Rediscovered: The Ancient Cities Buried in the Amazon Rainforest

janimonow

May 30

Archaeologists have uncovered the ruins of ancient cities in the Amazon rainforest, estimated to be over two thousand years old.

These settlements, located in the Upano Valley in eastern Ecuador, form an extensive network of roads, canals, and elevated earthen platforms spanning over 115 square miles. Radiocarbon dating indicates that these settlements were established between 500 to 300 BCE, with inhabitants residing there until approximately 600 CE, according to The New York Times.

Published in the journal Science, these findings challenge the longstanding belief that Indigenous people did not form large settlements in the Amazon.

"It's a huge contribution to Amazonian archaeology," José Iriarte, an archaeologist at the University of Exeter not involved in the study, told the NYT. "We have this major, idiosyncratic cultural development."

Lidar 'Em Up

Discovering anything in the dense Amazon rainforest is challenging due to its thick canopy and accumulating layers of Earth that can bury ancient structures.

To reveal these ruins, researchers used lidar technology (light detection and ranging). By deploying a lidar sensor from an airplane, they discovered more than 6,000 earthen platforms.

These platforms served various purposes, from housing mounds to elevated roadways. The researchers also found evidence of advanced agricultural techniques, including canals for managing heavy rainfall.

"It really shows us that there are many more ways of living in the Amazon in the past than we used to consider in archaeology," Eduardo Neves, an archaeologist at the University of São Paulo not involved in the study, told the NYT.

Empty No More

Estimates of the population vary, but archaeologists believe the site could have housed at least 10,000 people, with some estimates as high as 30,000, comparable to the population of Roman-era London, according to The Guardian.

For centuries, these significant settlements went unnoticed, partly due to the belief that the Amazon was historically uninhabited. This misconception is attributed to the decimation of the Indigenous population by European colonizers and the lack of stone for building large structures, as Indigenous builders used soil instead.

Neves, whose work was referenced in the study, emphasized that these findings are crucial not only for archaeology but also for preserving the threatened rainforest.

"Some of the destruction is based on the idea that the Amazon has never been really settled in the past, that there were never many people there, that it's kind of up for grabs," he told the NYT. "I think this kind of work... is really important because it adds to the evidence showing the Amazon wasn't an empty place."