Layout of ancient stilt village in the Amazon may have been based on Pleiades star cluster
A village in Brazil that was in use for around 500 years, until the 10th century, may have been laid out on a celestial schematic.
An ancient village in Brazil may have been a ritual or ceremonial centre designed to resemble the Pleiades star cluster.
Archaeologists made the discovery following a survey of pre-Hispanic stilt villages in the Maranhão estuaries of northeast
The Art Newspaper
August 11, 2023
© Alexandre Guida Navarro
Brazil. Among the villages studied, the site of Formoso stood out because of its unusual layout, ornate pottery, building size and length of use.
“It appears to us that the Formoso site may have been an elite ritual meeting site where sacred knowledge (like astronomy) was shared,” says archaeologist Christopher Davis of McHenry County College, in Illinois, who published the research with archaeologist Alexandre Guida Navarro of the Universidade Federal do Maranhão, Brazil, in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
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