Exceptional drought in the Amazon uncovers 2000-year-old engravings

In the Amazon, where there is an episode of extreme drought, the level of several rivers has dropped drastically and revealed rocks that are usually submerged, decorated with engravings that could date back more than 2,000 years. “I thought it was a lie,” says Livia Ribeiro, who has lived for 27 years in Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state in northern Brazil, located on the banks of the Rio Negro. “I’ve never seen this,” she said after observing the carvings along the river at the Praia das Lajes site. Most of them represent human faces, rectangular or oval, with smiling or darker expressions. The waters of the Rio Negro, one of the main tributaries of the Amazon, whose flow reached its lowest level in 121 years last week, until now covered the rock formations and their works of art. If the appearance of the inscriptions due to the drought has delighted scientists and curious visitors, the phenomenon nevertheless raises questions. “We come, we look at (the engravings) and we find them splendid. But at the same time, it’s worrying,” underlines Livia Ribeiro. “I wonder if this river will exist in 50 or 100 years.”

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Extreme drought in the Amazon has caused rivers to decline to critical levels, posing significant problems for river navigation, crucial for supplying remote communities. Experts say the situation is also aggravated by El Niño, a cyclical weather phenomenon over the Pacific, which reduces cloud formation and therefore precipitation. During a previous drought in 2010, the engravings were observed for the first time. They constitute an archaeological site of “great importance”, underlines archaeologist Jaime Oliveira, of the Institute of National Historical and Artistic Heritage (Iphan) of Brazil. “The site expresses emotions, feelings, it is a testimony through engraved rocks, but it has something in common with current works of art,” says Jaime Oliveira. For Beatriz Carneiro, historian and member of Iphan, Praia das Lajes has an “invaluable” value in allowing us to better understand the first inhabitants of the region, a part of history that is still little studied. “Unfortunately, this is reappearing today with the worsening drought,” she continues. “Finding our rivers (in flood) and keeping the engravings submerged will contribute to their preservation, even more than our work.”