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Archeologists investigate `tropical Stonehenge'

Granite blocks are seen in Amapa, Brazil, on May 10. A grouping of 127 granite blocks along a grassy Amazon hilltop may be the vestiges of South America's oldest astronomical observatory, according to archeologists. PHOTO: AP

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

The 127 blocks, some as high as 3m tall, are spaced at regular intervals around the hill, like a crown 33m 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 archeologist at the Amapa State Scientific and Technical Research Institute.

"We may be also looking at the remnants of a sophisticated culture," Cabral said.

Anthropologists have long known that local indigenous populations were acute observers of the stars and sun. But the discovery of a structure that appears to incorporate this knowledge suggests pre-Columbian people in the Amazon may have been more sophisticated than previously suspected.

"Transforming this kind of knowledge into a monument; the transformation of something ephemeral into something concrete, could indicate the existence of a larger population and of a more complex social organization," Cabral said.

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. She says that while the blocks have not yet been submitted to carbon dating, pottery shards near the site indicate they are pre-Columbian and may be older -- as much as 2,000 years old.

Farmers and fishermen in the region around the Amazon site have long known about it, and the local press has dubbed it the "tropical Stonehenge." Archeologists got involved last year after geographers and geologists did a socio-economic survey of the area, by foot and helicopter, and noticed "the unique circular structure on top of the hill," Cabral said.
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