A grouping of 127 granite blocks along a grassy Amazon hilltop may be the vestiges of an ancient astronomical observatory, according to archaeologists.
Posted on 06/28/2006 2:09:13 PM PDT by IllumiNaughtyByNature
SAO PAULO, Brazil - A grouping of granite blocks along a grassy Amazon hilltop may be the vestiges of a centuries-old astronomical observatory — a find that archaeologists say shows early rainforest inhabitants were more sophisticated than previously believed.
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(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
On the shortest day of the year — Dec. 21 — the shadow of one of the blocks disappears when the sun is directly above it.
More at link...
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I hate to be a thread hijacker - but when I think of Stonehenge, I often am reminded of the scene in the movie "Spinal Tap".
A grouping of 127 granite blocks along a grassy Amazon hilltop may be the vestiges of an ancient astronomical observatory, according to archaeologists.
Granite blocks are grouped around a grassy Amazon hilltop like a crown, as seen in this aerial photograph.
And????
On the shortest day of the year — Dec. 21 — the shadow of one of the blocks disappears when the sun is directly above it.
"It is this block's alignment with the winter solstice that leads us to believe the site was once an astronomical observatory," said Mariana Petry Cabral, an archaeologist at the Amapa State Scientific and Technical Research Institute. "We may be also looking at the remnants of a sophisticated culture."
But then they say this:
Cabral has been studying the site, near the village of Calcoene, just north of the equator in Amapa state in far northern Brazil, since last year. She believes it was once inhabited by the ancestors of the Palikur Indians, and while the blocks have not yet been submitted to carbon dating, she says pottery shards near the site indicate they predate Columbus' voyages and may be much older — as much as 2,000 years old.
You can't have it both ways. Due to precession, any actual observatory that's 2,000 years old will no longer align with either soltice - as is the case with Stonehenge.
So methinks this is PC selective science on a par with global warming.
paging Art Bell..!
On the shortest day of the year — Dec. 21 — the shadow of one of the blocks disappears when the sun is directly above it...Cabral has been studying the site, near the village of Calcoene, just north of the equator in Amapa state in far northern Brazil, since last year.
Calcoene is at 2.5 degrees north. That close to the Equator, the winter solstice has no real meaning. These people are really stretching to give this site meaning.
The 127 blocks, some as high as 9 feet (2.75 meters) tall, are spaced at regular intervals around the hill, like a crown 100 feet (30 meters) in diameter.
On the shortest day of the year — Dec. 21 — the shadow of one of the blocks disappears when the sun is directly above it.
Interesting find, but assigning celestial significance there seems like a bit of a stretch.
If you tossed 127 blocks of varying sizes randomly into a field, one of them would likely exhibit some coincidently interesting effect during a solstice.
And another point against this claim.
Maybe they were just happy folk and it's the world's first gigantic smiley face.
Art is busy right now with the child he married three months after Ramona precipitously died. {wierd music} Ramona is directing this from the great beyond. {wierd music}
I am not a scientist ... but, doesn't the shadow of any object disappear when the sun is directly above it ... on any day of the year ?Just wondering ...
"Or it could be the remains of the stone fort where the ancient ancestors of the modern day inhabitants stood off Gigantor lizards who were trying to mate with the little furry animals."
The word Patagonia means 'the land of the giants.'
Sounds like someone in the local area is trying to unload some pre-columbian art by publicizing quaint rock forts on a hilltop, bringing wealthy Americans to visit podunk tourist trap.
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