Drought in the Amazon reveals more archaeological sites – 10/31/2023 – Science

The Amazon continues to suffer human and environmental impacts with drought of a magnitude never before documented. At the same time, historic lows in the region’s rivers have exposed signs of ancient Amazonian territorial occupation. Three new archaeological sites have been discovered in recent weeks and are being documented by Iphan (Institute of National Historical and Artistic Heritage).

The discovery of new sites, images and the work to record them were advanced exclusively to Sheet by Iphan.

The sites — discovered, in part, with a helping hand from social media — join the rock record with human features that had already been detected in the 2010 drought and reappeared in Ponta das Lajes, close to the confluence of the Rio Negro and Solimões rivers .

One of the sites is Fort São Francisco Xavier, on the banks of the Solimões River, in Tabatinga, close to the triple border with Peru and Colombia. It is an 18th century building whose existence was known based on historical records.

Jaime Oliveira, an archaeologist at Iphan, states that in the 20th century the site would have been affected by the phenomenon of fallen lands —in general, a landslide, an event that was also seen recently— and ended up submerged.

According to Iphan, the fort was the last stop for those heading towards the Andes in the colonial era, especially those heading to the town of San Pablo de Loreto, in Peru. Furthermore, it was a marker of Portuguese dominance in the Amazon and symbolized a milestone in the consolidation of the national border to the north.

The ruins exposed by the drought were already inspected by technicians last week. The information collected will be sent to the CNSA (National Register of Archaeological Sites).

The fort had thick wood in its construction and had an irregular hexagonal shape. There was the possibility of installing nine artillery pieces at the location, according to Iphan. In fact, some of these pieces still exist; two are in the National Historical Museum of Rio de Janeiro and three are with the Army, in the Solimões Border Command Barracks.

According to the archaeologist, the visit was necessary to verify the state of conservation of the ruins and determine that, in fact, the area has value from an archaeological perspective. “But, based on the news I had with the community, in previous years, as we had already had some droughts, some areas became visible”, says Oliveira.

The other archaeological sites found are estimated to be considerably older, according to Oliveira. The archaeologist says that the type of record found is associated with prehistoric groups and several other sites in the Amazon and Latin America.

One of them, the Costa do Goiabeira site, is in the city of Anamã. Ceramic burial urns were found due to the reduction in water levels in the region.

Finally, new rock records were found in Urucará (260 km from the capital of Amazonas), a municipality bathed by the Uatumã River. There are stone engravings at this site, just like the one found in Ponta das Lajes, in Manaus.

The sites provide more information and help to understand the history of the populations that inhabited the region, in addition to valuing the region, says Leandro Grass, president of Iphan.

“Now we need to try to take advantage of the situation, which is sad, it’s bad, to detail and register the sites”, says Grass. “Even if, with the water rising, there is no longer permanent access, we have the opportunity to immortalize these sites. It’s time to take a leading role in this topic of archeology, little understood by the majority of the population.”

In the case of these last two sites, there have not yet been technical visits, which should take place in the coming weeks in partnership with local research institutions. The discovery itself relied on the eyes of researchers from the region.

According to Oliveira, professors at the State University of Amazonas and an archaeologist who worked at the Mamirauá Institute.

But, as stated at the beginning of this report, social networks end up playing an ambiguous role, from an archaeological point of view, in the discovery of these remains. Oliveira says that part of the records end up coming through photos taken by people and then posted on social media.

The report managed to find some of the posts referring to the sites in question, including people touching and handling objects. Furthermore, the report found videos of a person going through dry parts with a metal detector and, eventually, collecting one object or another.

And that’s where the problem comes in.

“The public interest is always very important,” says Grass. However, interacting with sites, picking up items, touching or even extracting goods from them is prohibited by law.

Recently, for example, a group of people painted the engravings present in Ponta das Lajes, as shown in a G1 report.

“It is essential to inform that if the community discovers an archaeological site, whether an engraving site or a place with a scattering of ceramic or lithic material, [minerais e pedras]don’t collect, don’t remove artifacts from their location”, says Oliveira. The guideline is to take a photo and inform Iphan about the find.

In the case of Ponta das Lajes, Iphan states that, to avoid damage, assistance was requested from the Federal Police and the Municipal Public Security Secretariat, which, according to the agency, should carry out regular patrols at the site.

According to the institute, due to the risk of losing archaeological information, other institutions were invited to join a working group to develop a preservation protocol.

Iphan also highlights that any attempt at interventional research without authorization is illegal and subject to punishment. The institute states that the PF has been asked to investigate cases of fraud involving archaeological assets.