Amazon cities
No, I’m not talking about those ubiquitous Amazon delivery trucks dominating the city roads. I’m talking about this discovery:
Researchers have detected a cluster of lost 2,500-year-old cities at the foothills of the Andes in the Amazon rainforest.
This amazing discovery, the oldest and largest of its kind in the region, includes a vast system of farmland and roads, revealing that Ecuador’s Upano Valley was densely populated from about 500 BCE to between 300 and 600 CE.
Led by French National Center for Scientific Research archaeologist Stéphen Rostain, a multi-national team analyzed data from more than two decades of interdisciplinary research in the region, recently expanded by light detection and ranging (LIDAR) mapping.
Covering an area of 300-square-kilometers (115-square-miles), LIDAR mapped platforms, plazas, and streets arranged in a geometric pattern, interwoven with agricultural drainage, terraces, and incredibly long, straight roads that connected a number of urban sites. …
The organization of the cities reveals the sophistication and engineering capabilities of these ancient cultures, according to the researchers, who concluded that the ‘garden urbanism’ of the Upano Valley provides further proof that Amazonia is not the pristine forest once depicted.
There is a lot more information at the link, including diagrams. These sorts of new techniques for discovery are not limited to the Amazon – they are revolutionizing archaeology in many areas, as well as physical anthropology.
We cruised from Valparaiso to Los Angeles fifteen years ago. The pre-Incan cities in Chile and Peru are amazing. Everything indicates that these South American inhabitants were quite advanced. That some crossed over into the Amazon Basin and settled there is not surprising.
The remains of the old cities on the West Coast are well preserved and plain to see because of the arid climate. The rain forest on the east side of the Andes has “absorbed” those old cities. Thank goodness for LDAR. Otherwise, this rich history would remain hidden.
Many years ago, a man named Charles C Mann learned “in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue” and found a largely unpopulated continent. He progressed into adulthood and learned that the 1492 part was correct, but the rest really wasn’t.
He had children, and they went to school, came home, and told him they’d learned that “in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue” and found a largely unpopulated continent. This upset him, as it’s just not right, so they suggested he write a book to help to edumacate folks about it.
The result is his book entitled “1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus.” Of course even it is almost 20 years out of date now, but I found it to be a fascinating survey of what we had learned and were still learning about the indigenous folk of the Americas.
I found it fascinating enough to blast through in just a couple of sittings, and even to re-read it a couple of years later to refresh my memory of it. I highly recommend it —
https://www.amazon.com/1491-Second-Revelations-Americas-Columbus-ebook/dp/B000JMKVE4
But did they have the Wheel?
I am so very curious about the seemly universality of the Bow and Arrow. Isn’t is amazing that the Bow and Arrow was in the Ancient Civilizations.
So I guess that’s the Lost City of Zed? Percy Fawcett would be pleased.
I knew that the Amazon region was in Brazil, but was surprised to learn that it extended into Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and possibly other countries. Large portions of those countries are Amazonian rain forest.
Agree about “1491”. Did a lot of digging. Amazonia was gigantic garden. That’s hauling a lot of dirt. Check out the weight of a cubic meter.
And then in 600 CE these civilizations were destroyed by climate change and fossil fuels, or an Orange Man! (seriously?)
And all the SUVs involved in destroying this civilization have of course rusted completely away.
I learned that Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492, but I also learned that “Indians” met him, Cortés, al all the others. These finds under the Amazon jungle are fascinating.