Mcapa, Brazil — MACAPA, Brazil (AP) – Paved roads in the Amazon Rainforests have long brought deforestation which poses a threat the people who live there. However, the same road work has also allowed archaeologists to glimpse the region’s past, long before Europeans reshaped it.
Archaeological surveys are often required before construction work can begin, and some of the latest discoveries have emerged on the BR-156 highway in Brazil’s northern state of Amapá. Among the findings so far from nine dig sites: pottery, which may be funerary urns, as well as small artifacts that resemble human faces.
“Everything we know now about the past of this region is also linked to the openings created by these projects, which gives our relationship with them a somewhat ambiguous character,” said Lucio Flavio Costa Leite, who manages the Archaeological Research Center at the Institute of Scientific and Technological Research of Amapá. “At the same time, the knowledge we gain about these sites leads us to pay more attention to these areas, including adopting sustainable protection measures.”
Scientists say recent research has strengthened understanding of the region’s past not as a human desert, but as a landscape shaped by interconnected societies long before Columbus arrived. For example, material found along BR-156 included pottery in a variety of styles and techniques, reflecting the influence of communities from the Brazilian state of Pará to the Caribbean.
It has been cleaned and analyzed by a team working for the Department for National Transport Infrastructure. Manoel Fabiano da Silva Santos, one of the archaeologists, said the layers of Amazon soil they excavated are a historical timeline.
In the upper layers, they found objects such as Portuguese porcelain and nails associated with European occupation.
“Excavating deeper, we found pottery and ceramics associated with an earlier indigenous presence, marking the site’s transition before and after the arrival of colonists,” Santos said.
The artworks would eventually go to the State Collection of Amapá, under the care of Costa Leite, which consists of approximately 530,000 pieces. The oldest fragment is about 6,140 years old, he said, confirming a long-term human presence in Amapá.
Artifacts provide insight into how ancient indigenous societies lived, died and interacted rainforest.
“Here’s something I often debate with my students – we usually think of technology as computers and microchips,” Costa Leite said as he walked among shelves of ancient pottery. “But all this required a careful reading of the scenario and a deliberate selection of material.”
One of the most impressive historical areas of Amapá is the city of Calcoín, where there is a 1,000-year-old stone monument composed of 127 carved monoliths arranged in a circle about 30 meters (98 ft) in diameter, located in open grassland amid rainforest and surrounded by a slow river.
Some have dubbed Solstice’s Archaeological Park the “Stonehenge of the Amazon” due to its resemblance to the British monument. Researchers found that the stones were positioned in such a way that they marked the exact point where the sun rises during the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, said archaeologist Mariana Petri Cabral, a professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, who was part of the team that began excavations at the site nearly two decades ago.
“It’s hard to say what all the stones mean, but we know they’re not from the site. They were brought in from other places nearby,” he said.
Subsequent research and excavation revealed that the site also served as a burial ground. Radiocarbon dating has shown it was occupied for hundreds of years, beginning about 1,100 years ago, he said.
This site, discovered by scientists in 2005, can be visited with prior permission from the Institute of Scientific and Technological Research of Amapá. Also, the site is in the process of becoming a national park, which will allow more people to visit.
Such archaeological sites are protected by Brazilian law, which prohibits altering them. This adds a layer of protection for the surrounding rainforest.
Modern archaeological and historical ecological research shows indigenous people Not only lived in the Amazon for centuries but also shaped it. They managed and cultivated the landscape through long-term, sustainable practices, said Professor Eduardo Neves, an archaeologist at the University of São Paulo.
Neves has studied the Amazon rainforest for more than 30 years and, since 2023, has led the Amazon Revealed project, which uses satellite scans to identify archaeological sites hidden beneath the forest canopy.
The scans revealed roads connecting archaeological sites and buried patterns in the rainforest that point to repeated occupation and deliberate landscape modification. Together, the features suggest large settlements, Neves said.
Archaeologists have long suspected such connections, Neves said, but technology has made it possible to see their broader geographic reach. The scan shows networks of roads connecting clusters of settlements throughout the forest, most clearly in southern Amazonas state and Acre.
Neves said, “When people think of an indigenous tribe, they often imagine a small village isolated in the middle of the jungle. But the evidence shows a high level of interconnectedness linking different settlements.”
“Amapá is an important piece that helps us see how mobile and active these populations were and how they maintained networks of exchange that lasted for millennia,” Cabral said.
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Felipe Campos Melo contributed reporting.
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