This year's severe drought has uncovered a multitude of sculptures, adding to other rock carvings found in the past. These extraordinary findings will greatly aid researchers in identifying their origins.
Archaeologist Jaime de Santana Oliveira, who works for the National Institute of Historical and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN), said in an interview that this time we found not only more carvings, but also the sculpture of a human face carved into the rock.
At the archaeological site known as Ponto das Lajes (Place of Slabs), fascinating rock carvings portraying animals and other natural elements have been discovered along the shores of the Rio Negro.
Oliveira estimates that the engravings are prehistoric, or precolonial, between 1,000 and 2,000 years old.
This year the drought has become so severe that the Rio Negro has dropped 15 metres since July, exposing vast expanses of rock and sand where there used to be no beaches.
Experts believe that the presence of smooth grooves in the rock indicates that the indigenous people used the area to sharpen their arrows and spears centuries before the arrival of Europeans.