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Happy Pi Day
2025.03.14 - Amazon Geoglyphs have been keeping me busy, so much so this year I am finally updating the ArchaeoBlog for the first time in mid-March. Nonetheless, as is my routine, these two files were updated for the new year and have since been updated several times:
I added several hundred geometric earthworks to my database and placemarks files last year thanks to Google Earth updated satellite imagery in the core Amazon geoglyphs region along with a new database online. Analysis of the spatial relationships of the largest new geoglyphs to major monuments and apus and to each other continues. I rated finding another octagon geoglyph the same size as the Acre Octagon most interesting because, like Acre Octagon, the new Amazonas Octagon also has a phi relationship to Newark Octagon in Ohio. New results added in the Newark and Amazonia Octagons KML have since informed continued study of the relationships of the geoglyphs, pieces of a puzzle being a fitting analogy. I now rate the emerging picture of the interconnection of monuments spanning the Americas as the most interesting result of focusing on the Amazonia geoglyphs.
The improvement in satellite imagery resolution along with image timing correlated to seasonally optimal vegetation contrast revealed some difficult to discern raised earthworks (embankments/terraplens, geoglyphs without zanjas/ditches) and additional pathway berms connected to them. Several of these previously undetected geoglyphs are among the largest recorded. I have updated the online geoglyphs database and KML file a few times since last summer and the current amazon_results.kml is a v2025.02 update. Due to margin of error concerns in older satellite imagery placements I hesitate to share some study results. Recent high resolution updates reduced some incertitude, albeit uncertainty in quantifying margin of error remains. The exigency of geoglyph destruction outweighing that concern factored into my decisions regarding which results to include.
I recorded Abuna Oval thanks to Kalliola, R., & Pärssinen, M. 2024,
List of ancient geometric earthworks in southwestern Amazonia.
Their 1,279 entries added 62 geoglyphs to my database.
Some large geoglyphs I discovered last summer are already plowed in the first satellite images showing them. The embankment/terraplen constructs are partucularly vulnerable to any mechanized activity. Recent resurveys reveal that some geoglyphs I reported to authorities in Brazil as damaged have since been replowed or bulldozed after I reported them. Acre Circle, the largest true circle, and Acre Octagon have both been replowed. Madiera Square is now totally bulldozed, leveled to grow soybeans. The destruction list is long and continues to grow. Both discovery of more immense embankment sites and new findings revealing their importance heighten conservation concerns. I was very appreciative when attention was drawn to geoglyph destruction by some exceptional recent reporting.
2024.09.25 - The Uncertain Future of Ancient Geoglyphs - Watch - 10:04
"... one archeologist (Antonia Barbosa, IPHAN) is fighting to protect ancient sites from Brazil's seemingly unstoppable agribusiness industry ....
2024.09.25 - Fazendeiros destroem antiga civilização na Amazônia - Peter Millard, Raeedah Wahid, Dado Galdieri para Bloomberg
"... os fazendeiros veem a terra como uma fonte de renda e as históricas estruturas geométricas no chão, conhecidas como geoglifos, estão no caminho. Pelo menos nove dos sítios antigos mais emblemáticos — alguns dos quais abrangem até 385 metros de largura e quase 5 metros de profundidade — já foram arados nos últimos anos. Isso está apagando as evidências de uma civilização ...."
"... farmers see the land as a source of income, and the historic geometric structures in the ground, known as geoglyphs, are in the way. At least nine of the most iconic ancient sites — some of which span up to 1,200 feet wide and nearly 16 feet deep — have been plowed over in recent years. That's erasing evidence of a civilization ...." |
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