By Suamy BeydounMANAUS, Brazil (Reuters) - Human faces sculpted into stone up to 2,000 years ago have appeared on a rocky outcropping along the Amazon River since water levels dropped to record lows in the region's worst drought in more than a century.
Some rock carvings had been sighted before but now there is a greater variety that will help researchers establish their origins, archaeologist Jaime de Santana Oliveira said on Monday.
One area shows smooth grooves in the rock thought to be where Indigenous inhabitants once sharpened their arrows and spears long before Europeans arrived.
The rocky point is called Ponto das Lajes on the north shore of the Amazon near where the Rio Negro and Solimoes rivers join.
(Reporting by Suamy Beydoun; Writing by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Richard Chang)
Persons:
Jaime de Santana Oliveira, Oliveira, Suamy Beydoun, Anthony Boadle, Richard Chang
Organizations:
Beydoun, Rio Negro, National Historic, Artistic Heritage Institute
Locations:
Beydoun MANAUS, Brazil