By Tim Binnall
A severe drought impacting Brazil has revealed an array of dazzling ancient rock carvings that depict human faces. The wondrous glimpses into the distant past are reportedly located along recently exposed portions of the Rio Negro shore near the city of Manaus. Believed to be around 1,000 to 2,000 years old, the peculiar carvings originally came to light back in 2010 when the region was struck by a similarly difficult drought. This year's dry spell, however, has been even more extreme, causing the Rio Negro to drop a staggering 50 feet and, in turn, uncovering a bevy of previously unseen faces that researchers are now studying with the hopes of getting a better understanding of their mysterious origins.
Archaeologists working the site point to one intriguing clue in the form of a series of grooves found in one specific rock that also boasts a whopping 25 faces. They argue that the smooth markings suggest that the spot was an area for sharpening tools. As such, one imagines that the petroglyphs, which also include human figures and animals, may be akin to doodles by our ancient human ancestors as they went about the drudgery of life in the distant past. With the drought hopefully coming to an end in the not-too-distant future, researchers are on something of a race against time to examine the carvings before they are submerged once again.