2,000-year-old carvings of celestial bodies and animals discovered on rocky cliffs in Brazil

Brazilian archaeologists have discovered a vast number of 2,000-year-old rock carvings that depict human footprints, celestial-body-like figures, and representations of animals, such as deer and wild pigs.

The discovery was made during three expeditions between 2022 and 2023 in Jalapão State Park, located in the state of Tocantins. Researchers with Brazil's National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN) identified 16 precolonial archaeological sites, all located on rocky cliffs close to each other.

"This proximity suggests a possible connection between the sites and clarifies settlement patterns of the ancient communities that inhabited the region," Rômulo Macêdo, the archaeologist who led the work, told Live Science via Whatsapp.

Many of the newfound carvings are engraved symbols created by wearing out rocks. The team also discovered a handful of red paintings at some of the sites. "It is likely that the paintings are older than the engravings, and that they were made by another cultural group," Macêdo said.

The rock art finding is "rare and important" because until now, archaeologists had found only stone artifacts from the precolonial Indigenous peoples of Jalapão, Marcos Zimmermann, an archaeology professor at the Federal University of Tocantins in Brazil who was not involved in the recent findings, told Live Science via Whatsapp.

The earlier ceramic artifacts and stone tools found at archaeological sites in Jalapão may have been important items for producing art. "The engravings were probably made using pointed stones and pieces of wood, while the painting pigments were produced from the pulverization of iron minerals very abundant in the region; the powder was then mixed with animal or vegetal fat and applied to the rock using fingers or sticks," Macêdo said.

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