The 2,000 year old 'Stonehenge' in the middle of the Amazon

Hundreds of mysterious structures built in the ground more than two thousand years ago have been discovered in the Amazon rainforest.

Remarkable excavation work is long remained hidden by trees, but deforestation in recent years has updated the more than 450 massive geoglyphs.

While their goal is little known, we think that these fossoyees boxes were used sporadically as a ritual gathering places.

Hundreds of mysterious structures built into the Earth more than two thousand years ago have been discovered in the Amazon rainforest. The earthworks have long remained hidden by trees – but, deforestation in recent years has unearthed more than 450 massive geoglyphs

THE MYSTERIOUS GEOGLYPHS 

Researchers have discovered more than 450 massive geoglyphs in Acre state, in the western Brazilian Amazon.

Little is known of their purpose, but the structures are more than 2,000 years old, and were likely used for ritual gatherings.

They are ditched enclosures, and take up roughly 8,078 square miles (13,000 square kilometers).

The researchers say ancient humans altered the bamboo forests for millennia, creating small, temporary clearings to build these mysterious structures.

Ditches as Stonehenge are roughly 8 078 miles square (13 000 square kilometers) of Acre state, in the West of the Brazilian Amazon.

According to researchers in the United Kingdom and the Brazil, the find suggests that the rainforest is not as "intact" as expected.

"The fact that these sites hidden for centuries under the mature rainforest really disputes the idea that Amazon forests are"Virgin ecosystems", said Dr. Jennifer Watling, post-doc at the Museum of archaeology and ethnography, University of Sao Paulo."

"We immediately wanted to know if the region was wooded when the geoglyphs were built, and that extended people affected the landscape to build these embankments.

Researchers have rebuilt 6,000 years of history of vegetation and firearound two of the geoglyph sites, revealing heavy changes by ancient man.



According to the researchers, the find suggests the rainforest isn’t as ‘untouched’ as previously thought. The indigenous people focused on economically valuable tree species, transforming the environment in the process to create a ‘prehistoric supermarket'

While little is known of their purpose, it’s thought that these ditched enclosures were once used sporadically as ritual gathering places. Their unusual geometric structure has been compared to Stonehenge, pictured 

And the biodiversity of forests remaining in Acre may have roots in these ancient "agroforestry" practices, the researchers say.

The results will be published in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"
Despite the large number and density sites geoglyph in the region, we can be certain that the forests of Acre have never cleared as much, or longer, as they have been in recent years," said Dr. Watling.

"Our evidence that Amazonian forests were managed by long Aboriginal people prior to contact with Europeans should not be cited as justification for the destructive and unsustainable land use practiced today.

"It should instead be used to highlight the old regimes of subsistence ingenuity which does not lead to degradation of forests and the importance of indigenous knowledge to find alternatives more sustainable use of land."