Archaeological discoveries in Brazil could change opinions about that country’s prehistory

The workers had just started construction on a new building in the city northeast of Brazil when they encountered human bones and fragments of ceramic objects left by ancient humans 9,000 years ago.

Located in the coastal town of Sao Luis, the remains are an archaeological treasure that scientists say could rewrite the history of human settlement in Brazil.

The lead archaeologist for the dig, Wellington Lage, was hired by Brazil’s largest construction company, MRV, in 2019 to conduct a preliminary impact study at the site.

Lage says he has found that Locals have been finding human bones since the 1970s.

His team soon found stone tools, pottery shards, decorated shells and more bones.

According to the researchers, in four years of excavations they unearthed 43 human skeletons and more than 100,000 artifacts. Institute of National Historical and Artistic Heritage of Brazil (Iphan), who announced the discovery this week, calling it “amazing.”

De Iphan emphasized that the findings date from a period when The Sambaqui communities, sailors, occupy America. They are distant and indirect ancestors of the original peoples of the continent before the arrival of the colonists.

“We’ve been at it for four years and we’re just getting started,” said Lage, a 70-year-old resident of Sao Paulo.

The researchers now plan to catalog and analyze the pieces, exhibit them and publish their findings.

Four different eras of human settlement in northwestern Brazil

Lage says his team found four different periods of occupation at the site. The top layer was left behind the Tupinambá people, who inhabited the region when European settlers founded Sao Luis in 1612.

Then comes one of the typical objects of the people from the Amazon jungle, followed by a “sambaqui”: a pile of pottery, shells and bones that some indigenous groups use to build their homes or bury their dead.

About two meters underground, another layer is left behind a group that made rudimentary pottery and lived about 8,000 to 9,000 years agodepending on the depth of the find.

The oldest ‘Presambaqui’ settlement documented and found in the region so far dates back 6,600 years ago, Lage said.

“Our hypothesis, based on the position of the skeletons and our examination of the sediment… is that “Our site is older than 6,600 years,” explained to the AFP.

“That could completely change the history, not just of the region, but of Brazil as a whole.”

Scientists have debated for decades about when and how humans came to the Americas from Asia. The discovery could mean that for Lage They arrived in this region of what is now Brazil 1,400 years earlier than previously thought.

How do I check the age of an archaeological find?

Archaeologists plan to date the artifacts more accurately using a isotope analysis the organic and inorganic chemical compounds, to know, among other things, the diet of the animals and people whose remains are at the site.

The discovery “already represents a milestone in our understanding of prehistoric Brazil,” Iphan said in a statement.

Archaeologist Arkley Bandeira, of the Federal University of Maranhao, who is building a laboratory and museum to house the artifacts with funding from MRV, said in a statement that The discovery could provide valuable new insights into the culture and history of ancient peoples lost in the past. “These findings (…) play a crucial role in telling our long history,” he said. (F)