A grouping of 127 granite blocks along a grassy Amazon hilltop may be the vestiges of an ancient astronomical observatory, according to archaeologists.
On the shortest day of the year — Dec. 21 — the shadow of one of the blocks disappears when the sun is directly above it.
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I hate to be a thread hijacker - but when I think of Stonehenge, I often am reminded of the scene in the movie "Spinal Tap".
A grouping of 127 granite blocks along a grassy Amazon hilltop may be the vestiges of an ancient astronomical observatory, according to archaeologists.
And????
On the shortest day of the year — Dec. 21 — the shadow of one of the blocks disappears when the sun is directly above it.
"It is this block's alignment with the winter solstice that leads us to believe the site was once an astronomical observatory," said Mariana Petry Cabral, an archaeologist at the Amapa State Scientific and Technical Research Institute. "We may be also looking at the remnants of a sophisticated culture."
But then they say this:
Cabral has been studying the site, near the village of Calcoene, just north of the equator in Amapa state in far northern Brazil, since last year. She believes it was once inhabited by the ancestors of the Palikur Indians, and while the blocks have not yet been submitted to carbon dating, she says pottery shards near the site indicate they predate Columbus' voyages and may be much older — as much as 2,000 years old.
You can't have it both ways. Due to precession, any actual observatory that's 2,000 years old will no longer align with either soltice - as is the case with Stonehenge.
So methinks this is PC selective science on a par with global warming.
paging Art Bell..!
On the shortest day of the year — Dec. 21 — the shadow of one of the blocks disappears when the sun is directly above it...Cabral has been studying the site, near the village of Calcoene, just north of the equator in Amapa state in far northern Brazil, since last year.
Calcoene is at 2.5 degrees north. That close to the Equator, the winter solstice has no real meaning. These people are really stretching to give this site meaning.
The 127 blocks, some as high as 9 feet (2.75 meters) tall, are spaced at regular intervals around the hill, like a crown 100 feet (30 meters) in diameter.
On the shortest day of the year — Dec. 21 — the shadow of one of the blocks disappears when the sun is directly above it.
Interesting find, but assigning celestial significance there seems like a bit of a stretch.
If you tossed 127 blocks of varying sizes randomly into a field, one of them would likely exhibit some coincidently interesting effect during a solstice.
Maybe they were just happy folk and it's the world's first gigantic smiley face.
Sounds like someone in the local area is trying to unload some pre-columbian art by publicizing quaint rock forts on a hilltop, bringing wealthy Americans to visit podunk tourist trap.
Stucco-Henge?
About half the age of Stonehenge.
Or, it could be just a pile of rocks.
David: I do not, for one, think that the problem was that the band was down. I think that the problem may have been...that there was an eighteen-inch Stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being crushed by a dwarf. Alright? That tended to understate the hugeness of the object.
Ian: Nigel gave me a drawing that said eighteen inches. Alright?
David: I know he did, and that's what I'm talking about.
Ian: Now, whether he knows the difference between feet and inches is not my problem. I do what I'm told.
Jeanine: The audience were laughing.
Ian: So it became a comedy number.
David: Yes it did! Yes it ***ing well did, and it was not pleasant to be part of the comedy on stage. Backstage, perhaps, it was very amusing.
Looks like the Griswolds have already been there!
Ok, I could buy this if the rock is tilted at a little more than 23° south of vertical.
when the sun is directly above it.
No, no, no! If the site is just north of the equator, the sun will be as far away from directly overhead as possible on the winter solstice.
Also the shortest day of the year really doesn't make much sense here. If it is 2° north of the equator, the day's length varies by about 15 minutes from the summer to the winter solstice.
Made in China.