A stone structure, believed to be an astronomical observatory much like Stonehenge, has been found in the Brazilian state of Amapá. It consists of 127 blocks of granite stone. The pottery found at the site dates to 2,000 years ago.
Curiously, the BBC story states, “It was traditionally thought that before European colonisation, the Amazon had no advanced societies.” Yeah, well… bullshit. There are massive earthworks in Beni in Bolivia that are pre-Columbian. Amapá is quite some distance away across the Amazon basin, but it is no stretch of the imagination to accept that there there were other advanced societies in the Amazon.
Update: I shoulda known. Alun has a lot more on the story.
…but I didn’t know about Beni
I agree that if there is a gap it’s more likely to be a result from a lack of survey rather than a lack of complex societies.
[...] irrigation, and the like. On the other hand, there was that report from a few years ago about a Brazilian Stonehenge. Eh, maybe geoglyphs is [...]