Table of Contents
Billie Luse’s film follows a German Brazilian researcher into the forest in search of a forgotten stone culture. He is shown cut blocks stacked as a long stair, and he decides they belong to a road network. Farther on, the camera meets paving, stairs, and retaining walls, then upright stones compared with the menhirs of Brittany, and boulder walls around a square. An archaeologist reads the uprights as old field marks and a windowless building as a store, perhaps for saltpeter at a colonial post. The researcher points instead to mortar, to an aqueduct that brought drinking water, to a long wall of squared blocks, and to a rock opening like a door among cave paintings. He even hears a Bronze Age accent from across the ocean. The film will not fix the age, because the stones themselves say nothing about when they were raised. A later stretch argues that the old clumsy cave picture was unfair, since those people walked, handled objects, and spoke with real ability.
Key points
- The researcher reads jungle stairways of cut stone as pieces of an old road network.
- Paving, retaining walls, and upright stones like the ones in Brittany are shown as further traces.
- A field archaeologist explains the same remains as farm marks and a colonial storehouse.
- An aqueduct, a long wall of squared blocks, and a rock opening are added as signs of a lost settlement.
- The film admits that the stones, by themselves, do not reveal the date of the work.
- A later section drops the brutish cave picture and credits those people with speech and skilled hands.
Short quotes
climbing upwards after a bend suddenly there are paving stones stairs and retaining walls at the curves the
Billie Luse, Lost stone culture in Brazil
The narration describes paved stairs and retaining walls that appear partway up the climb. Watch at 7:22
vertical stones like those found in Brittany what do they hide who put these stones up and why but we
Billie Luse, Lost stone culture in Brazil
Upright stones are set next to the menhirs of Brittany, and the film asks who raised them. Watch at 9:26
stored out here there is no indication of the building's date the stones themselves do not tell anything but
Billie Luse, Lost stone culture in Brazil
The objection is that nothing in the masonry itself shows the age of the building. Watch at 11:34
additional proof when he finds the remains of an aqueduct the drinking water was carried over this bridge into
Billie Luse, Lost stone culture in Brazil
A ruined water bridge is offered as proof that drinking water was carried into the place. Watch at 16:31
convincing they move they walk they handled objects they spoke language just as capably as
Billie Luse, Lost stone culture in Brazil
The later argument is that these people moved, used objects, and spoke with full ability. Watch at 40:11
Video by Billie Luse. Watch on YouTube.