have been managed by indigenous peoples long before European contact should not be cited as justification for the destructive, unsustainable land-use practiced today," she continued.
Watling said that the discovery should note that the creativity and resourcefulness of early settlers did not lead their survival to stoop to forest degradation. Instead, these ancient people found sustainable land-use alternatives to preserve the Amazonian forests.
An advanced technology was used by Watling and her team to recreate vegetation and fire history worth 6,000 years old from the two sites. They unraveled that the settlers changed their sceneries and cut bamboo forests, and the clearings were used for making of the glyphs.
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