Amazon deforestation and road paving on BR-156 reveal pre-Columbian archaeology in Amapa

Road paving in the Amazon rainforest has often driven deforestation and threatened local communities. Yet the same works have also opened rare windows into life before Europeans arrived. Along the BR-156 highway in Brazil’s northern state of Amapa, archaeologists have reported fresh finds from surveys required before paving begins.

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Researchers have recorded pottery vases that may be funerary urns and small objects shaped like human faces. These items came from nine dig sites linked to the BR-156 project. The material has been cleaned and studied by a team working for the National Department of Transport Infrastructure.

BR-156 highway discoveries in Amapa Amazon rainforest

Experts said the new evidence adds to a changing view of the Amazon’s past. Recent studies have supported the idea of a lived-in landscape, not an empty wilderness. Pottery from BR-156 showed several styles and methods. The mix suggested contact with communities from Brazil’s Para state to the Caribbean.

"What we know about the regions past is also tied to the opening created by these projects, which gives our relationship with them a somewhat ambivalent character,\" said Lúcio Flávio Costa Leite. Costa Leite manages the Archaeological Research Centre at Amapa’s Institute for Scientific and Technological Research. Costa Leite added that knowledge can also support lasting protection steps.

One archaeologist working on the BR-156 digs, Manoel Fabiano da Silva Santos, described the soil as a record of time. In upper layers, Santos found Portuguese porcelain and nails from European occupation. Deeper levels held older pottery and ceramics tied to Indigenous presence, showing change before and after colonisers arrived.

The artefacts are expected to move to Amapa’s state collection, overseen by Costa Leite. The collection holds about 530,000 pieces. Costa Leite said the oldest item is around 6,140 years old. The figure supports evidence of long human occupation across Amapa.

The finds also pointed to everyday skills used by earlier societies in the rainforest. \"Here is something I often debate with my students -- we usually think of technology as computers and microchips,\" Costa Leite said. \"But all of this required careful reading of the landscape and deliberate choices of materials.\"

Amapa Amazon rainforest stone monument and Indigenous design

A major site in Amapa sits in the city of Calcoene. It includes a 1,000-year-old monument of 127 carved monoliths set in a circle. The ring measures about 30 meters, or 98 feet, across. The stones stand in grassland near rainforest edges and a slow river.

Some people have called the Archaeological Park of the Solstice the Stonehenge of the Amazon. Archaeologist Mariana Petry Cabral said the stones aligned with a key solar event. During the Northern Hemisphere winter solstice, they marked the exact point where the sun rises, Cabral said.

Cabral said the meaning of every stone remains uncertain, but their origin is clearer. \"Its hard to say exactly what all the stones mean, but what we do know is that they are not from the site itself. They were brought from other nearby locations,\" she said.

Later excavations found the area also served as a burial ground, Cabral said. Radiocarbon dating showed repeated use over hundreds of years, beginning around 1,100 years ago. Scientists discovered the site in 2005. Visitors can enter with prior approval from Amapa’s research institute.

The location is also being processed to become a national park, which should widen access. Brazilian law protects archaeological sites and bans alterations. That legal status can also help shield nearby rainforest from damage. Researchers said this link can give conservation added support.

Amazon Revealed project Amazon rainforest roads and connected societies

Other research across the Amazon has also pointed to dense, connected settlement patterns. Eduardo Neves, an archaeologist at the University of Sao Paulo, said Indigenous peoples shaped the forest over long periods. Neves has studied the Amazon for more than 30 years and has led the Amazon Revealed project since 2023.

The project uses satellite scans to spot sites hidden under the canopy. The scans have shown roads between settlements and patterns that suggest repeated occupation. Neves said these features indicate large settlements and deliberate landscape change. The networks appear most clearly in southern Amazonas state and Acre.

Neves said the results challenge a common image of isolated villages. \"When people think of an Indigenous tribe, they often imagine a small village isolated in the middle of the forest. But evidence shows a high degree of interconnectivity linking different settlements,\" Neves said.

Cabral said Amapa helps connect these findings across regions. \"Amapa is a key piece that helps us see how dynamic and active these populations were, and how they maintained networks of exchange that have been in place for millennia,\" Cabral said. Researchers said the combined work keeps reshaping how the Amazon’s past is understood.

With inputs from PTI