Archaeology: The discovery of a 9,000-year-old treasure “could change the history of Brazil”

Workers had just attacked the construction of an apartment complex in northeastern Brazil when they came across human bones, along with shards of pottery. They were not at the end of their surprises.

Excavations at the site, in the coastal city of São Luis, quickly uncovered thousands of ancient objects that could date back as far as 9,000 years ago. A treasure which, according to archaeologist Wellington Lage who is leading the excavations, “could completely change the history not only of the region but of all of Brazil”. The archaeologist admits he had no idea what awaited him when Brazilian construction giant MRV called on his company, W Lage Arqueologia, in 2019 to conduct a survey of the site, a standard procedure before housing construction.

Covered with tropical vegetation and bordered by the constantly expanding urban fabric of São Luis, capital of the state of Maranhão, the land extends over six hectares. During his research, Mr. Lage learned that intriguing discoveries had been made there as early as the 1970s, including a piece of a human jaw in 1991. His team soon found much more: quantities of stone tools, ceramic and bone shards. In four years of excavations, 43 human skeletons and more than 100,000 ancient objects were unearthed, according to the Brazilian Institute of History and Artistic Heritage (Iphan), which announced this “grandiose” discovery a few days ago.

The researchers will now inventory the objects, analyze them in detail, before exhibiting them and publishing their discoveries. “We have been working for four years now, and we have barely scratched the surface,” insists Mr. Lage, a 70-year-old native of São Paulo, whose wife and two children are also archaeologists. The first discoveries are already attracting the attention of the scientific community.

Mr. Lage explains that his team - now 27 members, including archaeologists, chemists, a historian and a documentarian - has cataloged four different eras at the site. The top layer was left by the Tupinamba people, who lived in the area when European settlers founded São Luis in 1612. Next comes a layer of ancient objects typical of the peoples of the Amazon rainforest, followed by a “sambaqui”: a pile of pottery, shards and bones used by certain indigenous communities to build their houses or bury their dead. Still below, about two meters deep, is another layer, left by a group who made rudimentary ceramics and who lived there 8 to 9,000 years ago, according to estimates.

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It is much older than the oldest “sambaqui” found so far in the region, which dates back around 6,600 years, points out Mr. Lage. Scientists have long debated the question of when and how the first humans arrived in the Americas from Asia. The discoveries of this specialist suggest that they settled in this region of present-day Brazil at least 1,400 years earlier than what seemed established.

Archaeologists are planning further analyzes to date the objects more precisely. The site already represents “a milestone in Brazilian prehistory,” detailed Iphan in a press release. For this organization, “it is a testimony to the long history of human settlement” in the region, “revealing a past prior” to the times already documented.

Archaeologist Arkley Bandeira, from the Federal University of Maranhão, who is building a laboratory and museum to house this treasure with funding from the MRV group, also points out that the site could provide valuable information on the culture and history of ancient peoples so long submerged. According to him, these discoveries “play a crucial role in telling the story of our long history”.