Tropical Stonehenge May Have Been Found

[NVMojo]

(see, the indigenious peoples of the America's were sophisticated, they weren't just savages like the conquerors like to call them in the history books.)

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) -

A grouping of granite blocks along a grassy Amazon hilltop may be the vestiges of a centuries-old astronomical observatory - a find archaeologists say indicates early rainforest inhabitants were more sophisticated than previously believed.

The 127 blocks, some as high as 9 feet tall, are spaced at regular intervals around the hill, like a crown 100 feet in diameter.

On the shortest day of the year - Dec. 21 - the shadow of one of the blocks disappears when the sun is directly above it.

"It is this block's alignment with the winter solstice that leads us to believe the site was once an astronomical observatory," said Mariana Petry Cabral, an archaeologist at the Amapa State Scientific and Technical Research Institute. "We may be also looking at the remnants of a sophisticated culture."

more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/tech/2006/jun/27/062704377.html

[rodeodance]

1. more about the traditional image:

......He said that while carbon dating and further excavation must be carried out, the find adds to a growing body of thought among archaeologists that prehistory in the Amazon region was more varied than had been believed.

"Given that astronomical objects, stars, constellations etc., have a major importance in much of Amazonian mythology and cosmology, it does not in any way surprise me that such an observatory exists," said Richard Callaghan, a professor of geography, anthropology and archaeology at the University of Calgary.

Brazilian archaeologists will return in August, when the rainy season ends, to carry out carbon dating and further excavations.

"The traditional image is that some time thousands of years ago small groups of tropical forest horticulturists arrived in the area and they never changed - (that) what we see today is just like it was 3,000 years ago," Heckenberger said. "This is one more thing that suggests that through the past thousands of years, societies have changed quite a lot."

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. Cahokia also had an observatory

only it was made of wood. You can still see the layout from Monk's Mound, the highest prehistoric man made object in the US.

[Robb]

3. Cool lookin'. Pic:

[Veronica.Franco]

4. Graham Nash would love it there ...

"I'm flying in Winchester cathedral ... Sunlight pouring
through the break of day."

http://www.seeklyrics.com/lyrics/Crosby-Stills-Nash-Young/Cathedral.html

[MrPrax]

6. These are kewl pix too

http://www.ufos-aliens.co.uk/cosmicstonehenge.htm

Funny looking druids...I guess when they 'restored' it they follow some sorta ancient text or something.

Kinda of an insult to the indigeous people comparing our Stonehedge to their cultures. The obvious metaphor might be to compare it with Machu Picchu or Tenochtitlan...at least it's regional.

[dysfunctional press]

16. they're comparing the purpose of the structure, not so much the cultures..

that made them.
it's being compared to stonehenge because both are believed to be ancient observatories- how is that an "insult" to indigenous peoples?

[Bridget Burke]

17. The comparison was used because astronomical observation...

Appears to be the reason behind the Brazilian find. And astronomical observation appears to be one reason Stonehenge was built.

Machu Picchu & Tenochtitlan were settlements, although astronomical considerations (including the sun, moon & planets) may have influenced some of their construction.

By the way--when the Druids came to Britain, Stonehenge was already ancient.

[cliss]

5. There is so much we don't know.

Our planet's history. Just a few hundred years back, and they've hardly solved any of the riddles.

Thanks for posting. This is so awesome.

[SpiralHawk]

7. If only the missionaries had not burned all the books and codices

the wonders that were Amerikua would be plain to all.

But the past and its records were destroyed.

For the convenience of the Current Lies.

Do not drink the Kool Aid.

[knitter4democracy]

8. Amen to that.

I will never understand why they did that. All those stories, all those lives . . . just sick.

[Igel]

15. The wonders that were the Maya and Aztecs would

be plain. We still can't "read" the quipa; or, rather, like Etruscan, various people can read them in starkly diverging ways.

No record of writing in the Amazon Basin. Disease got there first, and apparently it was harder to maintain a high level of civilization there. Most other cultures seem to have collapsed, too. There were survey trips in N. America and one group of soldiers just tried to get through the Amazon to get to safety after an expedition failed. Both said that there were cities and organization, but by the time Europeans actually got there the cities and organization were mostly gone. The earliest reports were passed off as absurd; disease likely spread ahead of Europeans, it was pretty much inevitable. It's hard to to maintain cities with 70-90% of a civilization's population gone. From there it's an argument from silence; the default assumption was that lack of technology implied a previous lack of technology, not collapse. A reasonable assumption; it just happens to be wrong for a lot of places.

[kori]

9. Dec 21?

Not to be picky but since we are talking Brazil would not Dec 21st be the longest day of the year?

[NVMojo]

11. I thought it would be shortest? Summer Soltice, June 21st, the longest?

[kori]

13. In the N. Hemisphere you are correct

However without a globe close it is hard to remember but most of Brazil is in the Southern Hemisphire, I think, thus December 21 would be the longest day there. I am just not sure where this site is.

[William Seger]

21. It's just north of the equator

About 2.5 degrees north. But at that latitude, there isn't much difference between the longest and shortest days. Using the calculator at http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneDay.html it appears that December 21 is only about 17 minutes shorter than June 21.

[Jacobin]

24. Sao Paulo is 23 degrees SOUTH of the equator

Latitude: 23° 34' South
Longitude: 46° 38' West

[William Seger]

25. From the article:

"Cabral has been studying the site, near the village of Calcoene, just north of the equator in Amapa state in far northern Brazil, since last year."

[Jacobin]

26. My bad

:blush:

[ConcernedCanuk]

10. "We may be also looking at the remnants of a sophisticated culture."

.
.
.

Hmmmmm

Will anyone say that about US in the millenniums that follow?

I somewhat doubt it . . .

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

12. Zoom forward a couple hundred years.

North American Nazca Lines Found!

Oh, it's just the NAFTA Highway. D'oh.

[MrPrax]

19. Zoom forward? Zoom back 2 years

Aerial photos show damage to Peru's Nazca Lines

LIMA, Peru -- Peru's ancient spiral-tailed monkey is losing its tail.

Extensive high-resolution aerial photos of the famed Nazca Lines taken by Peru's air force showed destruction Thursday that conservationists have long feared.

Tire tracks and disregard for the site are irreparably scarring the mysterious lines and animal figures that a pre-Columbian civilization etched into a 56-kilometre stretch of Peru's southern desert centuries ago.

In the first comprehensive aerial photos taken by Peru's government since 1973, one of the most famous animal figures, the monkey, was crisscrossed by tire tracks nearly obliterating the top of its tail. The fish and spider lines showed similar scars in the 180 photos taken last month and published in local newspapers.

Denouncing the damage, Congressman Luis Gonzales said he would urge legislators to take urgent action to protect the site, which was added to the United Nations World Heritage list in 1994.

CTV



Reading between Peru's Nazca Lines

NAZCA, Peru (AP) -- Standing inside the maze of mysterious lines and figures that put this arid region on the tourist map, state archaeologist Alberto Urbano surveys a football field-sized spread of ankle-deep trash.

"Farther down this road there are illegal gold mines, too," he says, noting the path actually is the side of a giant trapezoid. "See how straight it is."

But not just trash and small-time gold diggers threaten Peru's fragile Nazca Lines. Grave robbers, tractor trailers and tourists have left their mark on the mammoth designs carved more than a millennium ago along a 35-mile stretch of desert.

CNN Travel

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

29. So, Peru has Freepers.

That's pretty sad stuff.

[William Seger]

14. Very interesting site, but....

... that doesn't sound like very convincing evidence that it was an "astronomical observatory." One stone out of 127 happens to point toward the noon-day sun on December 21? It looks to me like it may just be on its way to falling down. Or, if it was intentionally placed at that angle, I'd like to know how they anchored it so that it wouldn't shift after all this time. That also doesn't sound like a very accurate way to mark a particular day -- how did they know when it was exactly noon? If it was tilted just a little toward the east or west, the shadow would disappear a day or two before or after December 21, or on December 21 it would disappear a little before or after noon.

I think some of the "archeo-astronomy" theories are a little far-fetched, and this is one of them.

[QuettaKid]

18. I just found the Nazca lines on google maps the other day.

there has been a HUGE update of Hi-Res photos on google maps and they FINALLY got around to including th e lines...check it out....in this one you can even see a small white plane and it's shadow on the ground!!

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=-14.702356,-75.134189&spn=0.009547,0.014591&t=k&om=0

[Tyrone Slothrop]

20. If you're interested in what the Americas were *really* like

prior to Columbus, I urge everyone here to read 1491 by Charles Mann.

It's a fascinating look at what modern anthropology and archaeology have learned about the civilizations that were here prior to the European colonization. (NB: Everything you learned in grade school about Native Americans was wrong. WAY wrong...)

[BrotherBuzz]

22. Mann's book is nothing but plausible speculation...

backed by little fact and a lot of imagination. Most of his theory has been thoroughly debunked by the scientific community.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

27. By whom specifically?

First I've heard of it.

If it's factually incorrect, I'd like to read more about it.

[BrotherBuzz]

28. Total brain fart!

I was thinking of the crappy book 1421, not 1491. Most sorry, and a sincere apology.

Gavin Menzies' controversial book 1421 has been discredited ten ways to Tuesday, and after a thorough search in google, I find nothing but praises for Mann's book. I must locate a copy and read it.

Sorry.

[AngryAmish]

23. Is it in danger of being trodden upon by a Dwarf?

And how they danced...