Some places or features seem relatively mundane and are often taken for granted, others are so striking that they attract a whole lot of attention, especially from fringies and their bizarre theories. The Itacoatiaras of Inga, of the State of Paraiba, Brazil, is a striking petroglyph panel that has been interpreted as everything from a remnant of Atlantis and a Phoenician inscription to an Archaeoastronomy site, and it is obviously none of these. Once again, the racist assumption that the poor, benighted, ignorant savages native to the area could never have performed such a feat colors the interpretation of rock art.
An example of the nonsense which has been attached to this poor rock is this statement. “According to Gabriele Baraldi, archaeologist, epigraphist, and Italian-Brazilian alternative researcher, known as the ‘last atlantologist’, American proto-Hittite(s) controlled geothermal energy and apparently did hieroglyphics with (a) mold by applying high mechanical and thermal stress on the rock from the lava conduit of an extinct volcano.” (Sutherland 2015)
This bizarre and fringie concept would have us believe that rock and the petroglyphs on its surface are cast from some sort of liquid (Faris 2021), in this particular instance Baraldi is melting the Inga stone surface with heat from a lava flow and pressing or molding the petroglyphs into the surface – that should cause a blister or two. This concept is known as fluidics.
Another description of the Inga Stone is found in Costa (2020). “The stone was also studied by Gabriele D’Annunzio Baraldi, who discovered, in addition to archaeoastronomic patterns, signs of Hittite writing, developed and used in Turkey in mid 2000 BC. Archeoastronomy studies the astronomical knowledge of prehistoric man. Their patterns are identified and determined by observing the alignments of the start and the planets in relation to the structures and figures erected by man. By constructing their monuments in this way, humans would be able to observe and predict the climatic seasons of the equinoxes and consequently prepare themselves to plant or reserve the foods that would serve their needs during difficult times, although it is necessary that hunters pastors (who were officially supposed to live at that time) would have neither the time or the knowledge to do so, not to mention the fact that they are always changing and therefore unable to devote themselves to such specific matters, require of them a place to residence. That is, in order to determine the stone marking of a given astronomical phenomenon and its representation, it would be necessary for these people to remain in place during the seasons, and thus, as a consequence, to devote themselves to illustrate a pattern.” (Costa 2020) In this somewhat hard to understand passage I am guessing that the phrase “hunters pastors” that Costa used is meant to refer in some way to hunter gatherer and pastoral cultures. So now we have added archaeoastronomy and Hittite inscriptions to fluidics.
And again, “later, F. Pavia continued the study of the Inga rock, focusing this time on the recording of a series of signs inscribed on the rocky surface of the channel itself, where a great number of ‘stars’ can be observed that can be grouped into ‘constellations.’ Both the ‘capsular’ and the ‘constellation’ records, in themselves, give Inga importance, which is why many authors refer to the Inga Stone as one of the most underappreciated monuments on the surface of Earth.” (Ancient Code Team undated)
So let us put the nonsense away and look at the reality of it. “The term ‘itacoatiara’ originates from the Tupi-Guarani language and means ‘writing or drawing on stone’, having been used in Brazil as a synonym for ‘rock engraving’ expressions. The rock art site of the Itacoatiaras of the Inga River is located in the rural municipality of Inga, whose main city is about 105 km from the city of João Pessoa, the state capital of Paraibe, Brazil.” (UNESCO 2015)
“Pedro do Inga (Stone of Inga) forms a wall oriented in the northeast/southeast at about 24 m long and 3.5 m high, at its highest point, and features the three main rock art panels at the site.” (UNESCO 2015) The images are carved into its granite surface. “Most glyphs represent animals, fruits, humans, constellations, and other unrecognizable images.” (Wikipedia) Many seem to represent flowers or the buds of herbaceous plants. What strikes me about them is the depth of carving (granite has a hardness of 6 – 8 on the Moh’s hardness scale).
Aside from the fringie/crackpot ideas I have been unable to find much real information about this marvelous site. I see no possible evidence of the "star map" or any of the other strange ideas so far proposed. The best is report I could find is probably the UNESCO contribution and it is pretty sparse. I hope that this site will be seriously studied and recorded for all of us.
NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.
REFERENCES:
Ancient Code Team, undated, Written in Stone: The Inga Stone – an ancient monument depicting a rare “Star Map,” https://www.ancient-code.com. Accessed online on 11 November 2022.
Costa, Telma, 2020, The Language of Inga Stone – A New Theory About the Origen of Phoenician Alphabet – Itacotiara/Brazil, Oxford University History Society, found on Academia.edu. Accessed 30 November 2022.
Faris, Peter, 2021, Fluidics? – The Dolmen of the North-West Caucacus and the Bizarre Reports About Casting Stones and Rock Art From Liquids, 23 October 2021, https://rockartblog.blogspot.com/search/label/fluidics.
Sutherland, A., 2015, Unsolved Enigma Of The Inga Stone And Its Mysterious Ancient Undeciphered Signs, 18 January 2015, AncientPages.com. Accessed online on 17 October 2022.
UNESCO, 2015, Itacoatiaras of Inga River, 30 January 2015, https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/6000/. Accessed online 12 October 2022.
Wikipedia, Inga Stone, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inga_Stone.
Accessed online on 29 November 2022.
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