Mysterious Geoglyphs Uncover Amazon Secrets

The Amazon rainforest has had a long history that scientists have been trying to crack for years. The region's ancient geoglyphs -- large designs traced into the ground with rocks and debris -- have baffled researchers since the 1960s, when they were discovered.

Popular Science noted that due to their appearance after forests have burned away, the ancient artists must have done the same centuries ago. They burned their trees to build the geoglyphs. However, despite this knowledge, it seems that modern humans could not hold on to hope that it will be easy to bounce back from modern deforestation, considering how much it has destroyed in a mere half century. Still, it seems that the presence of the geoglyphs came to mean that the Amazonian forests are not meant to be kept "pristine" as many forests do evolve by burning occasionally.

Yet this does not mean that people can go about destroying it. Indigenous farmers then cleared surroundings in much smaller scales than today's ranchers would.

Jennifer Watling, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of São Paulo said in a statement that the forests have never been cleared as extensively as people have done so today. Considering that they have been managed by indigenous peoples long before European contact, it will serve modern humans better to bask on the knowledge of these indigenous people to find ways to more sustainable land-use alternatives.

As Watling noted, indigenous peoples do not just slash and burn the forests. They selectively encouraged growth for palm trees, while mainly burning down bamboo. Their geoglyphs, which remain mysterious in their purpose, were found to be built in small areas cleared by fire, with the burns contained to areas only intended around the location of the design.

Watling shared, "The lack of evidence of large-scale deforestation in the past means that we cannot assume Acre's forests will recover from the unsustainable land-use practices of today."