Hundreds of ancient earthworks resembling Stonehenge found in Amazon rainforest

I didn't post for such a long time that I may have forgotten some policy on how to appropriately quote an article, however here we go.

Link

The findings prove for the first time that prehistoric settlers in Brazil cleared large wooded areas to create huge enclosures meaning that the 'pristine' rainforest celebrated by ecologists is actually relatively new. The ditched enclosures, in Acre state in the western Brazilian Amazon, have been concealed for centuries by trees, but modern deforestation has allowed 450 to emerge from the undergrowth. They were discovered after scientists from the UK and Brazil flew drones over last year. The earthworks, known by archaeologists as 'geoglyphs' probably date from around the year zero. The research was carried out by Jennifer Watling, post-doctoral researcher at the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography, University of São Paulo, when she was studying for a PhD at the University of Exeter.

The article goes by showing some photos and making an intresting observation

Their discovery also reverses assumptions that the rainforest ecosystem has been untouched by humans. “The fact that these sites lay hidden for centuries beneath mature rainforest really challenges the idea that Amazonian forests are ‘pristine ecosystems,'" added Dr Watling.

Just thinking about how big is Amazonia there could be thousands of these hedges.

What do you think? Are hedges a ritual place (considering that in those times both economic and social affairs would be tied to some festivity/divinity) that develop at some stage of a civilization or there could have been ancient contacts, or maybe these places are much younger and forests do their job much faster than we think?

Using state-of-the-art methods, the team members were able to reconstruct 6000 years of vegetation and fire history around two enclosure sites. They found that humans heavily altered bamboo forests for millennia and clearings were made to build the geoglyphs

I don't know if there are other structures like stone henge in the Americas, but seems like Brazil is going to be an intresting place for discovery in the drone era!

a reply to: Mastronaut

That's pretty cool and they do look like enclosures but I think calling them Henges or ritual gathering places is a bit of a stretch by the researchers , it would be nice to know more about any excavation that has been done and what was found.

why do "scientists" always think that their ancient discoveries were used for rituals?

maybe it was farm land and the ditches around it were used to collect rainwater to irrigate the crops?

maybe they were villages with moats or fences around them to protect the people from wild animals?

maybe the ditches were primitive fall out shelters,around the villages, to hide in from tornadoes or other extreme weather conditions?

maybe they were pens to keep domestic animals in?

maybe they were 'sewers" around a village to dump human waste in?

there are literally dozens of things they could have been used for so why automatically go to the old assumption that they were for rituals?

a reply to: Mastronaut

They do appear to be man made earthworks and possible enclosures for sure, I can see the comparison with the earth works of stone henge but as Gortex pointed out it's a fair stretch to compare them with religious sites.
It's possible at one time in the past much of what is now(was) the rainforest, was at one time cultivated land, or at least areas of it were.

Though It's quite sad to see it gradually being returned to cultivated land again... If they must do so, then vast swathes of it should be preserved as national parks IMO.
But no, the worlds economy must always grow and never be sustainable, keep growing and consuming, never forget to keep consuming! We wouldn't after all, want to leave anything but our garbage behind for future generations now would we? Who know's cutting down the rain forests and or other natural resource's, might have been what killed off some previous civilazations?

ATS: 2006 – "Brazilian Stonehenge" discovered...
ATS: 12/2016 – A ‘Stonehenge,’ and a Mystery, in the Amazon.

And now your news released today… I am not sure what to make of it. Is it the pace of science doing all the recording and measuring, then verifying? Or is it a slow release so as not to shock our fragile little minds? Maybe a trial balloon to see who is paying attention??

This is not the only story to do this. I see it in my searches on specific terms and words. Here is what I am noticing. “Researchers release a carefully worded release to a middleman that turns around and offers the article to science website (and things like, EurekAlert, etc). Then a word for word “new” article shows up on their site.” Some places do not bother to reword the title. There are other places that get the original work, do research, and actually write up an article explaining what it means and why it is important but there are not many of those. And sometimes that person gets it wrong . But they are still based off a single source. Strange huh? I see it happen all the time with graphene. I am seeing it happen with nuclear fusion (watch, there will be a ton of articles that proclaim, “star in a jar” when they figure it out! Mark my words).

So I get all excited on a news item to only realize, "Hey! I posted that last month!"

Ah well, I guess I should be happy that somebody is looking out for my fragile little mind!!

PS - Cool that they used drones!

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

So I get all excited on a news item to only realize, "Hey! I posted that last month!

That bit cracked me up!
That other bit about star in a jar sounds very intriguing...
And can I get a copy of the map to multiplication in your avatar please? Would love to see that in legible form

a reply to: surfer_soul

I have the original posted over here on ATS.

The claim is it is from N. Tesla's own note's. Not sure if it is but it looks cool! There is a link back to the original story where you can grab a decent copy to study. I think it is a form of modular math in graphic form.

a reply to: Mastronaut

I think theres more and more found every day...even one at the bottom of Lake Michigan and another in the Sahara desert.

And with "LIDAR" laser guided equipment to "see" thru jungle canopies....I think its just the tip of the iceberg as to what we are about to find.

Hope to see some incredible discoveries in the remainder of my lifetime....

Thanks for the thread! MS

Interesting how ancient cultures seem to mirror one another with certain aspects, considering as far as it's known, they have never met. I've heard of some of these Stonehenge like rock formations set up in different parts of the world. Nice to see more indications of them.

Here's another:

Not everyone is aware of that the extraordinary stone circles of Senegambia are the largest group of megalithic complexes yet recorded in any region of the world.

Most people have heard of Stonehenge in UK, but far from all are familiar with a large concentration of stones that are sometimes referred to as the African Stonehenge. The stone circles and other megaliths found in Senegal and Gambia are divided into four large sites.

Source

originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF
ATS: 2006 – "Brazilian Stonehenge" discovered...
ATS: 12/2016 – A ‘Stonehenge,’ and a Mystery, in the Amazon.

And now your news released today… I am not sure what to make of it. Is it the pace of science doing all the recording and measuring, then verifying? Or is it a slow release so as not to shock our fragile little minds? Maybe a trial balloon to see who is paying attention??

This is not the only story to do this. I see it in my searches on specific terms and words. Here is what I am noticing. “Researchers release a carefully worded release to a middleman that turns around and offers the article to science website (and things like, EurekAlert, etc). Then a word for word “new” article shows up on their site.” Some places do not bother to reword the title. There are other places that get the original work, do research, and actually write up an article explaining what it means and why it is important but there are not many of those. And sometimes that person gets it wrong . But they are still based off a single source. Strange huh? I see it happen all the time with graphene. I am seeing it happen with nuclear fusion (watch, there will be a ton of articles that proclaim, “star in a jar” when they figure it out! Mark my words).

So I get all excited on a news item to only realize, "Hey! I posted that last month!"

Ah well, I guess I should be happy that somebody is looking out for my fragile little mind!!

PS - Cool that they used drones!

I have noticed the regurgitated " new finds" also.
Makes you wonder if they are just making this stuff up.

I've seen a few different interpretations of what these earthworks were used for, most wildly speculative, just as is all this stonehenge nonsense.
There are far too many structures for them too be ritualistic, it would be like every house having its own church.
Ill be honest, i havent done any of my own research into these earthworks, so im not sure where in the amazon they are, but there is a region where the indigenous people built earthworks for aqua culture.
They would dig a "moat" around the family compound and connect it to a natural river/stream path and they would flood during the wet season, bringing small fish/ amphibians and water fowl. They would harvest the fish, snails, crustaceans, birds and plants they would grow around the canals.
They are still in use in by some groups.

a reply to: Mastronaut

That's a really neat finding, but the reporter "mooshes up" the whole thing by dragging in Stonehenge... and not actually knowing what a 'henge' is.

The 'henge' isn't an earthworks. It's a circular group of upright stones or logs.

There are several fascinating things, including looking at the earthworks (some are clearly older than others) and looking for patterns and digging them to find cultural associations and to date them. You might be able to map the forest range depending on the ages of things.

There aren't any real henges in America. There's a stone sunwheel that's ancient and there's a lot of earthworks in North America. There's some wonderful sun daggers of various ages in North America.

But henges... no.

a reply to: Tardacus
Because ritual practice was the first endeavor that brought people together for greater purposes. Without religious gathering it is likely people would not have worked together to build a communal site. Sacredness plays an important role in creation. In those times everything had a religious significance, including hunting.

a reply to: Mastronaut
Very cool and interesting in their own right.

I just don't understand why everything is always compared to stone henge when they are great in their own right.

originally posted by: Tardacus
why do "scientists" always think that their ancient discoveries were used for rituals?

maybe it was farm land and the ditches around it were used to collect rainwater to irrigate the crops?

maybe they were villages with moats or fences around them to protect the people from wild animals?

maybe the ditches were primitive fall out shelters,around the villages, to hide in from tornadoes or other extreme weather conditions?

maybe they were pens to keep domestic animals in?

maybe they were 'sewers" around a village to dump human waste in?

there are literally dozens of things they could have been used for so why automatically go to the old assumption that they were for rituals?

From the article:

The enclosures are unlikely to represent the border of villages, since archaeologists have recovered very few artefacts during excavation. It is thought they were used only sporadically, perhaps as ritual gathering places, as they have no defensive features such as post holes for fences.

originally posted by: Byrd
a reply to: Mastronaut

That's a really neat finding, but the reporter "mooshes up" the whole thing by dragging in Stonehenge... and not actually knowing what a 'henge' is.

The 'henge' isn't an earthworks. It's a circular group of upright stones or logs.

The monuments look like early phases at Stonehenge in Wiltshire, say experts CREDIT: SALMAN KAHN AND JOSÉ IRIARTE

No need to bash the reporter.

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Thanks for that, much appreciated I will be sure to check out the entire thread to looks just up my street.

originally posted by: Tardacus
why do "scientists" always think that their ancient discoveries were used for rituals?

maybe it was farm land and the ditches around it were used to collect rainwater to irrigate the crops?

maybe they were villages with moats or fences around them to protect the people from wild animals?

maybe the ditches were primitive fall out shelters,around the villages, to hide in from tornadoes or other extreme weather conditions?

maybe they were pens to keep domestic animals in?

maybe they were 'sewers" around a village to dump human waste in?

there are literally dozens of things they could have been used for so why automatically go to the old assumption that they were for rituals?

Maybe it was a race track

originally posted by: acrux
a reply to: Mastronaut
Very cool and interesting in their own right.

I just don't understand why everything is always compared to stone henge when they are great in their own right.

just like egyptian pyramids. They are the only ones i remember being taught about in the U.S. until the internet and still only found out about all the others found through research

a reply to: Byrd

Ye I think they used the very loose meaning, I suspect they referred to wikipedia

There are three related types of Neolithic earthwork that are all sometimes loosely called henges. The essential characteristic of all three types is that they feature a ring bank and ditch, but with the ditch inside the bank rather than outside. Due to the poor defensive utility of an enclosure with an external bank and an internal ditch, henges are not considered to have served a defensive purpose (cf. circular rampart).

They all refer to earthworks rather than the stoneworks that are typical henges we're used to.

I've also seen a lot of north american earthworks from the mound cultures which could have been called "henges" under these assumptions. I think that the choice is sensationalistic, but the findings are remarkable.

I think that similar findings could be found in the whole south east asia, both constinental and insular. There is impenetrable forests covering large areas that hosted people for millions of years, I doubt they just lived like apes a millenia ago.

Finally a good article on the pourpose of drones, they don't always have collateral damage /s