For decades, researchers have been uncovering archaeological treasures that disprove any suggestion that complex civilizations did not exist in the Brazilian Amazon before colonialism. Perhaps the most fascinating are the more than 500 millenarian geoglyphs revealed in Acre state since the 1970s.<\/p>\n
But even before scientists had learned about the civilizations behind these enormous geometric figures etched into the ground, some had been destroyed. In an incident earlier this month, a geoglyph hundreds of square metres in size and thousands of years old was razed to make way for grazing oxen and a corn plantation.<\/p>\n
Employees at the Fazenda Crix\u00e1 destroyed the geoglyph at the end of last year but the damage was only recently discovered during a routine analysis by palaeontologist Alceu Ranzi, who has researched the structures for 40 years.<\/p>\n
“This is a historical monument of importance for all humanity,” said Ranzi, lamenting the geoglyph that he himself discovered in 2001 and called: “An open-air museum that in no way hinders the development of agribusiness in the region\u201d.<\/p>\n