Ancient Advanced Amazonia: “The Sophisticated Savage”
Cities, Rock Carvings, Roads & Stonework in Pre-Columbian Amazonia
It’s a common belief that hidden deep in the rainforests of South America, there still exist uncovered treasures and ruins; lost to the endless cycles of time. “Look around the Amazon rainforest today and it’s hard to imagine it filled with people. But in recent decades, archaeologists have started to find evidence that before Columbus’s arrival, the region was dotted with towns and perhaps even cities.”(10) The traditional view of native Amazonian peoples is that they did not assimilate large, dense population groups, nor undertake cooperative complex projects like working or carving stone. There is some evidence that they did work stone to a certain extent as well as undertook other complicated projects and constructed dense population centers or cities.
There are many examples of pictures incised in stone known as “petroglyphs” or simply rock carvings. Additionally there exist large megalithic structures that are at least partially altered by the hand of man. I will argue that ancient Amazonian people were more complex than previously believed and were able to achieve large projects like carving rock, making roads and even constructing cities that go against the accepted theories of the ancient Amazon. In light of new evidence only recently uncovered by anthropologists, historians and archaeologists we should investigate the culture of the ancient Amazon and reconsider the position about Amazonia being devoid of advanced societies, large complex works in stone and dense populations centers or cities.
“I have seen no evidence that large numbers of people ever lived in the Beni, claiming otherwise is just wishful thinking.” says Betty J. Meggers, of the Smithsonian Institution.(11) Most modern historians believe the Amazonian peoples in ancient times were much the same as remote Amazonian peoples today, that they lived in small semi-agriculture hunter-gather groups with low population densities. The concept of the “Green Hell” still has its hold in the mind of many anthropologists and historians today, that the Amazon is a desolate green desert, devoid of food and filled with all manner of dangerous flora and fauna, a “false paradise”.
They see the jungle as threatening and an impossible place for complex civilizations to thrive. This sentiment partly comes from racially prejudiced views of a primitive and brutal savage inhabiting the Amazon who was never able to conceive of grand projects, much less cities. “During the twentieth century, Amazonia was widely regarded as a relatively pristine nature, little impacted by human history. This view remains popular despite mounting evidence of substantial human influence over millennial scales across the region.”(7) The traditional view of ancient Amazonia is that that they were a primitive culture. However, we now have evidence to the contrary.
The ancient Amazonians display at various sites their ability to undertake large projects and carve vast amounts of stone with deeply incised petroglyphs. At the Petroglyphs of Pusharo in Manu National Park of Southern Peru there exist an awe-inspiring display of advanced craftsmanship and countless hours of labor. I have personally witnessed the grand display at the Petroglyphs at Pusharo. It is over 3 meters high and 15 meters long. The rock is deeply cut, sometimes an inch or more deep, not lightly scratched or painted, but cut.(1) This in and of itself displays the ability of ancient Amazonian peoples to work stone and carry out long, complicated projects such as the carvings at Pusharo. There are various sites scattered all around the Amazon including another site in the Manu region known as “Hingkiori”(2), however the Petroglyphs at Pusharo are some of the largest, most complex and deeply incised rock carvings in all of Amazonia.
In the remote Amazon of northern Peru in the Loreto department there lies another large and enigmatic set of petroglyphs known and “Cumpanamá”. “The petroglyph was discovered for science by geologist Jose Sanchez Izquierdo in 1997. Over time, they have identified 25 additional petroglyphs along the Paranapura River, but none has been as extensive as Cumpanamá.”(6) These rock carvings seem to pre-date the conquest of the Americas by 100s or even 1000s of years. “According to a style analysis of the designs, Rivas has determined that the rock was carved around the year 1000 A.D., or perhaps earlier.”(6) The most interesting aspect of the site proposed by one of the researchers is as follows, “What Rivas is sure of is that the site was a ceremonial center where stone axe heads were produced collectively. “That’s what I believe, based on the marks we found on the top of the rock. Here, men prepared the magical tools that allowed them to dominate the jungle,” says Rivas.”(6) Again we are confronted with evidence that not only were ancient Amazonian peoples carving petroglyphs into stone but that this area was also used for working stone in other ways, such as making stone tools on a large scale.
In Amapá, Brazil we have what some call the “Stonehenge of the Amazon”. Huge megaliths protrude from the ground, they are thought to be some sort of astronomical observatory, perhaps for keeping a calendar. They are reputed to be extremely old and were obviously moved and shaped by ancient Amazonian peoples. “Anthropologists have long known that local indigenous populations were acute observers of the stars and sun. But the discovery of a physical structure that appears to incorporate this knowledge suggests pre-Columbian Indians in the Amazon rainforest may have been more sophisticated than previously suspected.”(13) G. Cope Schellhorn reputedly found a stone alter, stacked walls, petroglyphs and other worked stone in the jungles of Southern Peru near the Pantiacolla and Manu regions. According to the author of “Discovering Rock Art in Peru and Brazil” after finding a worked stone formation in the Manu area he said “This is not a natural stone, despite archeologists’ present-day contention that primitive Amazonian peoples never worked or stacked stone into habitations, walls or more or less elaborate ceremonial sites.”(3)
In the Amarakaeri reserve near Manu National Park in Southern Peru there have been found at least one if not more large stone heads that appear partly natural and partly worked by the hand of man. “…looking somewhat like the brooding stone faces of Easter Island… this giant monument has long been known to the Harakbut (Harakmbut) people who live in the Amarakaeri Reserve but they have kept it a secret until now. The giant face has never been studied by archaeologists, but the Harakbut believe the face is not the product of natural forces but carved by their ancient ancestors.”, “There are markings all over the Rostro that indicate that it was hacked out with rudimentary tools.”(12) Another stone site has been found in the jungles of Ecuador, apparently the site is made of stacked stone which is not natural.(14)
In the 1540s, less than 50 years after Europeans set foot on New World soil, Francisco de Orellana became the first foreigner to go down the entire length of the Amazon River. After being separated from the main expedition group the conquistador decided his only chance of safety was to follow the river to its mouth, he had no idea it was 1000s of miles away. “Despite the fact that indigenous people had been living in the Amazon for at least 10,000 years, and possibly for as long as 15,000 years, the Amazon River itself was “discovered” by a Spanish explorer and conquistador. Don Francisco de Orellana left Quito, Ecuador in February of 1541 in the role of lieutenant. The company was in search of vast forests of cinnamon, and of course, the elusive El Dorado, the fabled lost city of gold, which the Indians wisely and repeatedly assured the conquistadors really existed.”(5) When Orellana descended the Amazon he reported seeing large cities and 10s of 1000s of native lining the shores as he passed. “There was one town that stretched for 15 miles without any space from house to house, which was a marvelous thing to behold”. “The land is as fertile and as normal in appearance as our Spain.” wrote Gaspar de Carvajal, chronicler of explorer and conquistador Francisco de Orellana in 1542.(9)
Initially almost all the natives that Francisco de Orellana and his men encountered were amicable, however as his expedition continued and as they continued to treat the natives poorly they began to be attacked. “He does note, however, that the Indian population grew ever more numerous as they traveled downriver, and how the Spaniards attacked and burned the villages, and killed any Indians that did not flee. Not surprisingly, news of the… newcomers soon preceded the Spaniards by messenger and bush drum, and the Indians became increasingly hostile.”(5)
In recent times new evidence of dense ancient Amazonian population centers has been uncovered. Archaeologist has found habitation sites that include 100s of homes, masses of pottery shard and other artifacts as well as a strange type of extremely fertile soil known as “terra preta” or anthropogenic dark earths.(7) “The evidence for this radical rethink has been stacking up for some time. Archaeologists have uncovered dense urban centers that would have been home to up to 10,000 inhabitants along riverbanks, with fields and cultivated orchards of Brazil nuts, palm and fruit trees stretching for tens of kilometers.”(8) As the cattle ranchers and loggers deforest parts of the Eastern Amazon they have uncovered large dirt mounds, ditches and trenched circles. In the ancient eastern Amazon there were large cities interconnected by long, straight roads clear of vegetation, as the Scientific American reports “A city of sorts — actually a series of settlements connected by roads — has been found at the headwaters of the Xingu River… in an area previously buried beneath the dense foliage in what is now Xingu National Park.”(15) We now have proof of these large scale civilizations from Brazil and Bolivia due to the discovery of vast earthworks.
The Amazonian people of the 21st century are broken culture, if the conquest by the Spanish and Portuguese had not destroyed the ancient Amazonian people, then surely the Rubber Boom of the late 1800s did. It is likely that in the past the culture in many areas of the Amazon was much different than today, including high levels of social organization and large city-like areas supporting huge populations. “But, ultimately, these cities died; most likely a victim of the diseases brought by European explorers in the early 16th century, according to Heckenberger. Two thirds or more of the original human inhabitants of Brazil are believed to have been killed by such disease, and the forest quickly swallowed the cities they left behind.”(15)
The Amazon we see today is mostly a culture broken by disease and colonization but we should not presume it has always been that way. A new picture is emerging about the ancient history of the pre-Columbian Amazon. With evidence that has only recently come to light we now know that sophisticated societies and complex civilizations lived in Pre-Colombian Amazonia. With this understanding the entire history of the ancient Amazon is changed and thus our understanding of how the cultures of the Amazon today came to be. If accepted by mainstream historians these new revelations about the ancient history of Amazonia will alter our view of world history, especially in the Americas, drastically. I hope that with more evidence and time even the most conservative historians and archaeologists will accept the theory of an “Advanced Ancient Amazonia” filled with “Sophisticated Savages”.
-Scott Lite
>Sources<
(1)Personal Observations- Things I have seen with my own eyes through personal travel, expeditions, etc., personal experience. I have spent much time in the Amazon of Southern Peru in the “Manu” region and have visited the petroglyph sites of “Pusharo” and “Hinkiori” on my own expeditions and seen them with my own eyes. I have interacted with the Machiguenga native people in Manu. I will use some of my own personal experiences to describe these sites and others in Southern Peru showing that ancient Amazonia was indeed advanced.
(2)Rainer Hostnig, 2008, http://www.rupestreweb.info/hinkiori.html- Artículo publicado en el libro “La Amazonía en el Cusco”. INC-Cusco, Cusco, 2008. En esta versión para Rupestreweb fueron incluidas fotografìas y datos adicionales. — This page is one of the best pages to be found about a site known as ¨Hinkiori. Hinkiori is an amazing site with rocks carved by ancient peoples of the Amazon.
(3)G. Cope Schellhorn, 2002, “Discovering Rock Art in Peru and Brazil”– This is an amazing book about finding rock art and stone carving in Peru and Brazil. The information in this book is hard to find and the author supports my idea that Amazonian peoples carved stone and had a complex civilization before Europeans arrived. The author sometimes goes a little too far for me relying on flimsy evidence but most of the stuff in the book is really great.
(4)Fred Pearce, 2015, https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27945-myth-of-pristine-amazon-rainforest-busted-as-old-cities-reappear/- This article tells how the Amazon was populated by large cities and big, long, straight roads during ancient times. The author supports my idea that Amazonia was much more advanced in the past than during Colonial times.
(5) http://www.projectamazonas.org/brief-history-amazon-exploration
(7) http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/282/1812/20150813.full
(8)https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27945-myth-of-pristine-amazon-rainforest-busted-as-old-cities-reappear/
(9) The Discovery Of The Amazon: According To The Account Of Friar Gaspar De Carvajal And Other Documents — September 10, 2010, by Jose Toribio Medina (Author), H. C. Heaton (Editor), Bertram T. Lee (Translator).
(10) http://news.sciencemag.org/archaeology/2014/01/searching-amazons-hidden-civilizations
(11) http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/03/1491/302445/
(12)http://news.mongabay.com/2014/12/giant-stone-face-unveiled-in-the-amazon-rainforest-video/
(13) http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=24990
(15) http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lost-amazon-cities/
(16) (Photos) — Found via Google images under “free for commercial reuse”
