In Brazil, archaeologists have discovered 10,000-year-old burials from unknown hunter-gatherer group discovered in Brazil a large cemetery with the remains of dozens of people and many funerary objects. Some of the finds are estimated to be 10,000 years old.
The graves were found in San Luis. It is the largest city in the state of Maranhana in the northeast of the country. In total, 43 skeletons and about 100,000 fragments of various artifacts from four different periods were excavated.
Initial analysis shows that these were people who were engaged in heavy physical work, as evidenced by the characteristic marks on the bones, indicating a high external load and significant mobility.
Some skeletons belong to a community unknown to scientists. They believe that these are the forerunners of the Sambak hunter—gatherer peoples, who until now were considered the very first inhabitants of these shores. These people relied on the gifts of the sea and built mounds of shells and leftovers. The height of such dwellings could reach 30 meters.
Archaeologists already knew that the San Luis area, which means "big island" in the indigenous language, preserves traces of prehistoric human activity. For example, in the 1970s, they discovered a fossilized jawbone here, estimated to be 6,000 years old.
