The Cromlech of Calçoene, evidence of ancient astronomical knowledge
In Western Europe, around 3000 BC, some people lived who developed a particular culture, called megalithic.
The main constructions of that era are the Cromlech, large stones arranged in a circle, both for ritual and calendar reasons, the Dolmen, funerary urns made up of two vertical stones surmounted by a horizontal slab, and the Menhir, vertical stones stuck in the ground, which probably had the function of paying homage to the sun.
The most important archaeological sites of this ancient culture are found in Stonehenge (whose monument, however, was remodeled around the 60s of the last century), in Brittany, Ireland, Corsica, Sardinia, Malta and Portugal, where the mysterious Cromlech is found of Almendres.
Until now it was thought that megalithic monuments of this type existed only in Europe. With the discovery and careful analysis, in 2006, of the Cromlech of Calçoene (pronounced: calsueni), in northern Brazil, near the Atlantic coast, it can be said that the megalithic culture also reached America.
Calçoene is a town located about twenty kilometers from the ocean, in the state of Amapá.
It is a very rainy area, it practically rains every day. During the day numerous showers alternate with windy and sunny moments.
About twenty kilometers from the town is the Cromlech, which is located on a mound about 7 meters high. It is made up of around thirty large stones up to 4 meters high, arranged in a circle. The diameter of the Cromlech is approximately 30 metres. Some slabs have fallen or tilted and this may suggest that the monument is very ancient. Inside the circle there are 2 very particular large stones, one of which has a hole just above half its height, while the other is arranged diagonally. According to the Brazilian researcher Josè Elias Ávila, the perforated stone has the function of identifying the exact moment of the winter solstice, December 22nd of each year. The sunlight, at dawn on December 22nd, enters the hole in the first stone and, hitting the second, does not cause lateral shadows.
Underneath the Cromlech there are two boot-shaped ditches, one 1.3 meters deep and the other 1.9 meters deep. Both have a diameter of approximately 1.7 meters. Inside the ditches some human bones (but not skulls) and some ceramics were found, which was dated to around 1000 AD.
I interviewed the archaeologist Mariana Petry Cabral, who is part of the team that studied the archaeological site.
According to her, the monument was built around the beginning of the Christian era. How did you come to this conclusion? The ceramics found in the ditches and also some fragments of terracotta found in the foundations of the monument would suggest that the monument itself was built by the creators of ceramics, which is properly Amazonian (style called Aristé), but differs from the Marajoara ceramics of the island of Marajó.
The builders of the megalithic monument would therefore have been indigenous Amerindians, descendants of the Asian peoples who arrived in America from the Bering Strait and fromMelanesia and Polynesia, about 30 millennia ago.
From the geographical analysis of the place, but also following other historical and cultural considerations, an alternative theory can be proposed on the origin of the Cromlech of Calçoene.
First of all, it must be highlighted that the Cromlech in question is the only circular megalithic monument of this type in the entire American continent. If the megalithic tradition had been common among the Amerindian peoples, other Cromlech would have already been found in both North and South America. It is true that the indigenous South Americans have a basic knowledge of eclipses and the winter solstice, but if the tradition of building Cromlech had been typical of a particular Amerindian people who lived in the Caçoene area, why subsequently this culture became lost?
In my opinion the Cromlech of Calçoene, which is both an archaeoastronomical monument and a mausoleum, is much older.
It is necessary to carefully consider where the Calçoene area is located: With a north latitude of 2 degrees and 29' and a west longitude of 50 degrees and 56' it is practically overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, right in the sea area where the trade winds blow constantly from the Canary Islands.
According to my interpretation it is possible that a small group of humans, of Caucausoid origin, crossed the ocean with makeshift boats. This ancient transoceanic journey could have taken place following a huge catastrophe, perhaps following the inundation of vast lands adjacent to the European and African continental coasts, in the period between 9500 and 7500 BC.
This limited group of Caucasoids (no longer of about twenty), may have found himself isolated following devastating floods. Once saved with a makeshift boat, he may have been pushed towards the south-west by the trade winds, arriving near the coasts of Calçoene, with a not very long journey, of around 30 days. This small group of navigators continued the megalithic tradition of their ancestral lands.
However, the numerical strength of these "megalithics" was very low and, not being able to dominate the other aboriginal cultures already present in the area, they were absorbed by them.
Perhaps some "megalithics" traveled far and wide across the South American continent and so did their genes; the proof of this supposition of mine is the green eyes and light skin (typical of the Caucasoid human group), present in some indigenous people Americans, like the Yanomami. Some of these “megalithics” represented their history and their traditions, in some pictograms and petroglyphs of South America, often indecipherable codes for many observers.
According to this thesis of mine, it is possible that in the following centuries, some indigenous Amerindians occupied the Cromlech area, considering it sacred and practicing their traditions nearby. This could explain the origin of the Amazonian ceramics found near the Cromlech and in the two ditches located just below it.
We are only at the beginning of the archaeological study of the Amazon, an area of the world that until recently was mistakenly believed to be little colonized by man before the arrival of Europeans.
YURI LEVERATTO
