Brazil Amazon Archaeological Exploration

Archaeologist Manoel Fabiano da Silva Santos shows a soil layer scale while explaining the historical timeline at National Department of Transport Infrastructure in Macapa, Amapa state, Brazil, Saturday, March 14, 2026.

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Archaeological digs in Amazon provide clues about Indigenous inhabitants before colonization

Archaeological digs in Amazon provide clues about Indigenous inhabitants before colonization

Paving roads in the Amazon rainforest often causes deforestation that threatens the people who live there. But for scientists, the work can also uncover clues to the region's past long before Europeans arrived to reshape it. Archaeologists have been looking through nine sites discovered along a highway project in Brazil's Amapa state. They say they are finding evidence that reinforces understanding of the region's past not as a human desert, but rather as a landscape of interconnected societies long before Columbus arrived. That includes pottery in styles and techniques that show influences from communities far to the south.