human faces carved in stone about 2,000 years ago have appeared on a rocky outcrop along the river Amazonas since water levels have fallen to historic lows in what is already the region’s worst drought in more than a century.
Some faces carved into the rock had already been sighted, but now there is a greater variety that will help researchers establish their origins, said archaeologist Jaime de Santana Oliveira.
In one of the areas you can see smooth grooves in the rock which are believed to be the places where the indigenous inhabitants They sharpened their arrows and spears long before the arrival of the Europeans.
“The engravings are prehistoric or precolonial. We cannot date them exactly, but based on the evidence of human occupation of the area, we believe that they are between 1,000 and 2,000 years old,” Oliveira said in an interview.
The rocky point is called Lajes Point, on the northern bank of the Amazon, near where the Negro and Solimoes rivers meet.