A Stonehenge, and a Mystery, in the Amazon

[Judi Lynn]

A ‘Stonehenge,’ and a Mystery, in the Amazon

By SIMON ROMERO DEC. 14, 2016


- video at link -

CALÇOENE, Brazil — As the foreman for a cattle ranch in the far reaches of the Brazilian Amazon, Lailson Camelo da Silva was razing trees to convert rain forest into pasture when he stumbled across a bizarre arrangement of towering granite blocks.

“I had no idea that I was discovering the Amazon’s own Stonehenge,” said Mr. da Silva, 65, on a scorching October day as he gazed at the archaeological site located just north of the Equator. “It makes me wonder: What other secrets about our past are still hidden in Brazil’s jungles?”

After conducting radiocarbon testing and carrying out measurements during the winter solstice, scholars in the field of archaeoastronomy determined that an indigenous culture arranged the megaliths into an astronomical observatory about 1,000 years ago, or five centuries before the European conquest of the Americas began.

Their findings, along with other archaeological discoveries in Brazil in recent years — including giant land carvings, remains of fortified settlements and even complex road networks — are upending earlier views of archaeologists who argued that the Amazon had been relatively untouched by humans except for small, nomadic tribes.

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/14/world/americas/brazil-amazon-megaliths-stonehenge.html?_r=0

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CALÇOENE, Brazil Amapá [/center]
More photos at google images:
https://www.google.com/search?q=CAL%C3%87OENE,+Brazil+amapa&biw=1488&bih=717&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjNmau4hPXQAhUCi1QKHQ3YDgYQ_AUICCgD#imgrc=_

Science:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/122849964

[niyad]

1. k and r and sharing, with thanks.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Thank you, niyad!

[Beartracks]

2. Cool that this was discovered. But sad...

... that the discoverer was razing yet more of the forest.

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[Judi Lynn]

4. I think it was the greedy ranchers who've torn everything up, and apparently aren't going to stop.

They get their hands on the land through stealth, tear or burn down the trees, then turn it over to themselves for ranching, so they can raise even more cattle and slaughter them.

Ugly, ugly situation. They've killed so many people getting their hands on this vital land, too. It's vital for its environmental contribution as forest, not stripped down to the ground. One of the people they killed was Dorothy Stang, a U.S. nun from Ohio who had lived there working to help the poor of the area, and moved there permanently, she thought.

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A local very wealthy rancher hired 2 hitmen to shoot her down, which they did.

Here's information about that from a previous poster at D.U., Catherina:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/110817648

It doesn't look as if they are going to give up on their plan to kill every last tree and everyone trying to protect them. Isn't it sad that because of their nature good people don't do violence, and the criminals already own the governments, most of the time? They can use the military paid for by the good people to murder them for trying to protect our world. Who will defend the life of the earth the people, the animals, the water, the plants, the air, etc.?

Yet, all the world's "good books" have seemed to predict there is a time ahead when all this crappola is going to be ended, that it isn't really destined that monsters are going to win.

[Joe Chi Minh]

5. The civilsation of the Mayan Indians, centred in Guatemala and including parts

of Mexico, peaked around 900 AD. However, their mathematics, astronomy and architecture were very advanced. In fact, they hit upon the arithmetic notation, zero, independently, around that time. The Arabs are said to have adopted it from India. Strange to think how cultures and the interests they inspire can rise and fall so easily.

Christianity was the only culture to pursue empirical science unrelentingly. It's clear that the Chinese and Indians are very bright peoples in terms of worldly intelligence, yet their cultures held them back in that regard : the Chinese, after having invented printing centuries before the West. Although, mostly because of their high emotional, intuitive intelligence, I strongly suspect that the sub-Saharan Africans have the potential to possess the most keen worldly intellects - not that they wouldn't be at least on a par with other racial strains now, all things being equal, in terms of environment and opportunities.

Judging from NDEs alone, in the next life, Einstein wouldn't have an intellectual advantage over someone who was technically a cretin in this life. Possibly, less, since the capacity for charity, selfless love, and the service of it would be the ultimate criterion of status (though a clumsy word in the context, since no-one would want to be a 'hot-shot' over others).