National Geo: "Lost" Amazon Complex Found; Shapes Seen by Satellite
The so-called 'crop circles' of Santa Teresinha are seen in a great photograph. "Satellite images ... have revealed more than 200 geometric earthworks spanning a distance greater than 155 miles (250 kilometers) ... uplands sites appear to have been home to as many as 60,000 people."

"It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good. The combination of land cleared of its rainforest for grazing and satellite survey have revealed a sophisticated pre-Columbian monument-building society in the upper Amazon Basin on the east side of the Andes. This hitherto unknown people constructed earthworks of precise geometric plan connected by straight orthogonal roads. Introducing us to this new civilisation, the authors show that the 'geoglyph culture' stretches over a region more than 250km across, and exploits both the floodplains and the uplands. They also suggest that we have so far seen no more than a tenth of it."
— Pre-Columbian geometric earthworks in the upper Purús: a complex society in western Amazonia Martti Pärssinen, Denise Schaan and Alceu Ranzi, 2009 Antiquity 83(322):1084-1095.

"GEOGLIFOS O que são? Geoglifos são vestígios arqueológicos representados por desenhos geométricos (linhas, quadrados, círculos, octógonos, hexágonos etc...), zoomorfos (animais) ou antropomorfos (formas humanas), de grandes dimensões e elaborados sobre o solo, que podem ser totalmente e melhor observados se vistos do alto, em especial, através de sobrevôo."
— geoglifos.com.br   |   links page 

Internet Software Programs Aid in Search for Amazonian Geoglyphs, Alceu Ranzi, Roberto Feres, Foster Brown EOS Vol. 88, No. 21, 22 May 2007. - The Web-based Google Earth software program recently has incorporated high-resolution satellite imagery that facilitates the search for landscape expressions of past civilizations that we call geoglyphs. Since 2000, about 40 such geoglyphs have been observed in overflights above recently deforested pastures of southwestern Amazonia in eastern Acre State, Brazil. These geoglyphs typically are circular or rectangular, on the scale of 100 meters or more, with bordering trenches 1-3 meters deep (Figure 1). Carbon-14 dating of charcoal associated with these geoglyphs indicates ages between 2500 and 1000 years B.P.

"Until the past year, high-resolution Ikonos and QuickBird imagery was too expensive for local researchers to use in surveys for geoglyphs. The incorporation of such imagery by Google Earth for extensive stretches in Amazonia has permitted researchers to search for geoglyphs in eastern Acre. Figure 2 shows how preliminary data analysis can be done with high-resolution satellite imagery to determine the areal density and distribution of geoglyphs. In this transect, 39 potential geoglyphs were observed in an examination of the imagery. Through fieldwork and overflights during the past three decades, only nine geoglyphs had been discovered in the area of the transect. "

Abril 10, 2009 Geoglifos do Acre podem ser reconhecidos pela Unesco como Patrimônio da Humanidade no Brasil. "Os geoglifos do Acre foram incluídos pelo Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional (IPHAN) numa lista indicativa de bens passíveis de ser declarados pela Unesco como Patrimônio da Humanidade no Brasil."

Amazon explorers uncover signs of a real El Dorado by Rory Carroll, "It is the legend that drew legions of explorers and adventurers to their deaths: an ancient empire of citadels and treasure hidden deep in the Amazon jungle." ... "... only now, as satellite imagery and felling reveal sites ... the scale of the settlements is becoming clear. Some anthropologists say the feat, requiring sophisticated engineering, canals and roads, rivals Egypt's pyramids."

www.geoglifos.com.br/ - criado pelo paleontólogo Alceu Ranzi - fotos e informações podem ser obtidas - Geoglifos do Acre. More information and photos on the Geoglyphs of Acre site. Hay mas informacion y fotos en el sitio Geoglifos de Acre. Fotos/photos.