Researchers Found A 2,500-Year-Old Settlement Deep Within The Wilderness Of The Amazon Rainforest
For centuries, legends have circulated about lost cities that existed deep within the wilderness of the Amazon rainforest.
Recently, researchers have discovered traces of those cities with the help of laser scanning technology.
The 2,500-year-old settlement was complete with a complex network of pre-Hispanic structures, roads, and farmlands. It is the oldest and largest agricultural civilization to be found in the region.
The ancient settlement is located in Ecuador’s Upano Valley along a stretch of the eastern Andes mountains.
Archaeologists have studied the region for over two decades, but it wasn’t until they employed lidar that the civilization was revealed.
Lidar stands for light detection and ranging; it is a remote sensing technology that uses thousands of infrared laser pulses to survey a landscape.
The lasers are able to detect what is concealed beneath the dense canopy of the rainforest and create more accurate maps.
Lidar has been a vital tool for the field of archaeology. It has even helped uncover pre-Hispanic settlements in other parts of the forest.
“I have explored the site many times, but lidar gave me another view of the land,” said Stéphen Rostain, the lead archaeologist of the study and director of research at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). “On foot, you have trees in the way, and it’s difficult to see what’s actually hidden there.”
hanohiki – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
The site covered roughly 230 square miles, and it was occupied from around 500 B.C. until 300 to 600 A.D.
Members of the pre-Hispanic Kilamope and Upano cultures were responsible for building the sprawling complex.
Lidar images showed that the area was once bustling with human activity. Throughout the site, there were more than 6,000 earthen platforms, plaza structures, and mounds that were connected by an extensive system of wide, straight roadways and smaller footpaths.
Per a statement from the researchers, they found at least 15 distinct settlements within the site that ranged in size.
The residents lived sedentary agrarian lifestyles and most likely grew corn and sweet potatoes. Some of the settlements contained large mounds that stood 26 feet high and stretched 492 feet long.
Previously, scientists thought that ancient groups in South America lived nomadically or in small-scale communities, but the newly discovered cities are estimated to house a population in the tens of thousands, possibly more.
This evidence has shifted their beliefs about the number of people who inhabited the area. The most recent findings also showcase the variety, complexity, and sheer size of the constructions, proving how sophisticated and advanced these societies were.
“Such a discovery is another vivid example of the underestimation of Amazonia’s twofold heritage: environmental but also cultural, and therefore Indigenous,” wrote the researchers of the study.
“We believe that it is crucial to revise our preconceptions of the Amazonian world and, in doing so, to reinterpret contexts and concepts in the necessary light of an inclusive and participatory science.”
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