Due to the current drought in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, mysterious ancient engravings dating back 1,000 to 2,000 years ago have resurfaced in a riverbed. This discovery marks only the second case of observation of this amazing phenomenon.

The rare 1,000- to 2,000-year-old carvings, found at the confluence of the Rio Negro and the Amazon near Manaus, Brazil, depict water, animals and small human faces. Archaeologists were so fascinated by this that a group of human species was discovered only once, during the regional drought of 2010.

Such ancient engravings are often lost forever under water. But a recent drought has caused water levels to drop to record lows in more than a century. Known as “caretas” (little faces), the main questions now facing researchers in the Amazon are who carved these petroglyphs and what they mean.

Along with carved animals and symbolic representations of water, the slightly square-shaped human heads have mouths, but only a few have noses.

Ancient inhabitants of the Amazon survived periods of drought “more severe than the one we are experiencing now,” experts said. We can infer that the river was dry at the time these engravings were made, or perhaps it did not exist at all. Archaeologists also believe other carved images may be found along the riverbed.

This set of engravings depicting water, animals and human faces were first discovered in 2010, when drought left them bare for just one day. The group of petroglyphs created with chipped stone axes is described as “sophisticated graphic art”. Moreover, according to archaeologists, these small human figures “reflect emotions of both happiness and sadness.”

Therefore, the engraved images, if interpreted correctly, “will reveal important information about the societies that lived here.” Because faces represent different emotions, they also represent a “state of mind.” This fact allows archaeologists to estimate how people celebrated and suffered at that time.

While this discovery in the Amazon is notable, it has been overshadowed by the discovery of a 13km-long strip of ancient stone discovered in the Amazon rainforest in 2016. This wild display of hunter-gatherer interaction with Ice Age megafauna has been called the “Sistine Chapel of the Ancients.”

This large mural, located in Serrania la Lindosa in the territory of modern Colombia, is decorated with tens of thousands of images and carved figures. Some artworks depict “Ice Age megafauna, including giant sloths, mastodons, camelids, horses, and three-toed ungulates with proboscis,” the scientists noted.

The discovery of the “Sistine Chapel of the Ancients” and the recently discovered “little faces” combine in depictions of human emotions and therefore mental states. While some little faces smile at the latest discovery, some people in the Sistine Chapel of the Ancients are openly celebrating the spoils of the hunt. On the contrary, some of the little faces are sad, while some of the hunters in the Sistine Chapel fresco of the Ancients are being chased by predators.

Time will tell, but the images are likely to be related to the types of animals depicted around them: happy individuals will be depicted around prey animals, sad ones perhaps next to predators. Source